About two months ago, a local newspaper made the news internationally for listing out the “characteristics” of the LGBT community and categorising them as “addictions“.
Now, it appears that Malaysia is catching international attention once again after a local university, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), openly hosted a competition to “convert” their LGBT students.
Source: MMO
Source: NBC News
According to a report by NBC News, the contest encouraged students to create their own posters as part of the university’s “Back to Fitrah” forum held earlier on 24th March. The contest required participants to include the Ministry of Higher Education’s logo on their posters as well.
One of the university’s students who helped organise the Back to Fitrah forum, told the news outlet that they were trying to “reach out” to the LGBT community. He added,
“We are trying to educate people. This is our view to correct LGBT. Not to persecute. Not to condemn them.”
He continued on to say that the forum was created in response to the increasing openness of the local LGBT community. The student was concerned over this, with recent Twitter trends like #CampurLGBT for example, encouraging inclusion and acceptance, gaining more attention online.
“The LGBT community is brave enough to do their programs openly. We don’t want more people to get involved with them.”
Source: NBC News
“It’s not an isolated incident. It’s part of a series of anti-LGBT and state-sponsored things that are happening,” Thilaga Sulathireh, founder of the transgender advocacy group Justice for Sisters told the news portal.
Indeed, events and competitions like this are certainly nothing new. Just last year for example, the Ministry of Health organised a competition requiring participants to create videos depicting the consequences of being LGBT, and “how to prevent, control, and seek help for them.”
Check out the full article by NBC News here.
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Also read: Local Newspaper Gets Massive Backlash After Publishing ‘Traits’ of LGBT
