This LGBT band is using music to fight Malaysian discrimination
- Four-member punk group Shh...Diam! want to give LGBT+ people encouragement and change Malaysia’s skewed perceptions
- Lead singer is a 34-year-old transgender man
With songs like I Woke Up Gay and Lonely Lesbian, LGBT punk band Shh...Diam! are making a rare splash in Malaysia, using music to fight long-running discrimination.
The four-member group are a rarity in a country where gay and transgender issues are often seen as taboo, cross-dressing is illegal and sodomy is banned under a British colonial-era law.
Its name, which means “shut up” in the Malay language, is meant to mock critics for seeking to silence the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.
“We never intentionally set ourselves up as an LGBT band,” lead singer Faris Saad, a 34-year-old transgender man who began transitioning in 2014, says before a performance on the outskirts of the capital Kuala Lumpur. “But eventually your life experiences make their way to your music so you can’t help it. You’ve got to be honest – so that’s what we are with our music.”
Several incidents in the Muslim-majority nation this year have stoked concerns among campaigners that the climate for the country’s LGBT community is deteriorating further.