The Dictionary of Homophobia (141 page)

In Singapore, any public debate concerning homosexuality always stirs up violent objections from those following the Christian tradition. Arguments invoking sin, the concept of it being against nature, and biblical references are inevitably brandished. Choices, an
exgay
association (based on the American organization Exodus), has been operating in the area since 1990. It is a charismatic organization that boasts of its conversion therapy and uses all sorts of pressure to accomplish its ends. The organization is very media-savvy, and has access to numerous missionary-run schools, using these to instill guilt and
self-hatred
.

To demonstrate the role Christian culture plays in the debates surrounding homosexuality, it is sufficient to recall what took place in Hong Kong in the 1980s (though Hong Kong is today part of China, and not part of Southeast Asia proper). During that decade, after a series of
scandals
and blackmail implicating high-ranking
police
and government officials, the British colonial government ran a public poll regarding the
decriminalization
of homosexuality. In response, the churches and Christian associations immediately launched their own corresponding crusade against homosexuality.

Socialism
Socialism is another Western influence that is felt in Southeast Asia, though it mostly applies to Vietnam and, to a lesser degree, Laos and Myanmar. Vietnamese culture is strongly influenced by China, so much so that the same attitudes found in China are shared by Vietnam. In short, despite there being no legal repression as such, homosexual behavior is widely condemned and often leads to ostracism. There is a strong social pressure for a person to marry and have children.

As socialism began to take hold in the region, it added another layer of social control and conservatism. Even though homosexuals in Vietnam were not specifically targeted, the government did single out “individualists.” It was this policy that led to the Vietnamese police arming patrols with scissors to cut the flares off of bell-bottom pants, seen as a manifestation of Western
decadence
and capitalism. In this climate of social intimidation, homosexuals and marginalized people of all types simply felt it would be too dangerous to express themselves.

Nonetheless, thanks to Confucianism, socialism in Vietnam is only a moderate cultural power. It is an open secret among the literati of Hanoi, for example, that the country’s two official poets, Huy Can and Xuan Dieu, lived together for a very long time. Huy Can was even an appointed minister with the socialist regime and played an important role within the political establishment. Obviously, this Confucian and socialist regime is capable of looking the other way, when necessary.

In one village in the 1990s (80% of Vietnam is rural), a lesbian marriage was to take place and both families organized a large party to celebrate the occasion. However, as the news made its way around the world, the authorities decided to intervene, no doubt concerned about their public image. In general, though, things are usually more liberal.

Islam
Ninety percent of the Indonesian population and 60% of Malaysians are Muslim. The practice of Islam in this part of the world is relatively moderate and quite accommodating of pre-Islamic customs. Because of this, the cultural practices of these people often seem closer to those of their indigenous roots than that of Muslim fundamentalists.

Nonetheless, it is clear that Islam does not approve of homosexual behavior. Given the local culture of silence on these subjects, Muslims with homosexual tendencies are obliged to keep it secret, sharing only with their closest friends. Visibility can lead to ostracism from one’s family, mockery from friends, and pressure from the mosques and from elders. Once discovered, lesbian relationships usually result in forced marriages, arranged to maintain a normal appearance. Under these conditions, homosexual relationships and affairs are usually conducted furtively and secretly.

For a few years now in Indonesia and Malaysia, many groups have called for a stricter form of Islam, such as Wahabbism. In general, their goal is to enforce
sharia
, Islamic religious law, to “cleanse” certain social and meeting places that (as far as they are concerned) only serve to promote the
vice
. In regards to sexuality, they strongly extol sexual abstinence prior to marriage, and the segregation of the sexes.

In Kaliurang (close to Yogyakarta) on November 11, 2000, the militia of one of these groups, armed with clubs, knives, and machetes, attacked an
AIDS
center which was essentially made up of
waria
and homosexual men. In their published declaration after the fact, members of the group used the presence of gays and
waria
there to justify their attack, proving that their action was not motivated by AIDS, but by homophobia, pure and simple. And this has not been an isolated incident. Frequently, men wearing Arab garb harass gays,
warias
, and their businesses. It remains to be seen if the number of these militant fundamentalist Muslims will increase, and if their homophobic activities will multiply with them.

The Sex Trade
The sex trade in Southeast Asia is worth mentioning because its negative connotations affect general attitudes toward homosexuals. Homosexual prostitution is present in almost every country in Southeast Asia (even in socialist Vietnam), but it is in Thailand that the phenomenon has taken on an unprecedented scale. Previously, the sex trade was geared toward locals; today, in certain areas, the clientele is foreign, to the point where sexual tourism is now virtually considered an economy unto itself. As well, recent information suggests that many pedophiles come to Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines specifically looking for young boys.

Those countries with a rampant sex trade have started to deal with the situation, either out of pride or simply for the public good. In 2001, Thailand’s then Minister of the Interior Purachai launched a campaign to limit the excesses of the sex trade and the entertainment industry, a move that was well received by the general population. To date, the campaign has been carried out with moderation, respecting both homosexual and heterosexual meeting places, though from time to time the police, citing a need for stricter measures, have used this argument to harass homosexuals. For several months in 2001, the gay baths in Bangkok were regular targets for police raids, and television networks aired several reports on the “indecent” performances found in gay bars.

If the number of homosexual tourists continues to increase, involving a growing number of men in these countries, it is possible that a return to stricter rules will simply reinforce general homophobic attitudes. As well, if pedophilic tourism also continues to grow, one can only imagine the furious comparisons that will be drawn between
pedophilia
and homosexuality. Therein lies the danger that should be recognized.

Western Liberalism & a Gay & Lesbian Awareness
Few countries have not been touched by the ideas and values of contemporary Western liberalism, and Southeast Asia is no exception. The young elite class, especially those educated abroad, are the most susceptible to applying these ideas in their home countries.

Among these young elite, some have adopted Western styles, including the concept of sexual identity and of coming out, and the vocabulary of human rights. Those who are heterosexual often become more sympathetic to non-discrimination, diversity, and the recognition of non-traditional sexual orientations. Nonetheless, given that these youths are few in number and concentrated in the capital cities, the social changes this generation can bring about are somewhat restricted. Still, the gay scene is becoming increasingly visible in Manila, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, and Bangkok, if the growing number of homosexual bars and nightclubs is any indication. Even in heterosexual entertainment venues, an ambiguous sexual orientation can be quite fashionable.

Many Singaporean playwrights are introducing homosexual themes and content in their plays, and cinematographers in Thailand and the Philippines are integrating homosexual elements into their films—as demonstrated by
Satree lek
(
The Iron Ladies
), a lighthearted Thai film and box office hit which told the true story of the aforementioned volleyball players.

This gay and lesbian visibility has created a certain tension, if not an outright change in social attitudes. In Singapore’s online community, despite the restrictions imposed by official censorship, the liberal viewpoint is being expressed more and more freely. Instead, it is the proponents of homophobia who have to defend their point of view, where previously their prejudices were considered so self-explanatory that there was no need to defend them. Inasmuch as homophobia is obliged to justify itself, this situation then paves the way for debate and change in public opinion.

For the past few years, government ministers in Singapore have had to declare their official policy on the subject. According to them, the laws against sodomy that currently exist are never enforced against consenting adults. Similarly, the liberal elite have started pushing for the relaxation of censorship. Things are improving, albeit slowly.

Under these conditions, it would be a mistake to believe that homophobia will progressively disappear altogether. Of course, Western liberalism is growing, but so are Christian conservatism and Muslim fundamentalism. As well, given that homosexuality is a new concept in the cultures of certain regions where it did not previously exist, concurrent with an increase in the valorization of free expression, homophobia is just as likely to grow in strength. In fact, there is growing evidence that gay bashing, previously unknown in Southeast Asia, is now sadly on the rise in the region.
—Au Waipang

Baba, Ismail. “Gay and Lesbian Couples in Malaysia,”
Journal of Homosexuality
40, no. 3 (2001).

Donaldson, Stephen, and Wayne Dynes.
Asian Homosexuality
. New York: Garland, 1992.

Jackson, Peter A. “Pre-Gay, Post-Queer: Thai Perspectives on Proliferating Gender/Sex Diversity in Asia,”
Journal of Homosexuality
40, no. 3 (2001).

———, and Gerard Sullivan, eds. “Lady Boys, Tom Boys, Rent Boys: Male and Female Homosexualities in Contemporary Thailand,”
Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Service
9, no. 2 (1999).

————. “A Panoply of Roles: Sexual and Gender Diversity in Contemporary Thailand,”
Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Service
9, no. 2 (1999).

Murray, Alison. “Let Them Take Ecstasy: Class and Jakarta Lesbians,”
Journal of Homosexuality
40, no. 3 (2001).

Sinnott, Megan. “Masculinity and Tom Identity in Thailand,”
Journal of Homosexuality
40, no. 3 (2001).

Storer, Graeme. “Rehearsing Gender and Sexuality in Modern Thailand: Masculinity and Male-Male Sex Behaviors,”
Journal of Homosexuality
40, no. 3 (2001).

Oetomo, Dede. “Gay Men in the Reformasi Era: Homophobic Violence Could Be a By-Product of the New Openness.”
http://www.insideindonesia.org/edit66/dedel.htm
(site now discontinued).

Tan, L. Michael. “Survival through Pluralism: Emerging Gay Communities in the Philippines,”
Journal of Homosexuality
40, no. 3 (2001).

Wah-Shan, Chou.
Tongzhi: Politics of Same-Sex Eroticism in Chinese Societies
. Binghamton, NY: Harrington Park Press, 2000.

—Buddhism; China; Communism; Hinduism; India, Pakistan, Bangladesh; Islam; Japan; Korea; Oceania; Protestantism.

SPAIN

Spain has always occupied a peculiar place in the Western world. The establishment of enduring populations of Romans, Visigoths, and later Arabs in the Iberian Peninsula has fashioned a land of many faces. In this country of three principal religions—
Islam, Judaism
, and
Catholicism
—each community adopted its own model of male dominance, organizing and positioning the virility of its male population in opposition both to the feminine and to homosexuality. However, the presence of Islam as of the eighth century, including its persistence in Aragon (and in El Levante until the early seventeenth century) contributed to the Spanish attitude and mentality being undeniably tolerant.

Anxious to regulate the dissolute mores of the clergy which called to instruct the people and to lead by example, Christians of the Middle Ages based their repressive model on the sparse homophobic material of the Old and New Testaments (particularly from Leviticus, certain passages from St
Paul
, or from the writings of St Augustine and the Patristic tradition). The Penitentials (from the seventh to eleventh centuries), which were intended to guide the practice of confessors, made reference to homosexual practices, but nowhere did they declare that this
sin
was worse than any of the other erotic practices incriminated. However, in the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas established a hierarchy of hedonistic sins, whereby any erotic practice outside of
marriage
was considered a sin. Homosexuality was assigned to the gravest category of sins “
against nature
,” alongside masturbation and bestiality. This homophobic concept would have a crucial influence on Christian morality and western culture from the end of the Middle Ages until today.

Under the rule of the Spanish Visigoth kings of the sixth and seventh centuries, the punishment reserved for homosexuals in the
Lex Visigothorum
(642–49 CE) was castration, shaving of the head, excommunication, banishment for life, and a hundred lashes of the whip. The arrival of the Arabs in 711 had the effect of instilling a climate of tolerance towards homosexuality. Nonetheless, the northern territories remained Christian, and those that the
Reconquista
returned to the Castilians, over time, adopted a Castilian version of the
Lex
and all of its homophobic articles under the name of
Fuero Juzgo
. In 1265, Alfonso X the Learned set out to unify the municipal legislative texts, and composed the
Fuero Real
(1255) and
Las Partidas
(1265). Both of these texts insisted on the horror of the sin of sodomy and recommended the death penalty by castration and hanging by the feet, a tendency that would be echoed even more cruelly in the
pragmática
of the Catholic Monarchs of Medina del Campo of 1497. Under the title of “How to Chastise the Abominable Sin Against Nature,” it suggested burning at the stake or an alternative, the garrote, as well as the confiscation by the royal treasury of the entirety of the guilty party’s possessions.