There's some trans drama over in Pakistan, where police arrested a couple after a court found out the husband used to be a woman. 31-year old Shumail Raj underwent a sex-change surgery 16 years ago and lived life as a man.

Though he has no penis - and his vagina has been sealed shut - Raj married a 26-year old woman named Shahzina Tariq, who claims her family planned to sell her to settle her uncle's gambling debts. Looking for protection, Tariq asked Raj for his hand. She explains, "I knew that Shumail was not a male. She had some problem due to the operations, but I begged her for protection."

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A Pakistani man has been denied refugee status in Australia after officials doubted his sexual orientation.

Ali Humayun first arrived in Australia back in 2000 to study information technology. As cash ran short, Humayun took a job - a violation of his bridging visa. When authorities caught him, they stuck him in the Villawood detention center, where he started dating a man. Pleading his case, Humayun - who converted to Christianity in 2001 and also identifies as gay - told Australian officials that he faces severe consequences if deported back to Pakistan:

I'm worried for my life if I am deported home. The men in my family, they are really fundamentalist types. Muslims. My lifestyle is totally in contrast to what they believe.

Tribunal official Giles Short, however, found Humayun's "lifestyle" to be fraudulent:

The applicant was not in fact bisexual … [his relationship] was simply the product of the situation where only partners of the same sex were available and said nothing about his sexual orientation.

Short also dismissed Humayun's plans to marry his lover, who has just been granted asylum. Speaking to the court, Short called Humayan's wedding bell dreams "a contrived attempt to make their relationship appear more serious". With no other option, Humayun's now writing to Australia's Minister of Immigration for an appeal. Good luck on that one.

Bisexuality a result of detention, detainee told [Brisbane Times]
Bisexuality a result of detention, detainee told [Sydney Morning Herald]

Bisexual Pakistani performer Ali Saleem's one clever bitch. Resisting his country's strict policies against homosexuality and gender-bending, Saleem has built a cult following as a the drag queen Begum Nawazish Ali on Late Night Show With Begum Nawazish Ali.

Once a week, Saleem takes the stage as Ali to interview leading politicians, celebrities and other notables. Despite Pakistan's Islamist foundations, Saleem's methods have yielded surprising results. Salman Masood reports for The New York Times:

A real woman could not possibly do what Mr. Saleem does. In the unlikely event a station would broadcast such a show, the hostess would be shunned. And taking on the guise of a married woman — whose virtue is crucial to her whole family — would be equally impossible.

But apparently a cross-dressing man pretending to be a widow is another matter entirely.
...
With fluttering eyelids and glossy lips, Begum Nawazish Ali (Begum means Lady or Mrs. in Urdu) flirts with male guests using suggestive banter and sexual innuendo. With female guests, she is something of a tease, challenging them about who looks better. Questions are pointed and piercing. Politics, democracy and saucy gossip are enmeshed in her conversation.

The 28-year old insists that his country's far more liberal than some international critics would like to admit. As a kittenish drag queen, he consistently tests the boundaries of religion, politics and censorship, broaching subjects print journalists could never hope to tackle.

Let's hope Saleem's popularity opens more doors than just the journalistic variety.

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• The war on gay adoption continues. Because being an orphan is better than living with gay parents. [CSM]

• Televangelist-turned-gay-activist Tammy Faye Messner appeared on Larry King again, to say she's now in Stage 4 cancer. Things don't look good. [Popbytes]

• The new gay playground: Pakistan?!? [Guardian]

• Sex toys are illegal in Mississippi. Note to Mississippi: when Pakistan is more fun than you, you know it's time to lighten up. [AP]

• Sex changes are no longer paid for by Medicaid. Which means, at one time they were?...[Seattle P.I.]

• A gay film set in the 60's and 70's wins tons of accolades and it ain't Brokeback? Canucks have a gay hit movie of their own. [CBC]

• You just know that if Judge Judy gets behind gay marriage that it must be ok. It's only going to end with the filing of divorce papers anyway. Thanks Jordy.

• Pakistan performs its first unofficial gay "marriage". Unfortunately, they got the “don’t marry pubescent boys barely out of puberty” part all wrong.

• A Socialite’s Life has some snapshots of what Kenny Chesney’s “fraud” might just very well look like.

• Apple is rumored to be considering an iPod that plays video. Perfect! Portable porn.

• We too have always wondered what Melissa Etheridge's life might have been like had she "not left to find (her) fame and fortune, and stayed in Kansas and became a teacher and been gay and dealt with life there." ABC wants to chronicle that imaginary lesbian life for the tube.