Malaysian Boys Sent to Camp to Make Sure They Don’t Go Homo

Apr. 21, 2011

By Dan Hoffman info

Dan grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He went to college in western Massachusetts. He can be reached at ...

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In an event that screams PROBLEMATIC, this week about sixty adolescent Malaysian boys deemed as too effeminate went to counseling to make sure they don’t become gay. At the “camp,” which ended today, the boys visited mosques and engaged in aerobic activities. The director of the department of education, Razali Daud, commented:

The severity of the symptoms vary, but the 66 schoolboys were showing behaviours that is [sic] not usually displayed by a normal male of their age… As educators, we have to do something about it before the young ones misunderstand people and reach the point of no return…We are not intervening with the process of nature as we are merely trying to guide these students to a proper path in life.

This story was originally broken by the aptly titled Malaysian paper New Straits Times on Monday in an article called “Besut boot camp for 66 sissies” (Beset is the city where the camp was located). It quickly made international news after a host of gay rights activists pointed out how terrible the whole thing is (although it doesn’t seem like one needs to be an activist to see that).

As a result of all the press, The New Straits Times posted another article yesterday alleging that the camp had nothing to do with the boy’s sexuality. Daud was quoted again. He explained:

This is a character-building programme. We hope the students will emerge stronger, physically and mentally, after attending the camp. This is also the first of many series in the programme. The first batch is made up of boys, aged between 13 and 17, who happen to display some feminine characteristics.

According to Daud, the boys at the camp were good at singing, dancing, and acting.

If Daud’s defense of the camp wasn’t already suspect, the fact that Malyasia’s Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil has called for it and others like it to be stopped goes to show that the camp was founded on questionable, if not outright offensive, grounds. TC mark

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  • tyler

    The news coming from an islamic country, i am not surprised. In their even stricter religious state, e.g. Kelantan, if women are seen drinking alcohol or wearing “indecently”, she will be prosecuted and/or canned by the Islamic court, which inevitably has greater say over the country's national law.

  • Sydney

    “Apparently, Daud failed to see that there is something decidedly homoerotic about a group of boys exercising and sweating in the same room.”. Really? For whom? The 66 13 – 17 year olds who will be more than likely petrified whilst at the mercy of possibly brutal “counsellors”? Or for you, safe in Brooklyn?

  • http://brianburke.tumblr.com/ brian burke

    on the plus side, a lot of malaysian teenagers probably hooked up at this 'camp'

    zero sum gain?

  • ertrdut
  • Asasasasasa

    Its actually News STRAITS Times. Not being accurate about information or intentionally twisting certain words to add oomph to your opinions demeans your work to tabloid-standard. So please don't :/

    • Dan Hoffman Sucks

      Standard? STANDARD? Demeans? DEMEANS?

    • Themeul

      I don't get it. It actually is New Straits Times, not News Straits Times. And, uh, well, maybe Hoffman had “Straight Times” or something up here earlier that I didn't see, but “New Straits” seems like a good enough pun to me.

  • http://fuckingbigthoughts.blogspot.com/ Andrewworthington

    “Apparently, Daud failed to see that there is something decidedly homoerotic about a group of boys exercising and sweating in the same room.”

    I like that line.

    I think this article/bit is good. I think one of the commenters is just saying whatever to say whatever because everything is whatever or whatever.

  • http://twitter.com/rondalby Ronson Dalby

    I hate to think what these boys will endure from classmates and others when they return to school and their homes.

  • Waicool

    one of the lessons must have been to be sure to thank mommy for keeping daddy straight.

  • http://twitter.com/Revulu Revulú

    The telling lie is 'We are not intervening with the process of nature' — which is of course EXACTLY what they are doing.

    Fifth-world extremist nutjobs will convince themselves of anything, no matter how ridiculous.

    • IgA

      hey, i dont agree either, and im a malaysian. and those people who are in charge of the programme, ARE a bunch of extremist nutjob. but dont go high and mighty calling us fifth world nation, just because ur probably from the US or europe.

  • T6

    How disgusting.

  • http://christopherjiwei.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/so-im-apparently-a-raging-homosexual-man/ So I’m apparently a raging homosexual man « Christopher the Reformer

    [...] year, the department caused a furore for sending several “feminine” Muslim schoolboys to a so-called reform camp in order to “straighten them up”. The rationale for such a camp according to the director of [...]

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