Criminal Code
Malaysia retains its colonial era criminal ban on sodomy (as well as oral sex), broadly defined to include both heterosexual and homosexual acts, with possible punishment including fines, prison sentences of up to twenty years, and even corporal punishment. A subsection of the criminal code, also provides additional punishment for men convicted of, "gross indecency with another male person". In addition to the secular law, Muslim citizens may also be charged in special Islamic courts.
There has been some public discussion about reforming the law so as to exempt private, non-commercial, sexual acts between consenting adults. Some members of the major opposition party, have expressed support for such a reform, most notably Latheefa Koya but this is not the official position of the party. No political party or elected member of parliament has formally proposed such a reform.
In 1994, the government banned anyone who is homosexual, bisexual or transsexual from appearing in the state controlled media.
In 1995, the state of Selangor Religious Affairs Minister praised the Islamic Badar vigilante groups who had organized in 1994 to assist in the arrest of 7,000 for engaging in "unIslamic" activities such as homosexuality.
In 2001, the former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad stated that the country will deport any visiting foreign cabinet ministers, or diplomats who are gay. Mohamad also warned gay ministers in foreign countries not to bring along their partners while visiting the nation. Mahathir's daughter, Marina Mahathir, has called for an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation.
In 2005, the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) chief Mohd Anwar Mohd Nor stated that the Navy would never accept homosexuals.
In 2010, the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia announced it would only allow depiction of homosexual characters as long as the characters "repent" or die.
Read more about this topic: LGBT Rights In Malaysia
Famous quotes containing the words criminal and/or code:
“Think of admitting the details of a single case of the criminal court into our thoughts, to stalk profanely through their very sanctum sanctorum for an hour, ay, for many hours! to make a very barroom of the mind’s inmost apartment, as if for so long the dust of the street had occupied us,—the very street itself, with all its travel, its bustle, and filth, had passed through our thoughts’ shrine! Would it not be an intellectual and moral suicide?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“...I had grown up in a world that was dominated by immature age. Not by vigorous immaturity, but by immaturity that was old and tired and prudent, that loved ritual and rubric, and was utterly wanting in curiosity about the new and the strange. Its era has passed away, and the world it made has crumbled around us. Its finest creation, a code of manners, has been ridiculed and discarded.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)