Grace Chin, writer, strikes a pose

To understand the importance of Seksualiti Merdeka I want to juxtapose two subjective experiences both of which are contained within a very similar form of symbolic gesture. I take myself back to the early years of this decade and place myself back in a church hall run by an organisation known as the Asian Youth Ambassador and I played the role of a participant observer.

In a typical worship service, the lead Pastor was working the crowd into a frenzy accompanied by the usual propaganda scores. Just when the students reached a state of psychological openness, the Pastor ranted his invectives, praying that by the will of God and that homosexuals will be saved.

Later in an interview sessions conducted as part of my research paper, the pastor shared with me his vision of Malaysia. He saw his pastoral mission in a vivid image of how the country is slowly lit up by thousand sparks of light scattered all across the country representing the youths of this nation and it was his duty to gather them and turn it into a blazing blinding spark of truth.

Edwin Sumun dolling up for Rainbow Mascara, I mean, Massacre.

Fast forward to last weekend, in an equally raucous event, the Rainbow Massacre, candles were handed out during the performance of the number ‘True Colours’, which symbolism would not be hard to decipher. It spoke of courage to just be the person you want to be rather than conform or perform one’s identity according to the dictates of some moral high priest.

These two symbolic forms stuck with me not just because of their resemblance, but they share a similar space and call out to a similar audience – the savvy urban youth. Tapping into the urban youth is not just good business – this has made quite a number of religious organisation very rich – it is also an investment towards an ideological legacy. And creating awareness for sexuality rights cannot have come at a more important time, a time where an increasing number of urban middle class (more so amongst the non-Muslim communities) have come under the spell of religious bigotry.

The week that came to be Seksualiti Merdeka 09 offers a vocal panacea against those who like to mind other people’s sexual businesses. It was very much a brave, expressive and outspoken space. I did ask Pang, the organiser of the festival, sometime ago how successful this event was last year and whether it was preaching to the choir. Pang responded, ‘What choir? We don’t have a choir!’

Marina Mahathir officiating the launch of Seksualiti Merdeka 09

In order to gauge whether the message was reaching outside of our liberal circles, I gathered a few of the volunteers and used them as barometers. They told me, compared to last’s year event, which was held over a weekend in conjunction with Arts for Grabs, Seksualiti Merdeka 09’s programme was stretched out over five days. Not being anchored to any collateral events at the Annexe means that the crowd who came to this year’s festival was here solely for the event. Surveying the turn out, this is a really good sign. Words do get out to the streets of KL.

The mixture of serious workshops and high camp entertainment created a rather inclusive programme, events that were able to draw in a good cross section from different pocket communities of the GBLT ‘worlds’ – young and old, gays and lesbians, as well as straight supporters. It was affirming for many who saw this as an empowering initiative, a much needed recognition of sexual choices as basic human right.

Tealight peace moment.

We won’t go into details about how successful the event was. I wouldn’t have done as good a job as the many others who have written or photographed so much more beautifully and passionately about this festival:

http://vergilya.blogspot.com/2009/08/night-seksualiti-merdeka-closed-with.html

http://www.chrisyapphotography.com/manuscript/?p=1447

http://amirmu.blogspot.com/2009/08/publishing-body-2-body.html

Here’s to next year’s festival.

(SS)

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Pink Triangle Foundation set up its very own booth in the main hall

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Elaine Pedley and her youthful coterie of Sexuality Rights Defenders play out a skit based on the Yogyakarta Principles

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The kind of stuff that you never really want to believe could happen.

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The launch of Malaysia’s first Queer anthology, Body 2 Body

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Book signin by Cheryl Leong, Faizad Nik Abdul Aziz, and Shanon Shah, authors of Body 2 Body

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Taking centre stage with shorter co-host Fahmi Fadzil

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Ending the night with RTM classic hit ‘Sejahtera Malaysia’

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Volunteer Vivien presenting the Tembok Merdeka

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Tini demonstrating her moves at the Sex Talk Show

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Alex Au pointing to the positive changes in Hong Kong’s laws in Step by Step

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Dedicated, selfless, tireless and hardworking volunteers asking for donations :)

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Photos by Jun Kit