ANIMATED: Gay Artist Attacked in New Delhi at Exhibition of His Work!

A gay artist has been attacked in New Delhi at an exhibition of his work, the Times of India reports:The artist, Balbir Krishan, said the attacker entered the solo exhibition space at Lalit Kala Akademi with his face covered by a handkerchief. He pushed and kicked Krishan, a double amputee who has lost both his legs, while hurling insults all the while.

Krishan, 38, from a village called Bijrol in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, had received several threats over phone on Wednesday. The calls -- made from phone booths - accused the artist, himself homosexual, of "spreading" homosexuality in the country. According to Krishan, the caller said, "Tuney Hindu dharam ko bigarne ka theka laga rakha hai (You are determined to ruin Hinduism)." Before that, posters advertising his exhibition at Garhi studios and near Jamia Milia Islamia, were ripped and burnt.

The disturbing attack on Krishan and his work was captured on video.

BLAME CANADA: Homosexuality a Western Disease?

India's health minister ruffled feathers yesterday at an HIV/AIDS conference when he referred to homosexuality as a "disease" that came from the West. "Unfortunately this disease has come to our country, too ... where a man has sex with another man, which is completely unnatural and should not happen, but does," said Ghulam Nabi Azad. There was no immediate response from the government, but activists were outraged, the AP reports.

"These comments help no cause. It's definitely not going to help in our fight against HIV," one activist says. Among Asian countries, India has the largest number of people—2.5 million—living with the virus. Experts say that HIV/AIDS awareness messages are hard to get to gay people there because they are marginalized and isolated, and activists are concerned that Azad's comment sets back recent progress in the fight for gay rights.

PROGRESS: Bollywood film goes to Tel Aviv LGBT fest!

Dunno Y is a film that created more than just a buzz because not only was it based on a gay couple, but for the first time in Bollywood, explicit love making scenes between the gay couple were shown.