AUGUST 13 — We are being told in Malaysia that we must be more compassionate and inclusive of LGBT individuals. We are being told that men who self-identify as women should be allowed to use women’s public restrooms, or else that the government should pay to build special restrooms for them.

It has been suggested that people from the LGBT community should sit on the board of JAKIM to oversee Islamic Affairs in Malaysia. The Gay community has been advancing their agenda in Malaysia at an astounding rate, faster than in any Western country; because basically, Malaysians are simply too discrete to argue some fundamental facts.

The entire public discourse on the variety of issues related to the LGBT community is based on a set of presuppositions that we are all expected to politely accept without debate. And ‘polite’ is the key word, because as soon as we begin to discuss these issues candidly, they immediately become uncomfortable.

Homosexuality is supposed to be treated as an identity rather than as an activity; partly because no one really wants to frankly acknowledge what that activity is. 

Not only are we to agree that there is such a thing as a "Gay identity”; we are supposed to accept that Same Sex Attraction is an immutable state of being, that homosexuals are "born that way”, even though the actual science on this matter is decidedly inconclusive. Homosexuality was diagnosed as a mental disorder for most of the previous century. When the American Psychiatric Association (APA) voted to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, it was said both by members of the APA, and by LGBT activists at the time, that it was a political decision, not a medical one.  The decision was made without any new research undertaken to support a change in the APA’s position. 

There are research findings showing that there is a disproportionate number of adult homosexuals report having been molested as children, or being otherwise abused, and themselves identify early emotional trauma as a causal factor in their later sexual orientation.  Indeed, incidence of mental illness in the homosexual community is dramatically higher than in the rest of the population. 

All of this indicates that Same Sex Attraction and homosexual activity are symptomatic of underlying psychological disorders which deserve to be treated, not embraced and celebrated. LGBT activists oppose therapy to help treat Same Sex Attraction, even when voluntarily undertaken; and they claim that it has not been proved successful in improving the mental health and wellbeing of patients who undergo it, despite a host of anecdotal testimony to the contrary, and despite the fact that spreading acceptance and tolerance of homosexuality in society has no evidence of a more positive outcome. In the United States, for instance, where Same Sex Marriage is legal, suicidality in the LGBT community remains alarmingly high relative to the general public.

The same polite avoidance of reality applies to the transgender issue. We are talking about people of one biological sex believing that they are supposed to be the opposite sex. By and large, actual biologically intersex individuals, those formerly referred to as hermaphrodites, are not part of this discussion. We are generally talking about men who believe they are women, or women who believe they are men; and who then present themselves as the gender they feel themselves to be.  Well, what about what WE feel and believe and can scientifically prove them to be? To what extent are we, as a society, supposed to participate in validating their own misunderstanding of themselves? If you believe yourself to be something other than what you actually physically and biologically are in reality, how is that healthy?

At the recent press conference shared by Minister Datuk Dr. Muhjahid Yusof Rawa and transgender activist Nisha Ayub, Nisha explained that the trans community is supposed to educate us. They are supposed to teach us, and we are supposed to listen, apparently in obsequious silence.  Well, we have been silent too long. 

The LGBT community has every right to say whatever they want to say, to explain their positions however they wish; but we reserve the right to reply, to question, to critique the validity of their arguments, and to debunk them. The Minister was right, LGBT people are part of Malaysia, but they are not ALL of Malaysia, and they cannot expect everyone to kowtow to their agenda-driven narrative without dissent or opposition.

* Gerakan Pembela UMMAH is a coalition of 300 Islamic Non-Governmental Organisations across the country.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.