A Washington Post blogger reported today that education officials in the conservative Malaysian state of Terengganu have created a camp for effeminate young boys. The objective? To teach them conventionally masculine behavior and steer them back to “a proper path in life.”
66 Muslim schoolboys are currently enrolled in the camp, where over the next four days they will undergo a combination of counseling, religious tutelage and physical education that promises to prevent them from ending up gay or transsexual. While educators in charge of the program declined to comment on the types of “feminine mannerisms” that warrant inclusion in the program, they did say that parents are to blame for dressing little boys in girls’ clothing at a young age.
State education director Razali Daud insists that students were invited, not forced, to attend the camp and participate in the educational programs. However, Daud also explained that the Malaysian government is trying to limit the number of homosexual and transsexual individuals in the country, and stressed that it is thus educators’ responsibility to “do something about it before the young ones misunderstand people and reach the point of no return.”
Gay rights advocates have criticized the Malaysian government’s attitude concerning homosexuality, claiming that the current illegality of homosexuality and gay sex promotes homophobia throughout Malaysian culture.
