IHT: Malaysia's first openly gay pastor holds controversial church service

Malaysia's first openly gay pastor holds controversial church service

The Associated Press

Sunday, August 12, 2007

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysia's first openly gay Christian pastor conducted a controversial worship service Sunday, calling on mainstream churches not to discriminate against homosexuals.

Rev. Ouyang Wen Feng — an ethnic Chinese Malaysian who was ordained a minister in the United States in May — told a congregation of nearly 80 people, mainly homosexual men and women, to "reclaim our faith and celebrate our sexuality."

"For some of us, especially our gay brothers and sisters, we have experienced firsthand that Christianity has been used to persecute minorities," Ouyang said during the service in a Kuala Lumpur hotel.

Ouyang, 37, has sparked concerns among Malaysian Christian community leaders after he recently declared that he hopes to set up a church in this predominantly Muslim nation, which has large Christian, Buddhist and Hindu minorities.

A church that accepts homosexual relationships would face stiff opposition from both Muslim and Christian conservatives in Malaysia. Although homosexuality is not specifically a crime in this Southeast Asian country, it is covered under a law prohibiting sodomy, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and whipping.

"For so long, we've been quiet," Ouyang said Sunday. "We've been brought up to believe that they were right and we were wrong. But today, we're making history. We're here to tell Malaysians that we're all children of God."

Ouyang has worked at the Metropolitan Community Church in New York, which tries to serve homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals. He has said he wants to return to Malaysia permanently within the next few years.

Rev. Wong Kin Kong, secretary general of Malaysia's National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, reportedly said last week that Ouyang's plans to preside over a Sunday service and start a church has stirred anxiety "because Christians do not want others to assume they condone such a thing."

Ouyang claimed he and the organizers of his Kuala Lumpur service — which is considered one of the first steps toward establishing a church — "received very nasty" phone text messages.

Worshippers at the service, including people from neighboring Singapore, hugged each other and sang hymns with lyrics such as, "With justice as our aim, a queer and righteous people united in Christ's name."

Ouyang went to the United States in 1998 and studied sociology and theology. He lives with his partner, an American.

IHT: Singapore gays allowed a step forward, but pushed two back

Singapore gays allowed a step forward, but pushed two back
By Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop International Herald Tribune
Thursday, August 2, 2007

In a city-state that reserves the right to control public expression and private sexual behavior, these have been interesting weeks for the emerging gay rights movement.

Last month, the Singapore Media Development Authority allowed "Happy Ending - Asian Boys Vol. 3," a new play on gay themes by a local playwright, Alfian Sa'at, to be staged uncensored. It was seen by more than 6,000 people in its 23-day run and drew praise from a visiting British film actor and well-known gay rights advocate, Ian McKellen, among others.

But this week, the same authority denied licenses to two art exhibitions that had been planned for the third annual Singapore gay pride festival, IndigNation, which began Wednesday: an exhibition by Alex Au that was to show 80 photos of same-sex couples kissing, and a pencil drawing by Genevieve Chua depicting two nude women in a suggestive sexual position.

In a letter explaining its refusal to license the photo exhibit, the authority said that while homosexual-themed content was permissible in an "appropriate context," it should not be of a "promotional or exploitative nature."

"Hence we have allowed brief same-sex kissing in plays and in R21-rated films. But the proposed exhibition (comprising 80 color photographs) , which mainly focuses on homosexual kissing, is deemed to promote a homosexual lifestyle and cannot be allowed," it said.

Although homosexuals in Singapore have become slightly more visible in recent years, few have been willing to take public stances on gay rights. Despite some signs that the government might be rethinking the issue, gay sex remains a criminal act under Section 377A of the Singapore penal code, and many are unsure how far they can push the debate.

In April, Lee Kuan Yew, the founding prime minister of modern Singapore, referred to homosexuality as "genetic" - an announcement some people seized on as an indication that the government might move toward liberalization.

At a public forum last month organized to coincide with the opening performances of "Happy Ending," a lawmaker, Baey Yam Keng of the ruling People's Action Party, argued that if Section 377A was reviewed in Parliament, members should be freed from the obligation to vote strictly along party lines, in order to encourage a "very open debate and open expression of opinion."

At the same forum, the Reverend Yap Kim Hao, a former Methodist bishop, said he thought the law should be repealed. The National Council of Churches of Singapore said that Yap was not speaking on its behalf.

"Happy Endings" is the final play in a trilogy by Sa'at that began in 2000 with "Asian Boys Vol. 1." In the years since that first installment was performed, Singapore has loosened some of its restrictions on sex, both heterosexual and homosexual.

The government now lets gays serve openly in the civil service and allows a small number of gay bars, saunas and other businesses to flourish in certain parts of the city. In 2001, the government gave the green light to the first outdoor party for gays in Singapore. In ensuing years, though, the party got bigger, and in 2005 it was denied a license. Organizers moved it to Bangkok.

Last year, the government announced plans to decriminalize heterosexual oral and anal sex between consenting men and women, but made clear that the ban on homosexual sex would remain intact. However, the Home Affairs Ministry said it would not be "proactive" in enforcing the ban when it came to consensual acts taking place in private.

Sa'at said that with "Happy Ending" he wanted to confront issues that he was "at most alluding to" in the first two plays.

"The first was almost apolitical because it used a lot of camp aesthetic, and there was a lot of hide-and-seek because I wanted to avoid censure and get it staged," he said.

"Happy Endings" is more direct. In part, it is an adaptation of "Peculiar Chris," a gay-themed 1992 novel written by a Singaporean, Johann Lee. The book deals with a gay man's coming of age, his first loves and his eventual decision to leave Singapore, where his sexuality makes him a criminal.

McKellen, who was in "Lord of the Rings" and "X-Men," saw "Happy Endings" in Singapore while on tour with the Royal Shakespeare Company. "It seemed to be talking about a situation I recognized in my own life, even though here it was, set on the other side of the world," McKellen said.

"The play does have a strong point of view, but it doesn't only argue one side of the issue and time and again you're having, as you watch it, to adjust your thoughts and answer the point that is being made," McKellen said. "It doesn't just shoot its opinion at you."

He said seeing the play made him feel that he was witnessing "a really important part of Singapore's social history."

A survey in May by a local newspaper found that 62 percent of "heartlanders" - Singaporeans living in public housing, a majority of the population - thought homosexuality should not be legalized.

But Ivan Heng, the director of "Happy Endings," said the question was badly phrased.

"The question was whether gay sexuality was acceptable and not whether homosexuals should be put in jail," he said. "There is a big difference here. Of course, the majority of the population is conservative and will reply accordingly, but that doesn't mean they want to see gay people in jails."

http://www.iht. com/articles/ 2007/08/02/ news/singapore. php

IHT: Quietly, Singapore lifts its ban on hiring gays

By Wayne Arnold

SINGAPORE:: With its export-driven economy winding down, Singapore's government has quietly lifted restrictions on hiring homosexuals as part of a broader effort to shake the city-state's repressive reputation and foster the kind of lifestyles common to cities whose entrepreneurial dynamism Singapore would like to emulate.

Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong initially divulged the policy in an interview with Time magazine's Asia edition, excerpts of which were published this week in the magazine's July 7 issue and carried by news organizations here Friday.

"In the past, if we know you're gay, we would not employ you, but we just changed this quietly," Goh told his interviewer, according to a transcript obtained from Singapore authorities.

Singapore has a vibrant gay and lesbian community. But gay sex is illegal and the government has yet to officially recognize any organization for homosexuals. Despite a proliferation of bars and saunas catering to the gay community, therefore, homosexuality still remains largely taboo.

Books and films with homosexual themes are banned. When HBO airs its "Six Feet Under" television series here, most scenes dealing with the homosexuality of one of the main characters are excised.

"It's a good, tiny step forward," said Russell Heng, a fellow at the government-run Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and a co-founder of a local gay support group, People Like Us. "The leaders of this country are very sensible and they are cosmopolitan. And so I think that basically there is an awareness there that you've got to allow for diversity."

Goh said the government's policies reflected the conservatism of the majority of its constituents. In addition to a traditionally Confucian ethnic Chinese minority, Singapore also has a sizable Muslim Malay minority whose religion condemns homosexuality.

Goh said it was because of this remaining conservatism that the government did not amend the law against gay sex.

But he said that attitudes were evolving and that the government was becoming more open to homosexuals.

Gay people have long worked within Singapore's civil service, although apparently not openly.

Goh indicated that the government's new policy was to allow homosexuals to occupy even "sensitive positions" in the civil service provided they disclosed their sexual preference.

"If you're discovered by somebody else, then he can blackmail you," he said. "You have to openly declare and people know you're gay. Then, you can't be blackmailed."

Singapore's openness to homosexuality has been evolving for years, as leaders extolled the virtues of diversity and tolerance. Such rhetoric has become routine in speeches designed to convince the local population of the need for so-called "foreign talent."

Though they may fear that foreigners will take the best jobs, Singaporeans are told that overseas professionals are essential to introducing new skills to Singapore's economy.

Economic prosperity has cost Singapore much of the manufacturing competitiveness that was crucial for its success. China's seemingly inexorable rise as a manufacturing base for high-tech goods has further hurt Singapore.

But as Singapore chased the tech boom in the late 1990s and, more recently, biotechnology, it discovered to its dismay that years of authoritarian rule have largely extinguished the average Singaporeans willingness to take risks, to be entrepreneurial.

Official hope that foreign professionals will, in addition to investment, trade and technology, breathe the entrepreneurial spirit back into Singapore.

Recent efforts to reinvent Singapore's economic structure, therefore, have also included an emphasis on making Singapore a lifestyle capital.

Censorship rules have been eased, if not eliminated. The same government that banned the importation of chewing gum and Cosmopolitan magazine has become a booster for such ephemeral civic qualities as courtesy, spontaneity, creativity and fun.

Still, as recently as 2000, the government rejected an application by People Like Us to hold a forum on gays in Singapore. And in his interview with Time, Goh said that the government would still not allow a gay parade.

But Goh also seemed to signal that further changes were to come.

"So let it evolve and in time to come, the population will understand that some people are born that way," he said in the Time interview. "We are born this way and they are born that way but they are like you and me."