Is faith so fragile it can be threatened by rainbows?

We live in an age of diminished responsibility, a human world heedless of consequence – from the man who shoots five of his neighbours because he was asked to keep the noise (of gunfire) down, to the oil executives around the world who continue to give disinformation on the severity of the climate crisis.

So it should come as no surprise when the government acts in ways that endanger the people of Malaysia and create an environment where hatred and violence can fester.

This language may sound extreme for an action as ludicrous and apparently innocuous as banning rainbow watch straps. But don’t be fooled. It is a signal; it is a sign. By raiding 11 separate shops in various states, the authorities sent a clear message – that expressing solidarity with people who are facing oppression is a crime.

More, it sends a message that not only is the LGBT community some sort of menace, but so is anything that supports them, including incidental weather events. And when something is dangerous, there are apparently justifications for violence, vilification, exclusion and hate.

The LGBT community in Malaysia is already living with fear. Whether it is fear of being ‘outed’ to employers and friends, fear of what will happen in the afterlife, or the fear of violence because you are known to be ‘LGBT’, the fear is real and often inescapable.

Now that fear has been legitimised by the state. Because if a watch strap can prejudice morality, what might a person or two be capable of?

What happens next is an easy script to write. It’s a script written against marginalised communities the world over, perfected by German Nazis in the 1930s.

You vilify and dehumanise a group of people, people who were previously family, community or friends. They, the demonised, start to occupy a disproportionate place in your imagination, in your rhetoric, in your nightmares.

And then there is violence. It could be at a music concert, it could be a coordinated attack on bars or nightclubs, or it could be a spate of murders or beatings.

You weren’t involved. You can pretend that your hands are clean. The blood never came near. But you set the scene. You wrote the lines. You put together the props that made the violence all but inevitable. Or you just turned your back as the film was running.

What’s more difficult is to write an alternate ending or more to the point, to perform the alternate ending – one where we recognise that difference is to be celebrated – or where we can say, I don’t like it…

But I don’t want to live in a world where children commit suicide because they don’t feel safe in their homes or their bodies.

I don’t want to live in a world where the police can enter my bedroom to check that I’m having state-sanctioned sex, if any sex at all.

I don’t want to live in a world where a future prime minister can be blackmailed and imprisoned on the smell of a dirty mattress.

Instead, in this script, we can all say, I want to live in a world where love is celebrated, even if I don’t understand all the ways in which love works, where faith isn’t so fragile that it can be threatened by a watch strap.

The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.

AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama

1. Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
2. Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
3. Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
4. Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
5. Lawan rasuah dan kronisme

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