Plenty of derogatory and discriminatory remarks were been made in the New Straits Times article ' Being gay is against Islam ' (Dec 19, 2010) and Star ’s ' Gay man fears for his life after exposing his sexuality on Net ' (Dec 23, 2010) following the Youtube video of Malaysian engineer Azwan Ismail's coming out.

And having seen the video who confessed his sexual orientation, I am shocked at the amount of violent comments and death threats posted in Youtube against him.

It seems that our society is homophobic with its uncompromising stand that anyone who is different in sexual orientation must be stoned to death or condemned to all eternity.

It is great to hear remarks from the Joint Action Group in the letter titled ' Stand up against hatred and threats against LBGT ' in Malaysiakini .

There must be sympathy and support instead of threats, obscene remarks and punishment against those who are different, failing which society is no better off than during the May 13, 1969 incident, where being born a particular race was then a target of prejudice and sentenced to death.

While any religion questions ones sexual orientation that is different from the norm, it must be noted that we must not be overzealous to play jury and judge by condemning and punishing a person for his or her sexual orientation.

Only God can be the decider and I would suggest that no action be taken against Azwan Ismail. Let God decide when he present his case when he meets his maker.

The authorities seem to be overzealous in trying to take action against Azwan Ismail. Why is so much attention being showered over this when there are plenty of more important issues to deal with?

It is a harmless confession but the authorities seem to give me the impression that he is launching and getting support for a gay riot marching in violence down the street to Parliament whereupon the sky will turn red and rain blood.

Instead, their focus should concentrate more on promoting and education on safe sex and matters relating to preventing sexual transmitted diseases namely HIV.

Threatening any action against Azwan Ismail would never solve any sexual issues.

To me, he has acted responsibly to accepted himself for who he really is instead of living a pretend life and worse, get married in order to conform to society's expectations. At least he is honest with himself on who he really is.

The person in question has merely confessed to being gay but the comments posted seem to misunderstand that he is promoting his sexuality as a lifestyle to be followed. Let's get one thing straight. Being gay is due to human nature and not a lifestyle that can be adopted.

As such, for example, having Adam Lambert perform here should never be an issue. But as usual, politicians pretending to uphold Godly values made an Armageddon over a mole hill by claiming that Malaysian civilisation and society would end with Lambert being here.

Well, Lambert came here, with plenty enjoying his music and after he left, the sun still rises.

Statistically the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender ('LBGT) community represents a decent percentage of the voting population. So it may be time for the LBGT votes to go to more LBGT friendly political parties.

Pushing it a little further, maybe it is time for the LBGT community to form a political party and get some LBGT people to be voted as members of parliament. That is the true meaning of 1Malaysia as the LBGT is by all means part of Malaysian society.

If the popular statistic is reliable, LBGT make up approximately 10 percent of any society. Just imagine what 10 percent of votes would do in any election. If I am not mistaken, the March 2008 general election saw plenty of people winning or losing by a mere few votes.    

Again if we stretch it a little here to assume that another 10 percent are sympathisers of LBGT community, this amounts to a massive 20 percent firepower in any election if the LBGT community are a more united front! I can’t see why it can’t be done, if Hindraf pulled it off for the Indian community.

After all, the current political parties namely those of the BN seem to be focusing all on the wrong areas with some interested in their own agenda of self glorification instead of focusing on eradicating corruption, improving standards of living, education, racial harmony, foreign investments, overall people’s welfare and an endless list of important issues.

In fact, racial harmony is not all that fine and good and that is why the government needs a 1Malaysia slogan after so many decades. And if we cannot get racial harmony right, I think we are a laughing stock in the eyes of the world.

The recent entertainment and free for all in the last Parliament sitting for the year 2010 goes to show how some members of Parliament are more than qualified clowns in our Malaysia Boleh spirit.

Having said that, the issue of LGBTs is a great misconception by society at large, ignoring how it must have been emotionally draining and mentally anguishing for Azwan Ismail to finally come to terms to accept who he is and be open with his confession. Where is the support he is looking for?

While action is being deliberated on the person or parties who made the video, I must highlight that the many death threats posted warrant the greater scrutiny. Strangely nothing much has been said regarding the people who posted death threats.

We must condemn violence, threat of violence, intimidation and discrimination against the LBGT community.

We must understand and acknowledge that many LBGT remain in the closet due to fear of discrimination, ridicule and a convenient target of prejudice. Already it has been proven that statistics of suicide and attempted suicide by LBGT are much higher than heterosexuals.

LBGT are already having great difficulty coming out and accepting themselves as there is no one to turn to and most of the time the source of rejection could be their parents and family.

I am sure the recent barrage of condemnation and threats against Azwan Ismail just for his simple confession has further marginalised the LBGT society.

Instead, there must be a better understanding and awareness of the issues affecting the LBGT community, rather than avoiding the issues all together and/or merely holding that being gay is against a particular religion's teachings.

It does not matter who you are and of any colour, as long as you are noble and do not frown. It is fine if you are born lesbian, bisexual, gay and/or transgender; it is okay.