The title of this recording is "Mitch Yusof". It was recorded in Wellington Town Hall, 101 Wakefield Street, Wellington on the 16th March 2011. Mitch Yusof is being interviewed by Gareth Watkins.  Their names are spelt correctly but may appear incorrectly spelt later in the document. The duration of the recording is 6 minutes. A list of correctly spelt content keywords and tags can be found at the end of this document. A brief description of the recording is: In this podcast Mitch Yusof from Malaysia talks about attending the human rights conference. The content in the recording covers the 2010s decade. A brief summary of the recording is: This abstract summarizes a podcast recording from the 16th of March 2011, featuring an interview with Mitch Yusof, conducted by Gareth Watkins at the Wellington Town Hall. Yusof, hailing from Malaysia, discusses the human rights situation for the queer community in their home country, particularly reflecting on the discrimination and challenges faced by LGBT individuals. Yusof provides a personal account of intolerance in Malaysia, citing a situation where a gay friend who came out publicly via a YouTube video was met with hostility, including death threats. The Malaysian government's response, rather than condemning the threats, was to criticize the individual for coming out, highlighting the institutionalized discrimination present in the country. Yusof emphasizes their confusion and disappointment with how the LGBT community is treated, where even government authorities do not protect against such discrimination. The interview touches upon the personal resolve needed when confronted with discrimination, with Yusof sharing their own approach to disregarding negative public reactions and emphasizing the importance of self-acceptance. Yusof articulates feeling at home within the community and the support system they find there. Additionally, Yusof discusses their participation in an NGO called PT Foundation (previously known as Pink Triangle), which focuses on HIV and AIDS prevention among marginalized communities, including men who have sex with men, drug users, sex workers, transgenders, and those living with HIV. The conversation delves into the hardships of advocating for gender and sexuality rights within Malaysia, offering insight into a society that displays a superficial tolerance towards queer individuals, so long as their queer identity is not publicly acknowledged. Yusof suggests that the prevailing attitudes in Malaysia could become quite dangerous, with a 'mob mentality' potentially inciting violence against the LGBT community. The prospects for improvement are presented as a long and arduous journey requiring a fundamental shift in mindset both from grassroots and from the highest levels of government. Yusof advocates for simultaneous top-down and bottom-up changes in order to make meaningful advances in how queer individuals are perceived and treated in Malaysia. When asked about the future, Yusof expresses a hope for better conditions, while emphasizing the importance of action over hope in bringing about change. Yusof plans to implement best practices learned at the human rights conference within their organization to foster better dialogue and understanding. The content of this podcast, which concludes on an ambitious note, aims to convey the experiences and aspirations of an individual deeply involved in the struggle for LGBT rights in a conservative society. The text concludes with a mention of where the original recording and the master recording can be accessed for further validation. The full transcription of the recording follows.  It includes timestamps every thirty seconds in the format [HH:MM:SS].  The transcription begins:  I'm Mitch. I'm from Malaysia. I'm here because this is where my family is the community. What are human rights like for queer communities in Malaysia? You heard my laughter. When they say there are human rights, you know when they say walk the talk, they don't walk the talk. There's a lot of discrimination, especially against the LGBT community [00:00:30] lots. And it is I am very disappointed and very perplexed on how they see the LGBT community. I mean, maybe they think that we are not human. What kind of discrimination do you have? Examples like recently, one of our gay friends came out in a video that's called I'm Gay. I'm OK, right? Have you heard about it? Yeah. And then when he was on YouTube, it was flooded with messages, even [00:01:00] death threats. And the government did not do anything about it. Instead, what they did was to condemn the person the the gay man that did the video for outing himself, you know? So instead of saying to the others that threatened him and said, You know, you shouldn't do that just because he's gay. But the government condemned the gay guy, so I am very perplexed and disappointed with the state of the government in that aspect. [00:01:30] How did he handle all that? All that negative publicity. Well, the last time when I met him, it was very The video has been pulled out, OK? And thanks. It was very difficult for him to smoothen things out with his parents. Um, other than that he needed a lot of support from the community. What about your own experience in Malaysia? Well, I think maybe because [00:02:00] I don't care what people say. So even if I'm walking and they just said, Look, cure and I and I just walk away because you know what? It's my life, and no one has got the right to dictate who and what I am. And so that's why I feel at home amongst the community here amongst the family here. Had you ever been to a conference like this before? Not for the LGBT community. I've been for the HIV and AIDS, but not for the LGBT. [00:02:30] This is my first time. And what is the best part about the conference so far? A lot of networking, a lot of sharing of information. I think my main, my main interest of being here is to learn on best practises from other countries in which I can then practise it over my place. Are you part of any support or queer LGBT organisation in Malaysia? I am working with an NGO CBO. [00:03:00] It's called PT Foundation or otherwise known before as Ping Triangle. Does that say? And what does that do? Well, we are into HIV and AIDS prevention, HIV and AIDS prevention amongst the five marginalised communities which are the MS M men having sex with men, the drug users, the sex workers, the transgenders and also people living with HIV themselves. So it's because of our [00:03:30] situation in Malaysia. So it's more about HIV and AIDS. Instead of advocating for gender and sexuality rights, what are the biggest challenges you face in Malaysia When it comes to gay and lesbian issues? The challenge is almost everywhere. There is always denial on the existence of the LGBT community. It's like [00:04:00] as long as you don't shove it to my face, I'm OK with that. You know, if you are gay, OK, fine, be gay. Behind closed doors don't come out and just shove it to my face and say that you're gay that I cannot accept. That's the kind of mentality that they have. I mean, maybe I'm talking through experience and I may not be talking for all, but how I experience the situation is that's how it is. So there is some tolerance tolerance. Yes, there is some tolerance, but you know what? [00:04:30] They got this. I think they've got this group mob mentality. If one says, Let's kill the gay, they all will kill the gays. What do you think would have to happen in Malaysia for things to change, for things to be a bit more accepting? Wow, that's a long That's a long journey. I think what should happen is the change of mindset. Yeah, but it's got to start both ways, whether it's from top and bottom. It's got to start simultaneously because [00:05:00] but it starts from the bottom and the top don't change their mindset. It's not going to make a difference, right? It's a long, long journey and I dread to think about it. If if somebody is listening to this in 30 years time, what would you like to say to them? I would say and is the person are they gay? Are they from OK, I'm just gonna say is any much better then do you think it will be really I [00:05:30] really, really hope so. But you know what people will say. There's no hope. You have to act on it. That's right. How do you translate the words that we hear in this conference into actions? What will you do when you get back home? Well, what I have to do, For example, I've been listening a lot about what's the best practise and all that. So I just have to put it into practise in my organisation, for example, on how they have dialogues instead of looking [00:06:00] at. From my perspective, I should be looking it from the other side and maybe they'll be able to I'll be able to understand them and interpret it to them so that they are able to understand what I'm saying. The full transcription of the recording ends. A list of keywords/tags describing the recording follow. These tags contain the correct spellings of names and places which may have been incorrectly spelt earlier in the document. The tags are seperated by a semi-colon: 2010s ; Asia Pacific Outgames ; Asia Pacific Outgames (2011) ; LGBT ; Malaysia ; Mitch Yusof ; Pacific ; People ; Wellington ; actions ; bottom ; change ; community ; conference ; death ; denial ; difference ; discrimination ; face ; family ; friends ; gay ; gender ; government ; hope ; human rights ; journey ; laughter ; lesbian ; listening ; march ; msm ; other ; outing ; parents ; prevention ; queer ; sex ; sexuality ; support ; the other side ; threats ; time ; tolerance ; top ; video ; walking. The original recording can be heard at this website https://www.pridenz.com/apog_mitch_yusof.html. The master recording is also archived at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, New Zealand.  For more details visit their website https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.1089471. Please note that this document may contain errors or omissions - you should always refer back to the original recording to confirm content.