Marten Weber

Last month I kissed my boyfriend on the subway. We've been together for 12 years, and I like kissing him in public. It feels good to show the world that I have a person to love and who loves me back. Suddenly a guy who had just kissed the girl...

It's a glorious feeling to be an activist in the name of individual freedom, whether gay or straight. One always feels rewarded by the expressions of support. "I am what I am" is such an easy goal for a liberal mind, but there is a dark spot that bothers me...

Before taking up the pen full-time, I used to advise corporations on their hiring strategies in new markets. Unlike in America, in the rest of the world it is still customary to include a face picture with your job application. Those pictures, like profile pictures on Facebook, are becoming more...

Follow me, if you will, on a little thought experiment.

All around the world laws are made to protect people. The legislative bodies hold hearings, seek input, draft and vote on laws with the (presumed) intention of improving society and the lives of their constituents. Most, but not all,...

As every opera fan knows, Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin does not feature a single openly gay character and is all about straight romance in the Russian countryside. The libretto is based on Pushkin's eponymous verse novel. Both artists had a knack for reading human emotions not as spontaneous, private, but...

For most of human history, we lived in male cultures. Men hunted and warred, women raised children, cooked, and gathered or cultivated food. Roles such as these are inscribed into the psyche of many nations and are almost universally codified in sacred texts.

Today, we are living in a...

Anyone following the hype over U.S. basketball star Jeremy Lin will have observed the thick layer of racism lying ponderously over the media. One not-so-witty journalist rightly lost his job over the headline "Chink in the Armor," after Jeremy's recent setback, but the public statements of some athletes and the...

There is an adorable joke popular amongst interpreters, an odd breed of people I belong to.

After the Second World War, the Churchills and de Gaulles have dinner together. Churchill asks the First Lady of France what she is looking forward to, now that the war is over. She quickly...

When I first came to Asia, I had a short love affair with a very trim young swimmer. We really hit it off, the sex was simply fantastic, and after two weeks, over tea and mao dou, I popped the question of whether he wanted to move in with me.

In part 2 of this blog (read part 1 here), we look at the impact of social dating on the behavior and emotional make-up of the user himself.

Grindr, the uber-popular gay male hook-up app that indicates bubble-butt Bob is 60 feet away and ready to play,...

Social dating apps are changing the way we find sex partners and fall in love. In a two-part article, Scott Alexander Hess (author of Diary of a Sex Addict) and I explore the implications of these handy little widgets, both on traditional dating options and the psyche of...

My hubby has just reminded me that it will be Christmas soon. My hubby says I ought to write something heart-warming for the festive season. All right!

My man and I have been together for 12 years. In all this time, we've had only two fights that almost broke us...

The Economist thinks that Africa is rising and in a detailed report in December 2011 called it "The Hopeful Continent." Good news, isn't it?

The writers cite the Onitsha market in southern Nigeria as a giant trading hub in a region that is home to "millions of highly motivated...

If you are a fan of the soppy and overused "it's all about love" argument, I hate to rain on your parade. Of course, people who marry should be in love, but the gay marriage argument is about neither love nor inheritance, insurance, or visitation rights. It isn't even about...

I wrote Benedetto after I read the memoirs of the real Giacomo Casanova. I thought I was in for some erotic prattle and a lot of cool frocks, but the more I read, the angrier I got! The image of this dashing daredevil who steals women's hearts and garters is...