As an Islamic Country, Malaysia is still tough on it’s LGBTQ community .  Not only  do thst face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents, but sodomy and oral sex is still a crime. Therefore making this issue of ELSKA the gay photo-zine dedicated to Kuala Lumpur is especially well-suited to giving queer Malaysians a more substantial voice and platform.

“I never really expected to make an issue in Malaysia because I just assumed that as a majority Muslim country where homosexuality is illegal, the locals wouldn’t be keen to do it” says Elska editor and chief photographer Liam Campbell, “but last autumn after we published our Manila issue, we got a passionate letter from a guy in Kuala Lumpur imploring us to give hiscity the same attention. So I asked him to spread the word and within a week I received over a dozen messages from similarly passionate local men. I couldn’t ignore their excitement, so I booked a flight and hurried over.”‘ 

Kuala Lumpur is well-known as one of the most diverse cities in Asia, with a demography that includes predominantly Malay, Chinese, and Indian residents.  This issue then is of a dozen diverse  local men who are introduced through intimate 

Some of the texts in the Kuala Lumpur issue include: Sam Z’s introduction to a that archetypical gay experience, the sauna, detailing the excitement, the fear, the lust, and the disappointment; Gems A’s ode to how rare and beautiful it is when a trans man can find a partner who isn’t fixated only on ‘the equipment’ underneath the clothes, reminding us that trans visibility is too often accompanied by a fetishisation that renders the person within still invisible;

Elska Kuala Lumpur’ is 196 pages. It is sold in select retailers around the world or from the Elska Magazine website in a classic print format or in an electronic version. A companion e-zine ‘Elska Kuala Lumpur’ is also available exclusively from the website, featuring behind the scene stales, outtakes, and other bonus content not seen in the main magazine. A list of stockists and details of the subscription service can also be found on the Elska website:www.elskamagazine.com.