MALAYSIA - Gay pastor to wed, throw party

KUALA LUMPUR (AP):

A gay Malaysian pastor who plans to marry his American partner in New York, pledged yesterday to throw a wedding banquet in his Muslim-majority home country despite criticism by government politicians.

The Reverend Ouyang Wen Feng, an ordained minister who has mainly lived in the United States since 1998, told The Associated Press that he wants more Malaysians to speak up for gay people after the country's Islamic affairs minister recently described same-sex unions as a form of "extremism."

Malaysian gay-rights advocates frequently accuse authorities of homophobia. The government forbids movies and song lyrics that promote acceptance of gays. A decades-old law makes sodomy punishable by 20 years in prison, though it is seldom and selectively enforced.

Ouyang, a 41-year-old ethnic Chinese, is planning this year to wed an African-American musical producer who has been his boyfriend since 2009. In recent years, Ouyang has taught sociology and gender studies at colleges in New York, which recently became the sixth US state to legalise same-sex marriage.

"I still plan to have a Chinese wedding banquet in Kuala Lumpur next year," Ouyang said in an email to the AP. "I believe, I deserve at least this very right to share my joy with my friends by dining together, even in Malaysia."