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In a world ever more entangled in doubts and insecurities, Malaysia is shining like a safety beacon. If you are looking for examples illustrating the absurdity of homophobia, and how it could create unnecessary fear, you know where to look. How to forget, just to make a couple of examples, the government concerns about the v-neck shirts which they thought could turn young straight men into gay men or Disney’s The Beauty and the Beast censorship due to a presumed homoerotic scene?

At the end of September, the government of Kuala Lumpur was able to show to the world their wisdom, once again. The Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi of the Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Bersatu (United Malays National Organization -aka PEKEMBAR) of the largest conservative political party, assembled the entire Police Force and Immigration Department in order to stop a gay gathering [New Straits Times] that no one was organizing [Today].

The scandal’s video

The latest homophobic controversy that has people fired up, has not been spawned by the government. At the center of this news, there is a red-light video showing a naked young man, with his chest covered in seminal fluid while another man masturbates him. The young man has a cartoon laid over his face throughout most of the video. At the end, the subtitle revealed the man is the Anding, the 34 years old singer who became famous thanks to a talent show. The “scandalous” video has been shared thousands of times, and even appeared on Tumblr on October 21, 2016 where it was disregarded for almost a year.

Anding, who fears for his career, denies being the star of the video, and calls out for a nose comparison as proof the young man is not him. It is not the first time for embarrassing images to go viral (a few weeks ago an indecent photo of a man resembling Anding was circulating on social media) but, in this particular situation, Anding wants to clear his name. He gave an interview to The Star, speaking of biases toward single people: “When people see a single man who goes to the gym, they have the impression that he must be gay. Maybe for that reason, they think that I am gay, too, because I always go to fitness centers.”

Will thousands of internet users change their minds? Will they stop watching and sharing a video they find disgusting and appealing at the same time? Is it possible that the Malaysian government, which is usually so on point with their remarks, has still not shared its opinion? We are looking forward to an authority’s panel to shed some light on this case, because we really would love to know what the major contributor to homosexuality is: mutual masturbation, porn videos or homophobic gossip.

 

Pier
translated by Barbara Burgio
©2017 Il Grande Colibrì

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