Stefan and Sebastien from NomadicBoys.com traveling in Malaysia (TheAtlasHeart.com)
A leading Malaysian newspaper has published a list of pointers for identifying potential gay and lesbian people, drawing anger from activists who said lives were being put at risk.
The article in Sinar Harian featured bullet points of supposedly distinctive qualities that revealed LGBT people. They stated that gay men were easy to identify because of their love of beards, going to the gym – not for exercise but to check out other men – and branded clothing. Their eyes light up when they see handsome men, the article said.
The stand-out attributes for lesbians were that they tend to hug each other, hold hands and belittle men, according to the newspaper.
Homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia and punishable under a colonial-era sodomy law that carries a 20-year prison sentence.
Campaigners have called for a softening of rhetoric in Malaysian media after a series of recent deaths of men and women suspected of being gay or transgender.
See full story here.
1 comment:
Dreadful! In the 1970s our then most 'popular' tabloid newspaper, 'The Sun', once did this very same thing - with the unsurprising result of a significant increase in 'queer-bashing' attacks. Under the headline 'HOW TO SPOT A QUEER' it listed 'attributes' focusing mainly on perceived effeminacy, manners of walking/standing/sitting, voice intonation, and wearing colourful or 'sporty' clothes. All, of course, with a 'humorous' edge (oh, they're all SO funny!) though with horrific consequences. I fear that a similar Malayan reaction could well be on the way - it certainly won't help with 'tolerance' - if, that is, we feel the need to be 'tolerated' (rather than just accepted as a fact) at all.
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