Malaysia halts music festival after same-sex kiss by UK band The 1975
Malaysia's government halted a music festival in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, a day after the frontman of British pop rock band The 1975 kissed a male bandmate onstage and criticised the country's anti-LGBT laws.
"Matt Healy undoubtedly just made it worse for queer Malaysians who actually live here, and have to face the consequences because we all know our politicians are gonna use this to further their agenda," Carmen Rose, a Malaysian drag queen and performer, said on Twitter.
No, he didn't make it worse. The government is making it worse
Sounds like another country I can add to the “do not visit do not support” list.
As a Malaysian, please do. I am ashamed by my own government.
i've added so many to that list that i no longer want to travel abroad.
Alternative text: Meme image from the movie Zoolander, "You know what we have to do now? Kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia."
I'd say that's pretty on brand for Matty.
typical white people thinking they’re the world saviour
I think the people at the festival are mostly going to remember that their government is a buzzkill.
Why shouldn't they protest bigotry? They have a platform to do it from. Some random gay couple kissing in Malaysia is a lot less impactful.
Malaysian here 👋🏻
Honestly we have been having such a hard time getting international acts to the country (we have religious radicals that ate strongly opposing these shows).
It was only recently with a tough government swap that things are starting to get better - things were starting to open up.
Less than half a year since things got better, this clown decided to run his mouth, insulting the government and fueling these religious radicals with more reasons shows should be banned.
Honestly, good fcking job, 2 steps forward, 1 step back. You fcked us all.
Two steps forward, one step back, so it’s a step forward, yet he “fucked you all”?
If one side is a bigoted regime and the other side is speaking out against them, and you’re against the side speaking out against them, what does that make you?
Maybe listen to people from the actual country that understand the political conditions? They know what is useful and what is not in their current situation better than you do.
This isn't a game where shouting for one side the loudest and most often magically wins, unlike americans like to believe. Doing so at the wrong time gets you cracked down upon, or worse it gets lgbt people killed.
People from the west go to these countries and make these statements completely oblivious to the fact that they're harming the local efforts of lgbt activists within the country who are acting more strategically with a better understanding of what will and will not advance their position in the current climate they have.
history has proven that there is nothing you can do to please religious radicals and cow-towing to their demands will only backfire for you.
Maybe you guys shouldn't invite queer performers if you've got so many problems with them?
Malaysian here.
The clowns are the ones in our government. Just slightly less clownish than the previous govt, that's all
I wanted to reply to you but the thread is hidden. I just wanted to say that I had hopes that the smaller audience could detect nuance but clearly Lemmy people are as arrogant as Reddit.
Thanks 1975 for bringing to light that Malaysia should be ashamed about being backwards. But a lot of people will suddenly feel they need to vote Malay-first parties when they didn't before, because politics literally forgot LGBTQ+ exists. Malays-first parties is like Whites-first groups, to you who look at us like we're minority creatures squabbling over words.
I hope the government continues eating nasi lemak and sleeping during parliament. Their laziness will be very useful here. Although it would be nice if one of them says something like "People are people". 1 Malaysia should include LGBTQ+. Here's hoping, anyway.
People from the west don't understand how much more different bringing progressive thought to SEA is. Nobody here really cares about listening to the people who are actually affected. You can't burst in with freedom flags. We don't have that kind of freedom of speech. Don't provoke them into taking my freedom away.
Here's hoping the gov forgets this and moves on instead of putting down any dangerous laws.
