Malaysia’s only openly gay pastor is urging homosexuals in the mainly Muslim country to “keep coming out” to help battle homophobia, as he gets set to tie the knot with his US partner.
Reverend Ouyang Wen Feng (歐陽文風) is a highly controversial figure who faced outrage and threats when he opened in 2007 the first gay-friendly church in conservative Malaysia, where sexual identity is a hot-button topic.
Homosexuality, still a crime punishable by 20 years in jail under Malaysian laws banning sodomy, remains taboo across the racial and religious spectrum in Malaysia, which is home to large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.
However, Ouyang, a journalist-turned-pastor, said gay men and women should speak out to “break the vicious cycle” and help fight misunderstandings about the gay community.
“When society discriminates against gay people, you only push gay people into the closet,” he said in an interview last week on a visit to Hong Kong to launch a new book on homosexuality and Christianity.
“When gay people stay in the closet, people don’t know what is gay or homosexuality and because of ignorance they keep discriminating and that will perpetuate prejudice,” the outspoken 41-year-old said.
“Gay people cannot just blame straight people for not understanding us,” he said.
Ouyang, wearing a flesh-colored top with a crucifix and tattoos on his shoulder and arm, called on gay Malaysians to show their “true faces and tell them who we are.”
“Gay people should keep coming out and straight people who are okay with homosexuals should also come out to say publicly that being gay is okay — ‘I’m okay with my gay friends,’” he said.
Ouyang’s own “coming out” took place in 2006 when he published the story of his decision to make public his sexual orientation, after a nine-year marriage to his now ex-wife, whom he described as an “angel.”
“She encouraged me to come out. She asked for a divorce, and this is the biggest gift she could ever give me, she literally set me free. I owe her big time,” said the pastor, who grew up in a conservative Christian family.
Ouyang now lives in the US, where he is pursuing his doctoral degree in theology, while teaching sociology at a college and works as a staff pastor.
However, he regularly returns to Malaysia and other parts of Asia to promote awareness of homosexuality. Also a prolific writer, he has published 23 books, about half delving into gay-related themes.
Ouyang said the church he co-founded, which has been operating quietly in suburban Kuala Lumpur, is “growing and developing” and continues to draw gay Christians for Sunday services and bible studies.
“I am not promoting gay culture. I am promoting honesty, love and justice,” he said, in response to the government’s stance that it would not allow the church to run officially and religious leaders’ claims it would encourage homosexuality.
Ouyang has previously said the church — which also embraces bisexual, transsexual and heterosexual people — would help the gay community know they are “not alone in fighting the battle.”
However, influential Malaysian religious figures remain vehemently opposed to the growing prominence of the country’s gay community, with a vocal Islamic cleric last year saying homosexuality was “going to destroy the world.”
Authorities periodically raid gay-friendly bars or massage parlors, leaving some with a constant fear of persecution, while a prominent religious body in 2008 issued a fatwa, or Islamic religious ruling, against lesbian sex.
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is currently on trial accused of sodomizing a former aide, a charge he has repeatedly dismissed as trumped-up and designed to prevent him from taking power.
Meanwhile Ouyang is set to wed his partner, an African-American Broadway musical producer, after the latter popped the question on June 26 — two days after New York City legalized same-sex marriages.
“It was also the day of our two-year anniversary,” the pastor said.
“He went to the church and he wrote a song for me. He proposed at the end of the song in public,” he smiled, saying the wedding date has yet to be set but the couple are planning to hold a wedding ceremony in the US and in Malaysia.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not