Growing Persecution of LGBTQs in Malaysia
A once-tolerant society turns on those who are different
By: Murray Hunter
As western society – and even Taiwan, which in 2018 legalized same-sex marriage – has progressively grown more tolerant of different modes of sexuality, a progressively less liberal Malaysia is driving many of its gays to feel they are trapped within their personal psychic prisons in which they must secretly maintain their sexual orientation clandestinely to avoid reprisals and ridicule.
For instance, in October authorities raided a Halloween party attended by members of the LGBT community, turning them over to Islamic religious authorities to be questioned amid concern on the part of human rights groups and activists over growing intolerance. There is great concern within the LGBTQ community that the newly appointed religious affairs minister, Mohd Na’im Mokhtar, intends to extend a Syariah Court measure pushed through in the waning days of Barisan Nasional rule, with crossdressing an offense and criminalizing males passing themselves off as female.
The issue of gayness – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer, or LGBTQ – has particularly come to the fore since the November 19 election that brought the Pakatan Harapan coalition to power along with its leader Anwar Ibrahim, who was imprisoned twice on sexual perversion charges that were widely regarded as trumped up in an attempt to vilify him…