Classifying Gay Arts Festival A Threat To The Public Police In Malaysia Order Event Cancelled, Scott Thompson Argues That In The Conversation About Bullying Gay Men Are Being Recast As Eternal Victims And That The Young Need To “Grow A Pair,” J. Edgar, Neil Patrick Harris And David Burtka Are Premiere Perfection, Hunger Games Hotness

Police ordered gay rights activists in Muslim-majority Malaysia on Thursday to scrap an annual arts festival aimed at fighting discrimination. The Associated Press reports that the “Sexual Independence” festival has been held under low-key circumstances in Kuala Lumpur since 2008, but growing awareness about the event has lead to criticism by politicians and religious leaders. This year’s five-day festival — starting November 9 at a private arts center and themed “Queer Without Fear” — featured planned musical performances of “queer anthems sung by fierce local singers and drag divas who know what it means to love out loud and proud,” organizers said. But after criticism by the deputy prime minister and plans by several Muslim nongovernment groups to protest, police ordered the event to be cancelled. Authorities will “prevent any function relating to the program,” deputy police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement run by national Bernama news agency and confirmed by police representatives. Many organizations “feared the program could create disharmony, enmity and disturb public order,” Khalid said. Earlier Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had described the event as “inappropriate” and a “waste of time,” according to Bernama. Gay rights activists did not immediately respond. Earlier, they had said the festival was meant to counter widespread homophobia in this socially conservative Asian nation, where a young gay man received death threats last year after posting a YouTube clip defending his sexuality. “Asking us to keep quiet is asking us to take your abuse with a smile ... it’s time to put a stop to all the hate and misunderstanding and abuse,” festival spokesman Pang Khee Teik said in an online statement posted Thursday before the event was banned. This year’s program also included plans for talks on sexuality issues, a poster exhibition and a makeup workshop by a drag queen. One session is titled “Defense Against The Dark Arts: Homophobia 101.” Media censorship rules forbid movies and song lyrics that promote acceptance of gays, while a decades-old law makes sodomy punishable by 20 years in prison, though it is seldom and selectively enforced. The festival’s sponsors and supporters included the Malaysian chapter of Amnesty International, the country’s main grouping of lawyers and other human rights organizations.

In an interview with Pride Source, Kids in the Hall comedian Scott Thompson is asked, “You've addressed bullying before, specifically how the It Gets Better campaign is basically a lie - it might not get better, you say. What would you tell bullied kids then?” Thompson, who is openly gay, and who has been critical of the It Gets Better campaign, answers “ Grow a pair. Here's the thing: The world is not kind to us; it never really will be. The gay male is always going to be at the bottom. I believe the things that happened to me as a child scarred me terribly, and I wish somebody would have helped me with some of the things that happened. But you have to fight back. So much of these bullying campaigns are part of the trend that we were just talking about - the recasting of gay men as eternal victims and it is like, fight back! Fathers should start teaching the boys how to punch. He does that to you, here's what you do: You fucking punch him in the face.”

Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DiCaprio grace the cover of The Hollywood Reporter magazine, and inside the director and star talk about their work together on the Dustin Lance Black-scripted J. Edgar.

Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka spotted arriving at the premiere of A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas Thursday night in Los Angeles.

Vanity Fair features the cast of the upcoming Hunger Games, the post-apocalyptic drama scheduled for release in the spring of 2012, featuring the smoking sexy Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth.