KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian pastor who left his home country and married in the United States will hold a traditional wedding in August back in Malaysia, in a move that has seen an increase in public support for the country's first and only openly gay pastor. “I think it is great that we as a society are able to accept this kind of thing despite our conservative clerics continuing to be antagonistic towards the gay community,” said Asha Mahammad, a 22-year-old university student in Kuala Lumpur. “All my friends are really excited and hopefully this will show Malaysia as a gay friendly country that is also Muslim,” she told Bikyamasr.com. Reverend Boon Lin Ngeo sent out e-invitations to friends over the weekend for the Chinese wedding banquet slated for August 4. The 41-year-old commonly known as Ouyang Wen Feng among the Malaysian-Chinese community currently lives with his African-American husband Phineas Newborn III in New York. The couple say they are expecting to share their joy with the invited guests. They had already held a public wedding last year in the US, but vowed to do it again in Malaysia, where homosexuality is punishable by up to 20 years of jail. The reporter-turned-pastor wedded his music producer partner on the Malaysian national day on August 31, after the latter proposed in public at the end of a song that he wrote for Ngeo on June 26, two days after New York City legalized same-sex marriages. When news of the US wedding broke, Christian groups, politicians and non-government organizations alike rushed to slash Ngeo. Some NGOs asked the government to ban their Malaysian wedding in advance, but Ngeo was adamant about proceeding with it. Ngeo has always been a controversial figure in Malaysia, where he opened the first gay-friendly church in the country in 2007. But, it could be a turning point in Malaysia's ongoing struggle for LGBT acceptance, which has seen numerous calls for dialogue to take place in the Islamic country towards changing existing legislation that is anti-Gay.
