- Title
- The Anwar saga: sexuality & politics in contemporary Malaysia
- Creator
- Berman, Alan
- Relation
- Gay & Lesbian Issues Pyschology Review Vol. 4, Issue 3, p. 188-197
- Relation
- http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/glip/glip_review
- Publisher
- Australian Psychological Society
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2008
- Description
- Internationally, sodomy laws - originally intended to control non-procreative sexual activity (Feree, 1988) - have been used to target homosexual activity for political purposes since the nineteenth century (Feree, 1988, p. 600; Obendorf, 2006, p. 178; Honen, 1999; A9). While these laws have been repealed in sixty nations - including the United States and Australia - as of May 2008 they still exist in eighty-six states which are members of the United Nations. This piece begins by exploring the factors contributing to the ultimate repeal of sodomy laws in the United States (‘US’) and Australia, as well as the factors militating against the repeal of such laws in Malaysia (Berman, 2008), having first outlined the limitations of comparative legal studies. This paper then goes on to argue that sodomy laws in Malaysia should be repealed for the same reasons they have been repealed in the US and Australia. Comparison of historical experiences in relation to sodomy laws in all three contexts provides an insight into the evolution of the human rights movement globally. The repeal of these laws in many countries reflects advances in the human rights movement globally, and the increasing recognition that certain key principles of human rights – such as privacy, personal dignity, autonomy and equality – extend to rights regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people (Long, 2004, pp. 3, 17).
- Subject
- sodomy laws; human rights; repeal; Anwar Ibrahim
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/40323
- Identifier
- uon:4582
- Identifier
- ISSN:1833-4512
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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