Taking advantage of the recent sex video issue, some corporate companies are promoting their brands by creating a scene similar to Haziq's confession video, and using derogatory words and insinuations of homosexual acitivities.
After being reproached by a human rights defender, one of the companies removed its advertisement and apologised yesterday.
Chong Yee Shan, a human rights activist from Diversity Malaysia, condemned two companies, namely Adabi Consumer and Carput, for reinforcing homophobia in society and gaining cheap publicity on social media platform Facebook.
She said commercial tricks that made use of homosexuals as a joke were censurable misconduct and show shameless behaviour.
"Adabi Consumer used it to promote their kunyit (turmeric), and 'kunyit' is actually a derogatory term to refer anal sex or being gay in the Malay society.
"Meanwhile, the roadside assistance company Carput used a similar trick by showing a man sitting in a brown sofa, and used the term 'dicucuk belakang ' (penetrated from behind) in their advertisement, which also insinuates anal sex," she explained when contacted by Malaysiakini yesterday.
Chong stressed that these commercial tricks not only reinforce the social stigma and discrimination against LGBT in Malaysia but also worsened the buldlying and violence against the minority group.
"The public will learn these derogatory terms from social media. They will think that it's okay to make these jokes and violence against the sexual minority may become more frequent," she said.
Chong said there have been cases where transgenders were beaten to death and teenagers died resulting from school bullying or they committed suicide because of depression, due to the ignorance of the society.
"Why was the feminine teen Nhaveen (picture) bullied and died (as a result)? Yes, he was killed by all these shameless business people who take advantage of society's ignorance," she said.
T. Nhaveen was a teen bully victim in Pulau Pinang who was brutally assaulted by his former schoolmates one night in his way home in June 2017 and passed away on the evening of June 15, 2017.
Today, June 15, is the second anniversary of his death.
After contacted by Malaysiakini, the roadside assistance company deleted its post and issued an apology.
"Thank you for the call and highlighting the issue to us. We were just notified that there are members of the public who were uncomfortable with the post, and we now realise that it was not the best thing to do.
"We didn't mean to offend anyone, and hence, we have taken down the post on all social media platforms and (we have) learned a valuable lesson.
"It is not our intention to offend anyone, and we truly apologise if anyone has been hurt in any way by our actions," said Carput founder Eugene Tan.
Meanwhile, Malaysiakini has attempted contacted Adabi Consumer via phone and email since yesterday. The company has not responded to the request for comment. - Mkini
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