Malaysian state’s gay ‘rehab’ centre plan ‘amounts to torture’, LGBTQ activists say

Johor state is spending US$86,000 on a rehabilitation centre to pressure ‘deviant’ people to ‘get back on the right path’

Rights groups have slammed the proposal as ‘not backed by evidence’ and warn of the long-term impact of conversion therapy efforts on LGBTQ people’s mental health

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The rainbow flag at #WomensMarchMY in Malaysia in 2019. Homosexuality is frowned upon in Malaysian society, with more than 82 per cent of the population against same-sex marriage. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 6:00pm, 30 Nov 2023Updated: 7:13pm, 30 Nov 2023

Gay rights activists have panned Malaysia’s Johor state government over a plan to establish a “rehab” centre for people in same-sex relations, calling the widely debunked and ridiculed method to change sexual orientation a “human rights violation” which breaches the constitution.

The furore comes as Islam – Malaysia’s state religion – is increasingly politicised by parties in competition to parade their piety in front of a Malay Muslim electorate who have been instrumental in the last two elections.

Speaking at the Johor state assembly on Wednesday, the state’s Islamic Religious Affairs Committee chairman Mohd Fared Mohd Khalid said 400,000 ringgit (US$86,000) has been allocated for the rehabilitation centre, which was expected to open in July next year.

“This rehabilitation centre is established … for them to get back on the right path,” Mohd Fared told the assembly.

A worshipper at a mosque in Kuala Lumpur. The constitution grants each of Malaysia’s 13 states the power to prosecute Muslims who breach religious offences, with same-sex relations being one of them. Photo: AP

Aside from same-sex individuals, Mohd Fared boasted that the centre would also house “those who are deemed deviant” from the state-prescribed religious orthodoxy, which includes the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and Baha’i among some 42 groups, the state’s religious affairs body has identified as “deviant”.