You are cordially invited to a CSEAS Tonan Talk, a Brown Bag lecture series. The talk is open to the public, and you can bring your lunch bag to the place. The details are as follows.

Title: To marry or not to marry: The law and sexuality rights in Malaysia
Speaker: Dr. Sharon A. Bong, Associate Professor in Gender and Religious
Studies at the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University
Malaysia
Date: April 15 (Wed.), 12:00 – 14:00, 2015
Place: Tonan tei (Room No. 201), Inamori Foundation Memorial Building, Kyoto University

Abstract:
The presentation focuses on the same-sex marriage debate for GLBTIQ persons (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and questioning) in Malaysia as represented in media texts analysed. The first section of the paper provides the local social-legal context in relation to the dual legal system in Malaysia and this is juxtaposed to the sexuality rights discourse in a global context with emphasis on the Yogyakarta Principles. The significance of the same-sex marriage debate is apparent as it makes visible GLBTIQ narratives that in turn, proliferates viewpoints on the issue which includes backlash not only from conservative quarters but also the state that is homophobic. I argue that there is a need to go beyond the marriage equality debate in consideration of some wider implications. These include: the politicisation of sexuality in Malaysia, the inadequacies of legalising same-sex marriage without de-criminalising certain sexual practices (i.e. section 377) and the need to negotiate the tensions of universalism (sexuality rights) versus cultural relativism (Asian values and religious prohibitions).

About the speaker: Sharon A. Bong is Associate Professor in Gender and Religious Studies at
the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. She graduated with a Ph.D. in Religious Studies (2002) and M.A. in Women and Religion (1997), University of Lancaster, UK. She has authored The Tension Between Women’s Rights and Religions: The Case of Malaysia (2006) and edited Trauma, Memory and Transformation in Southeast Asia (2014). She was former coordinator of the Ecclesia of Women in Asia and a forum writer for the Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church.

Moderator: Tsukasa Iga (CSEAS)

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