For gay Malaysian refugee in UK ‘you have to live authentically – you’re saving yourself’
Warren Hallett talks of an abusive childhood in Malaysia, making a new life and his pride at giving back by volunteering for LGBTQ charities
“Growing up in a Muslim family, I was told that liking another person of the same sex was haram,” says Warren Hallett of how Islam forbids homosexuality, considering it sinful. “My religion teacher said [gay people] were going to hell.
“I knew being me was wrong, but I couldn’t change it. And because I couldn’t tell anyone, the only way to live was to hide everything. I prayed every night, wishing I would wake up ‘straight’, ‘normal’, like everyone else.”
Born in Batu Pahat, a small town in Malaysia, where Islam is the state religion, the 53-year-old has since given up his Arabic birth name, married another man and become a policy adviser to the British Home Office.
In 2000, Hallett was the first asylum seeker to be granted refugee status in the UK on the grounds of being LGBTQ – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer/questioning.
To mark Pride Month – a global celebration of the LGBTQ community and culture every June – Hallett recalled for the Post how being a gay Malaysian Muslim left him homeless, caused him to turn to sex work and led to two failed suicide attempts.
For him, and many others, the path to pride was paved with pain and prejudice.