The Guardian reports that 37 men have been arrested, including one Briton in Malaysia. The arrest follows a raid by Police who say they were acting on a public tip-off. Officers raided a fitness centre in northern Penang island on Sunday while a sex party was in progress. The men arrested were aged between 20 and 45. The Police Chief is reported as saying: "This is against our culture, our way of life." The offence of sodomy can result in punishable by up to 20 years in prison and whipping. Police cited the discovery of used condoms, seven tubes of lube, 20 gay magazines, four pornographic videos and six boxes of new condoms, as evidence of "unnatural sex acts".
We should hesitate to condemn the Police. After all the UK Government currently has plans before Parliament on the possession of extreme pornography which will criminalise a considerable amount of gay and S&M material whilst the continued enforcement of the Brown decision renders certain S&M sex acts illegal. Not forgetting the continued criminalisation (albeit to varying degrees)of cruising,cottaging and dogging. The acts criminalised in this Malaysian case were only fully legalised in 2003 in the UK (and the sodomy laws only changed 40years ago). We remain far from a beacon of sexual liberation ourselves!
Read the story at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/gayrights/story/0,,2206087,00.html
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