Gay Malaysian to Defy Gov't With Wedding Banquet

A gay Malaysian pastor who plans to marry his American partner in New York pledged today to throw a wedding banquet in his Muslim-majority home country despite criticism by government politicians. Rev. Ouyang Wen Feng, an ordained minister who has mainly lived in the United States since 1998, says he wants more Malaysians to speak up for gay people after the country's Islamic affairs minister recently described same-sex unions as a form of "extremism."

"I still plan to have a Chinese wedding banquet in Kuala Lumpur next year," wrote the 41-year-old in an email to the AP. "I believe, I deserve at least this very right to share my joy with my friends by dining together, even in Malaysia." Malaysia's Islamic affairs minister last weekend said the publicity surrounding Ouyang's plan to marry worries authorities. "We agree with human rights, but such extremism that allows man and man to marry will create social problems." (More Malaysia stories.)