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A Malaysian man Thursday won the country s first legal challenge against Islamic laws banning gay sex, a victory hailed as monumental progress in combating persecution of the LGBTQI+ community.
He was charged in an Islamic court in 2019 with attempting to have intercourse against the order of nature , and several others in the same case have already pleaded guilty and were caned as a punishment.
Critics say the climate is worsening for the gay community in Muslim-majority Malaysia, with government officials often speaking out against LGBTQI+ people.
In Thursday s landmark case, the legislation banning gay sex was enacted in Selangor state, outside Kuala Lumpur.
A recent case in Osaka, Japan about hair color highlights the risks of imposing social conformity. Pressure to conform is something the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students also know much about.
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Protesters gather outside a mosque in Shah Alam near Kuala Lumpur on 4 November 2011 to urge the Malaysian government to give recognition to the LGBT+ community. (MOHD RASFAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Malaysia’s government has been urged to renounce a cabinet minister’s proposal to increase criminal penalties against LGBT+ people.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the attempt to strengthen criminal penalties against LGBT+ Malaysians is the latest in a series of moves to cement an anti-LGBT+ and anti-human rights stance under the prime minister’s government.
Deputy minister for religious affairs Ahmad Marzuk Shaary has proposed amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (Act 355) which would allow state courts to enact harsher sentences for same-sex conduct than the current maximum sentence permitted under federal law.