zenn bites...

there was going to be an aids concert.

key word: WAS.

why? because "an application for a permit to hold a fund-raising concert for action for aids has been turned down by the media development authority (mda) because it features a gay couple as the main performers".

i would link the entire straits times article for your reading pleasure, but i'm not willing to pay for straits times online. you can check it out in yesterday's (23 march 2005) paper, H8.

i was going "huh" and "wtf" and "wth" and "what nonsense" and "retarded" when i read it.

apparently, the application was rejected as it featured an american couple Jason and deMarco .

the mda assessed that the couple's performance "will promote a gay lifestyle which would be against the public interest", based on the duo's website and reports of their performances in the united states.

which leads to the age-old debate: who are they to say what the public interest is anyway?

isn't it in the public interest to raise awareness for aids and hiv?
isn't it in the public interest to quit ostracizing the gay population?
isn't it in the public interest to understand & accept differing sexual leanings?

what? are gays suppose to go into hiding now?

does the government really think that not putting it out there will mean that there will be less of them, or that they will disappear altogether?

why not look past the sexual orientation of the performers?

why not treat everyone equal and look at the bigger picture -
at how this concert will increase awareness and raise funds for aids programmes,
at how it will allow more aids patients to accept themselves, and be accepted?


silly, myopic, homophobic bigots.


read also this , for a story from the other side of the "fence".