Malaysia’s Education Ministry has recommended a list of traits that it believes will help parents and teachers identify homosexuality in their young children, so that they can respond to the “symptoms.”

Government blessed seminars in Malaysia telling parents and teachers about what to look out for if they want to know if their child is possibly homosexual have caused and outcry.

Malaysia has a rich history of not being the most openly welcoming of gay, lesbian and transgender people. In fact, it is illegal to be homosexual in Malaysia, although prosecutions are rare.

These are the four symptoms that parents and teachers are to watch out for:

Symptoms of gays:

• Have a muscular body and like to show their body by wearing V-neck and sleeveless clothes;

• Prefer tight and light-coloured clothes;

• Attracted to men; and

• Like to bring big handbags, similar to those used by women, when hanging out.

Symptoms of lesbians:

• Attracted to women;

• Besides their female companions, they will distance themselves from other women;

• Like to hang out, have meals and sleep in the company of women; and

• Have no affection for men.

Malaysian educator Tony Pua, who is a member of parliament from the opposition Democratic Action Party, told Radio Australia’s he condemns the gay-spotting seminars.

There’s a clear-cut attempt to stereotype what a ‘typical’ homosexual, or a gay or lesbian, how they would behave from a time when they’re young and hopefully identify them and put them through some sort of regime of change or indoctrination to ensure that they don’t stray from ‘the right path as prescribed by the government, and this is wrong on two counts. One, it’s clearly homophobic and it does not respect the rights of the individual in any way. Number two, it is wrong because even if they want to cure the ‘ill’, the approach being taken is completely ridiculous.

Ironically, his party does not condone homosexuality, but believes in the rights of minorities:

Our position is that while we frown on homosexuality, every individual has their rights enshrined in the constitution not to be discriminated and not to be abused as a result of their own beliefs and preferences. It’s like, they are minorities, they have rights – we may not agree with you, we don’t agree with you – but that does not take away your right to be a fairly treated citizen in this country.

A report indicated that 10 seminars have already been held.

[Source: Yahoo]