Outcry over best ‘gay prevention’ film contest

The Malaysian government has been heavily criticised for launching a competition for videos explaining how to “prevent homosexuality”.

The health ministry is offering cash prizes of up to 4,000 ringgit (£720) to winners in a move branded “mind-blowing” by campaigners.

Contestants are invited to submit a video clip addressing various categories including “gayness” or “gender confusion”, and offering suggestions as to how these could be “prevented or controlled”.

Pang Khee Teik, a prominent activist, said: “The very fact that they lump LGBT people under a category called ‘gender confusion’ shows that the authorities are very much confused themselves.

“It is mind-blowing that a government agency wants the whole country to be sucked into its confluence of confusion.”

The deputy director general of health, Lokman Hakim Sulaiman, said the contest was “never intended to discriminate any specific group”.