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Gay-themed film challenges boundaries in Malaysia |
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 Malaysia's first gay-themed movie could hit cinemas within months, its producer said, after government censors eased restrictions that have stifled the film industry here for decades.
Although the Malay-language movie won't have explicit sex or even kissing, its screening would be a huge step forward for freedom of popular media in this Muslim-majority country that many fear is coming under the influence of Islamic conservatism.
"Dalam Botol," or "In A Bottle," centers on a man whose relationship with his male partner crumbles after he undergoes sex change surgery, said Raja Azmi Raja Sulaiman, who produced the film and wrote the screenplay based on the experiences of her friend.
"We are taking a risk," Raja Azmi, a longtime movie producer, said in an interview this week. "I'm very nervous. We still don't know if the censors will allow our movie to be shown in the end."
Raja Azmi submitted a preliminary script last year to the Home Ministry's Film Censorship Board, which verbally approved it after advising her not to shoot scenes of men kissing or being in bed together.
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Rethinking Malaysia’s sodomy laws |
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 THEY'RE colonial relics, they're rarely invoked, and other Asian countries have effectively taken them off the books. But because Malaysia's sodomy laws are tangled up in politics and religion, they're probably not going anywhere for a while.
In 2007, Singapore modified their sodomy laws, expressed in Section 377a of the island-state's Penal Code, to exclude heterosexuals who perform consensual oral and anal sex. On 2 July 2009, India repealed its own Section 377. In contrast, Malaysia's most recent addition to the history of sodomy laws is its second charge against parliamentary Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
When asked what it would take to get Malaysia to follow suit and repeal its sodomy laws, gender and sexuality rights activist Alina Rastam laughs. "A miracle?" she asks. Nevertheless, could the time finally be right for Malaysians to rethink the relevance and righteousness of sodomy laws?
Simranjit Kaur Gill of the Women's Candidacy Initiative says the group has researched charges brought under Section 377 of Malaysia's Penal Code. The act criminalises "carnal intercourse against the order of nature", or oral and anal sex. Their research found seven charges from 1938 to the present. Four of those seven charges are connected to Anwar.
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Homophobia in Malaysian press hampers HIV prevention |
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 Local news agencies in Malaysia continue to perpetuate homophobia by regular articles demonising homosexuality. This jeopardizes HIV prevention among men who have sex with men which will in turn increase their vulnerability to infection.
Regular articles in Malaysian news media, both print and online, over the past few years have painted a negative picture of homosexuality. These articles are often the only exposure the Malaysian public has to homosexuality. Religious and moral values are often used to validate the deviling of homosexuality. Due to the nature of religious beliefs, such views are undisputed.
The articles are usually poorly researched, depending on opinions which are personal and popular rather than scientifically proven. The people interviewed are rarely experts in the field. Words such as rape, pedophilia and bestiality were associated with homosexuality in a print feature in the STAR two years ago. An article posted online two weeks ago by the National News Agency, Bernama, was titled Homosexual's Life of Moral Decadence. Homosexuality was referred to as immoral, corrupt, a plague, decadent, a felony, debauchery, malignant cancer etc. One of the interviewees, while not personally opposing homosexuality, denied having used such negative terms.
Malay language tabloids do regular features on gay clubs, saunas, cruising parks and websites referring to crooked and condemnable practices. The police have been know to collaborate with the media, bringing along reporters and photographers during raids on gay venues.
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South Eastern Asia 
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