AUGUST 15 — You would think there is a secret gay army out to destroy the world, with the extent of LGBT-related news dominating headlines on a daily basis.

It’s not just mainstream news but social media. Facebook posts, Twitter threads, online comics — it’s just gay, gay, gay day every day.

Honestly the gays seem to be winning if you were to judge the whole situation on the basis of who is getting the most coverage.

Kelantan ignores Orang Asli rights? But what about the gays?

Our DPM keeps waffling about child marriage yet makes the time to launch a phone? Who cares, let’s talk about the gays.

10,000 problems but gays existing seems to be the main one.

The simplest solution really is to just leave the gays alone.

No, we have Jakim and MCMC diverting precious resources to monitoring gays online. We have overzealous Twitter users suggesting gay rehab facilities and Facebook is abuzz with a teacher saying, hey, let’s just kill the gays.

Really, Malaysia? Why does being gay scare so many conservatives so much?

It’s not just Malaysia to be fair.

When gay marriage was legalised in the US, the way evangelical Christians reacted you would think the law now decided marriage was only for the gays.

There are a few ways of handling this. We could react the usual way, which is to wring hands, send verbose letters to the editor, schedule photo ops for activists and have a few Kumbaya moments while in the background PAS Youth runs around screaming with placards.

Or we could just accept that Malaysia has now reached the next level of social discourse. Public acknowledgement and discussion of the things that bother us.

One reason gays bother conservatives is the latter do not realise or understand being gay isn’t a lifestyle. No one chooses to be gay. You’re, as Lady Gaga puts it, born this way.

Engagement, education, discourse and maybe a fair amount of yelling needs to be done. It is not going to be easy, but hopefully in time it will be worth it.

More Malaysians need to learn that gender orientation isn’t something that can be countered by religion or by having sex with the opposite gender.

At least now LGBT people get to have a public say. They get to tell their side of the story instead of just letting bigoted views dominate the public square.

The next time someone starts spouting anti-queer rhetoric at you, here’s a simple answer to give them: the gays aren’t a problem. They’re people, and you should leave them alone. Repeat said messaging whenever provoked. It’s not world-changing but it’s a start. All aboard the anti-discrimination bus, I say.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.