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.
Just the other day, I saw a comment on Lemmy lamenting how artists skip over Malaysia for their world tours. This should make it very clear why that is the case.
Good on the band, but it just makes me think more people should make an effort to fully boycott all countries with regressive laws like this. Embargo them.
More like 1675.
Malaysia needs to loosen up.
Do you think, maybe, if they hadn't stopped the festival, that it wouldn't have become an international news story? Streisand Effect strikes again!
I hope it was one hell of a kiss, at least.
i think the one person in the article makes a good point about how this sort of thing can make it more difficult for lgbt people actually living in malaysia, but overall i’d say i think that this is a super great thing overall. it’s ridiculous and terrible how intolerant and stuck in the past some countries are.
I'm sure Adam Friedland is behind this.
For some reason the BBC has an article on this news saying that 1975 is acting as "white saviour"...
WTF. Is the BBC insane?
Its the Malaysian government oppressing its people and they are just artists trying to protest.
Should we respect laws that deny people basic human rights?
hahahahahaha that's such an ass take dog
everyone should abso-fucking-lutely protest against any laws that discriminate against consenting adults' sexualities, as it's literally a human rights violation
if a country gets their titties and/or testies in a twist cause of a wittle gay kiss, but would be totally fine if a straight couple did the same shit, then they deserve constant reminders that they're on the wrong side of history
edit 1: the fuck is a countey? meant country edit 2: thank you mods :) for context, original comment was arguing that they should respect the laws of the country
Gay people in Malaysia are imprisoned for up to 20 years. This is not a law that deserves respect, and anyone who believes otherwise is a monster.
I will concede that probably they should not have even bothered playing in Malaysia at all. However, protesting garbage laws is the right thing to do. Slavery was legal in the U.S. at one point. It was illegal(even in the North, where slavery itself was banned) to help escaped slaves evade the authorities. What I'm saying here is, some laws don't deserve to be "respected". This is an evil law, one that should be mocked, scorned, and flaunted.
I will concede that probably they should not have even bothered playing in Malaysia at all.
on the other hand: playing has highlighted the irrational response of Malaysia's government and regressive laws, so in the end i'd say it worked out pretty well
Artists United Against Apartheid didn't play gigs in South African to protest the situation there.
If they had, it would have been a degree of complicity with the regime.
TBH, every major artist should loudly express that they are deliberately skipping playing in Malaysia for specific reasons.
