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Mahathir’s Malaysia accused of ‘state-sponsored homophobia’ after LGBT crackdown

The new government’s first 100 days in power have been marked by increased discrimination, harassment and violent hate crime against the LGBT community

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Mahathir Mohamad’s election as prime minister was supposed to usher in a new era, but the discrimination against the LGBT community has only become worse. Photo: Bloomberg
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In the early hours of Saturday, the police and government officials raided a small nightclub in Kuala Lumpur.

The venue, Blue Boy, was known to be popular with the LGBT community, but for 30 years had been left alone by the authorities. Until the weekend. Twenty men were detained and ordered into counselling for “illicit behaviour” by the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department of Malaysia (JAKIM).

Government minister Khalid Samad later released a statement on the motivations behind the raid. “Hopefully this initiative can mitigate the LGBT culture from spreading into our society,” he said.

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It sent a clear signal to the LGBT community. Thilaga Sulathireh, co-founder of transgender rights group Justice For Sisters, says: “We are under attack in an unprecedented way.”

Just two days before the raid, a transgender woman was brutally beaten on the street in Seremban while seven others watched. The attack left her with broken ribs, a broken backbone and a ruptured spleen.

In Mahathir’s Malaysia, no gay rights and no free speech

In the same week, a sharia court ordered a lesbian couple to be caned after they were caught having sex in a car, the first time in years such a punishment had been handed out in Malaysia. The judge said it was “a lesson and reminder to not just the two of you, but the members of society”.
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