COMMENT In the past two weeks, I have been invited to two meetings, one by the US Embassy and one by Human Rights Watch, in which Malaysians LGBT activists were consulted on what we would like Obama to say in support of Malaysian LGBTs.

It's nice to be asked how we would like to be helped for a change, instead of simply being told to accept help according to the terms and conditions applied to the help.

While I appreciate the call for Obama to support the activism on sexual orientation and gender identity issues, I find myself confused by the intended outcome of such a support. How can they help, really? And who are they helping, really? (And no, I wasn't invited to meet Obama. But with my cynicism, could you blame them, really?)