PERSISTENT discrimination and attempts by the Government to “change” lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people “threaten” their rights, a new three-year study found.
Human rights groups Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Justice for Sisters (JFS) said Government officials have fostered a “hostile climate” in which LGBT and gender-diverse people face discrimination and punishment due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
In a joint report, the two groups examined how LGBT people’s rights are undermined through conversion practices that seek to change people’s sexual orientation or gender identity, criminal penalties and anti-LGBT rhetoric by public officials.
“Malaysia’s current rehabilitation and criminalisation approaches to LGBT people are based neither on rights nor evidence,” JFS co-founder Thilaga Sulathireh said in a statement launching the ‘I Don’t Want to Change Myself’: Anti-LGBT Conversion Practices, Discrimination and Violence in Malaysia report yesterday (Aug 10).
“The programmes, while framed as compassionate, internalise societal and structural discrimination, besides fomenting self-hatred among LGBT and gender diverse persons and hostility among the rest of the population.”
Thilaga cited the Government-funded “retreats” or “spiritual camps” under the mukhayyam programme, which aim to “rehabilitate” or “change” LGBT people through methods supposedly recommended in Islam.
According to official data, as of June 2021, at least 1,733 people have attended these programmes.
Such programmes “jeopardise the equality, dignity and rights” of those who attend them, HRW and JFS said, besides sending a “dangerous message” to the wider public that LGBT people can and should change their sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
“Only part of the story”
HRW and JFS also noted that the Penal Code punishes oral and anal sex with up to 20 years in prison, as well as mandatory whipping.
Each state and the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya also have syariah codes in place that typically criminalise same-sex activity as well as gender non-conformity through laws that disallow instances of “a man posing as a woman.”
But the Government’s use of the law to criminally prosecute LGBT people is only “part of the story in Malaysia”, according to HRW senior LGBT rights researcher Kyle Knight.
“Pervasive antipathy toward sexual and gender diversity influences law enforcement, judicial outcomes, family behavior and public discourse in media toward and about LGBT people,” he said.
Besides that, HRW and JFS noted that the Government has, in recent years, shut down events and programmes designed to promote LGBT rights, and censored content about LGBT people in music and films.
Universities too have “stifled” LGBT awareness-raising programmes and provided platforms and support for anti-LGBT messages and programming, they noted.
HRW and JFS added that LGBT people and activists they interviewed said the environment in Malaysia was becoming increasingly “hostile” for them.
They quoted an unnamed activist in Kuala Lumpur saying: “We are regressing, in many aspects, as the conservative strand of Islam becomes dominant in shaping the politics and policies that dictate the lives of the country’s citizens, including LGBT persons.”
The activist also noted that transgender persons were often made scapegoats by “ultra-conservative and nationalist” politicians, while societal homophobia and transphobia have proven to be a “convenient” way to divert public attention away from the Government’s “failure” to address pressing social issues and rising inequalities.
Sajat’s case
HRW and JFS cited the case of transgender cosmetics entrepreneur Nur Sajat to illustrate the extent to which authorities are “willing to go” to enforce the “rigid and discriminatory gender norms” by which they compel all Malaysians to abide.
In a high-profile case last year, the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) issued a warrant for her arrest and announced it had mobilised 122 religious affairs officers to hunt her down after she failed to appear in court to answer criminal charges for “insulting Islam” based on her attire.
Months later when Nur Sajat resurfaced in Thailand, Putrajaya sought her extradition, insisting that Sajat need not worry about the massive deployment of law enforcement and diplomatic wrangling to force her back to Malaysia, saying they were intended not to “punish” but to “educate” her.
After a public outcry in her defence, Thailand allowed Sajat to stay in the country under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She eventually received asylum in Australia.
Recommendations for lawmakers
Moving forward, HRW and JFS said lawmakers at the federal and state levels should decriminalise same-sex conduct and gender diversity.
Public officials should also immediately stop supporting programs that seek to “rehabilitate” LGBT people, and publicly affirm the equality and dignity of LGBT people instead.
To more fully protect the human rights of LGBT people, lawmakers should further take steps to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, allow transgender people to update their identity documents and address bullying against LGBT students and other vulnerable groups in schools.
Besides that, the Government must stop sponsoring, funding and supporting conversion practices. Instead, it should, in consultation with LGBT community groups, educate public officials such as the police, judges and civil servants on gender, diversity and human rights.
The Government should also promptly repeal laws that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, HRW and JFS added.
Conducted from 2018 to 2021, HRW and JFS’s study entailed 73 interviews with LGBT people in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and five other states, along with journalists, human rights practitioners, lawyers and other informed sources. – Aug 11, 2022
Main photo credit: NDTV
