HOW is our media measuring up to its role? If some newspapers’ treatment of what constitutes news is anything to go by, it is clear that some among the Malaysian media are not only unprofessional. They are also causing harm to vulnerable groups. Without a doubt, there is evidence that some media are targeting the [...]

SULASTRI Ariffin has been around the world. Manager of the mak nyah (trans women) programme at PT Foundation, she has participated and spoken at conferences on HIV and sexuality in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and Switzerland. She has even met Richard Gere — twice. But in her 15 [...]

THE transvestites involved in the Bachok beauty pageant have finally been sentenced in the Kelantan Syariah Court. One of them, a teacher, was not only found guilty for dressing as a woman, but was transferred from his job posting. It was bad enough that he had to pay a RM1,000 bond to the Kelantan Syariah [...]

OF the plethora of absurd and disturbing events that have marred the political landscape this year, one of the most significant must surely be the charge of sodomy levelled against politician Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim — again. In a surreal replay of the events of 1998, when then-prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad accused him [...]