Seksualiti Merdeka
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seksualiti Merdeka
is an annual sexuality rights festival held in
,
.
Seksualiti Merdeka
features a programme of talks, forums, workshops, art, theatre and music performances, interactive installations, and
film screenings, organised by a coalition of Malaysian NGOs, artists and individuals.
is the name for
Malaysia's Independence Day (Aug 31), hence Seksualiti Merdeka can be loosely translated as "Sexuality Independence".
Overview
[
]
The first Seksualiti Merdeka was held in August 2008, coinciding with Merdeka celebrations.
It drew a crowd of about
400–500 people.
The theme of Seksualiti Merdeka 2009 is “Our Bodies, Our Rights,” which reflects the organisers' wish to tie
rights into the larger framework of human rights, based in part of the
. It drew a crowd of 800–
1000 people.
[
]
In November 2011, the festival was banned on the grounds that it could cause public disorder.
Background
[
]
Seksualiti Merdeka was founded by arts programmer Pang Khee Teik and singer-songwriter Jerome Kugan in 2008. Pang and
Jerome have previously been involved in LGBT advocacy, for example, in 2003, together with
, Tan Beng Hui,
,
, and others, they were involved in the handing of a Memorandum to the Human Rights Commission
on the negative portrayal of effeminate men and masculine women in the Malaysian media.
As writers, they have also
regularly written and read their gay stories in public.
In 2008, Clarence Singham, co-founder of Singapore's pride festival
, invited Pang to organise a Malaysian
programme within it. Pang then organised a segment called "Heartbreak Heroes: Four Malaysians on surviving love, loss
& a hostel in Singapore", in which Pang, Kugan, activist
and historian
read their original
writings.
The experience inspired Pang and Kugan, who both work for
, to organise a similar kind of event
within their arts space.
Seksualiti Merdeka 2008
[
]
The first Seksualiti Merdeka took place on 29–31 August 2008, with the tagline "If one of us ain't free, none of us
are!". It was held in conjunction with Merdeka celebrations "to address the fact that 51 years after independence, not
all Malaysians are free to be who they are."
References
[
]
^
. Archived from
on 2009-08-14
. Retrieved
2009-08-14
.
2010-06-18 at the
.
. March 9,
2012
. Retrieved
20 December
2017
.
. Archived from
on 2011-07-17
. Retrieved
2010-08-04
.
. The Nut Graph. 28 May 2009
. Retrieved
2017-10-06
.
. The Nut Graph. 20 August 2009
. Retrieved
2017-10-06
.
. Archived from
on 2010-12-23
. Retrieved
2010-08-03
.
.
Seksualitimerdeka.blogspot.com
. Archived from
on 6 October 2017
. Retrieved
6 October
2017
.
External links
[
]
. The Nut Graph. 13 August 2009
. Retrieved
2017-10-06
.
.
Muslimahmediawatch.org. 2017-09-22
. Retrieved
2017-10-06
.
. The Malaysian Bar. 2009-09-10
. Retrieved
2017-10-06
.
:
This page was last edited on 15 August 2025, at 08:35
(UTC)
.
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