Will "Milk"'s sour reception on Asian TV lead to positive changes?

Dustin Lance Black and Sean Penn were silenced in Asia

On Monday we told you about the censorship of the rebroadcast of the Oscar cast in India (both Dustin Lance Black and Sean Penn's speeches were scrubbed to remove any reference to the words "gay and lesbian").

It turns out that it happened all throughout Asia, thanks to the satellite TV service STAR, which is owned by ... wait for it ... Rupert Murdoch. Color me surprised.

Needless to say, there was outrage among Asia's gay groups, who are demanding answers, and not the lame one they were given by a spokeswoman:

Jannie Poon, STAR's Hong Kong-based spokeswoman, stressed that the company had no intention of upsetting any viewers, but said it has "a responsibility to take the sensitivities and guidelines of all our markets into consideration."

The least they could have done was cover their tracks better. Just muting the speeches when certain words were said was a rather blatant slap in the face. It might have seemed less offensive if they had cut to Spaghetti Cat whenever the word "gay" was used (or the Asian equivalent ... Fried Rice Cat).

If there's a silver lining with all of this nonsense, it's that the gay voices in Asia are refusing to be silenced, and hopefully will grow louder.