There is legislation against sodomy and it is hugely improbable that they will be removed in the foreseeable future: there will likely be joint protests from significant Muslim and Christian quarters -- as is clear from a flurry of debate in the online paper "Malaysiakini" (http://www.malaysiakini.com) earlier this year. Those of you who don't know this paper, do take a look at it, and subscribe, if you have an interest in Malaysia. It's the first regular online paper, taking advantage of Mahathir's promise not to censor the 'Net -- which he has largely kept, although the people running the paper get harassed such as being denied entry into official press conferences, getting their computers seized, being given notice by their landlord to move, etc.
Back to the topic at hand. But active persecution and almost impossible to live queerly and safely? I'm not queer, so perhaps that disqualifies me. But I think I know enough persons who are to be able to speak, subject to correction.
Perhaps the one group of queers who are subject to significant harassment and violence -- not necessarily from the state -- are transvestites. Yet, a year or two ago, Mahathir was on stage with perhaps the most well-known transvestite in the country, in a function organised by the Malaysian AIDS Council headed by Mahathir's daughter. There are quite a few transvestites who wear male -- the transvestites I know are female dressers -- clothes during the day and work in regular jobs such as check-in clerks at the airport, at hotel reception desks and cafés, etc. One knows because of their shaved eyebrows and their body language. But many others are in sex work, and it is in that occupation that they suffer harassment and violence.
As for other homosexuals -- put it this way, the sharia law as implemented here, limited to Muslims, results in regular prosecutions of unmarried male/female couples for "close proximity" (not adultery because of the near impossibility of obtaining the requisite evidence under sharia law), and only of the Muslim partner, if it happens to be a mixed couple. There are no provisions for raiding and arresting male/male or female/female couples. And while the public holding of hands between male and female is still not fully socially acceptable, it's quite acceptable between members of the same sex. Overt sexual displays are generally still frowned upon, although loosening up, other than in the usual party joints around town.
One of the most popular singers of the 1980s was gay. But when he died, his family did not want it stated that he had died of AIDS, although virtually everyone who cared to know, knew.
So yes, queers suffer from many social and political impediments. But 'active persecution' suggests quite a different order.
kj khoo