Malaysian gay couple hold wedding celebration
Mustafa Ali (R), Fadzil Noor (C) and Mahfuz Omar (UPALI ATURUGIRI/AFP/Getty)
A gay couple in Malaysia have held what is considered to be the country’s first gay wedding celebration.
Ngeo Boon Lin, a Malaysian-born pastor and his new husband, African-American music producer Phineas Newborn III, celebrated with a front of a crowd of family members, friends and journalists.
Although the couple married last August in New York, their wedding was condemned by Malaysian politicians.
However, they decided to risk anger and even punishment to hold a traditional wedding feast at a Chinese restaurant in Kuala Lumpar. Journalists were invited but asked not to report on the festivities until afterwards.
Ngeo told The Associated Press: “It’s my right to celebrate my joy with the people I care about. The government can make noise, the religious conservatives can make noise, but they’re not welcome here.”
Gay sex between men is illegal in Malaysia, and the country has already caused anger after it sent “effeminate” boys to a “gay cure” camp in early 2011.
Earlier this year, a Malaysian MP who described ‘scary’ levels of homosexuality called for the government to open a gay ‘rehabilitation’ centre.
Bernama Online reported that Datuk Baharum Mohamad, a Barisan Nasional MP, told the country’s Parliament that three in ten men in the country were gay.
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