March 21: Three in every ten Malaysian men is gay, according to UMNO/Barisan Nasional MP Datuk Baharum Mohamad. In a statement to the Malaysian parliament he described the statistic as ‘scary’ and suggested that ‘gay rehabilitation’ centres were required to prevent the country from being overrun by homosexuals. No supporting evidence for the data was reported.
According to Free Malaysia Today, the following day Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mashitah Ibrahim told the Malaysian House of Representatives that the government was already working to ‘curb’ the numbers of LGBT identifying people. Strategies already in place included training volunteers to ‘help’ the LGBTI community, instructing NGOs to carry out anti-LGBTI campaigns and providing programs for the ‘spiritual and physical fulfilment’ of trans people.
