Recently, Marhamah Rusdi, the deputy minister in the prime minister’s office responsible for religious affairs, announced that the government has directed that the term “LGBT” be discontinued and replaced with “deviant culture” or “budaya songsang”.
Amnesty International Malaysia’s Campaigner, Qistina Johari has responded: “We strongly condemn this appalling decision by the government. When public officials label LGBTI people as ‘deviant’ they are not upholding morality – they are legitimising hate and discrimination against a highly vulnerable group.
“Words from those in power carry weight and real-world consequences,” she said. “Use of such hateful terminology legitimises violence and discrimination against LGBTI people in Malaysia. Government leaders should never weaponize language against marginalised communities.
“The past weeks and months have seen an alarming rise in human rights violations against LGBTI people in Malaysia. We urge the government to reverse this reckless decision, and end its harmful attacks against LGBTI people immediately,” Qistina added.
Background
On 26 February, Marhamah said that the government will discontinue the use of the term LGBT which will instead be referred to as “deviant culture” in public discourse and on social media platforms with immediate effect.
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The minister stated that frequent use of the term LGBT could cause related content to proliferate via algorithms and described measures by the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to monitor and report content they deem in breach of legal or religious norms.
The statement comes amid an increasingly hostile environment for LGBTI people in Malaysia.
In recent months, the authorities have cancelled events and carried out raids against venues perceived to be linked to the LGBTI community, while civil society groups have raised concerns about censorship and discrimination. – Amnesty Malaysia
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