PETALING JAYA: A leading LGBT-interest magazine has named the Pakatan Harapan government in its list of the “10 biggest homophobes and transphobes of 2018” for its “persecution” of the community.
The Advocate, considered to be the oldest and largest publication for LGBT stories in the US, published an article on its website last week.
“The entire government of Malaysia gets a Phobie Award for its persecution of LGBT people,” wrote Trudy Ring, The Advocate’s copy chief, using a slang term for transphobia or homophobia.
“Malaysians elected a new national coalition government in May and, over the next few months, the coalition ramped up its homophobia and transphobia in an effort to gain popular support.
“The action included the arrest of about 20 men in a raid on a gay bar and the caning of two women who attempted to have sex with each other.”
In August, two local women in Terengganu were convicted of attempting to have sex. The two Muslim women were later sentenced to six strokes of the cane and fined RM3,300 each.
Later that month, police and government officials raided a small nightclub in Kuala Lumpur popular among the LGBT community. Twenty men were detained and ordered to undergo counselling for “illicit behaviour”.
Before that, a minister ordered the removal of portraits of two LGBT activists from a public photography exhibition in Penang.
All three incidents led to a global outcry and international scrutiny of Malaysia’s stance on LGBT issues.
Malaysia maintains sodomy laws inherited from the British. Social attitudes towards LGBTs are generally shaped by Islam, the official religion in Malaysia.
Others in The Advocate’s list included non-profit Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented a bakery owner who refused to create a wedding cake for a gay couple in the US, “right-wing Catholics” and the Texas Republican Party. - FMT
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