[Straits Times] MALAYSIAN authorities have sent 66 Mohammedan schoolboys identified by teachers as effeminate to a four-day camp where they will receive counseling on masculine behaviour to discourage them from being gay, an official said on Tuesday.Gay rights advocates decried the measure as a symptom of widespread homophobia in this Mohammedan-majority country where gay sex is illegal.
The boys between 13 and 17 years old reported on Monday for what is officially being called a 'self-development course' after their schoolteachers in Terengganu state identified them as students who displayed effeminate mannerisms, said Razali Daud, the state's education director.
They will undergo religious and motivational classes and physical guidance, Mr Razali said. He declined to give further details.
The camp is meant 'to guide them back to the right path in life before they reach a point of no return,' Mr Razali told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. 'Such effeminate behavior is unnatural and will affect their studies and their future.'
It is the first such program in Terengganu, a conservative state.