Contestants invited to submit clips on ‘prevention and control’ under various categories including ‘gender confusion’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The Malaysian government is offering cash prizes of up to 4,000 ringgit (£720) for the best videos explaining how to “prevent” homosexuality, according to a competition launched on the health ministry’s website.



Activists said the move would further spread fear among Malaysia’s LGBT community, as conservative attitudes chip away at the Muslim-majority nation’s one-time reputation for moderation and tolerance.

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Contestants are invited to submit a video clip addressing various categories including “gayness” or “gender confusion”, and offering suggestions as to how these could be “prevented or controlled”.

Winners will receive between 1,000 and 4,000 ringgit after the competition closes at the end of August, the ministry’s website said.

The short video clips need to focus on “prevention, control and how to get help” as well as “issues and consequences”. The guidelines described the overall theme of the video contest as “value yourself, healthy lifestyle practice”.

“Each work will be judged on originality, content, concept and creativity and quality production by a panel of judges appointed by the organisers,” according to the health ministry’s website.

“The very fact that they lump LGBT people under a category called ‘gender confusion’ shows that the authorities are very much confused themselves,” Pang Khee Teik, a prominent activist, said. “It is mind-blowing that a government agency wants the whole country to be sucked into its confluence of confusion.”

Malaysia’s deputy director general of health, Lokman Hakim Sulaiman, said ithe contest was “never intended to discriminate any specific group” and that it was “purely to tap knowledge and creativity of adolescents on sexual and reproductive health related matters”.

Homosexuality is forbidden in Malaysia, where laws criminalising anal sex can result in imprisonment, corporal punishment and fines.

Pang said LGBT people had difficulty accessing good medical services in Malaysia because of a distrust of healthcare authorities. “This kind of contest will only add to the confusion and distrust and fear,” he said.

Nisha Ayub, another prominent LGBT activist, condemned the contest and said health authorities were initiating hatred and discrimination against the community in Malaysia. “The ministry needs to revise this and think about their actions,” said Ayub, who last year became the first transgender woman to be named in the list of International Women of Courage by the US state department.

Malaysia hit the headlines in March over its attitudes to homosexuality, when the country’s film censorship board demanded cuts to Disney’s hit movie Beauty and the Beast because of a “gay moment”.