{"id":10633,"date":"2018-08-06T18:44:18","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T12:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=10633"},"modified":"2018-08-06T18:44:18","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T12:59:18","slug":"malaysias-lgbti-community-just-want-equal-rights-pms-daughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/malaysias-lgbti-community-just-want-equal-rights-pms-daughter\/","title":{"rendered":"Malaysia’s LGBTI community just want equal rights – PM’s daughter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kathmandu (Pahichan) August 6 – Human rights campaigner\u00a0Marina Mahathir<\/strong>\u00a0said that the LGBTI community in Malaysia \u2018just wants the same [rights] as everyone else\u2019.<\/p>\n

She also\u00a0called for more education and understanding of LGBTI rights in Malaysia, Free Malaysia Today reported.<\/p>\n

Marina is the daughter of Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohammed, and a well-known human rights campaigner.<\/p>\n

\u2018You don\u2019t have to approve of their lifestyle [\u2026] but you cannot deny the fact that they are humans entitled to the same dignity stipulated in every religion, Islam included,\u2019\u00a0she said during the opening of a transgender shelter in Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n

\u2018They are human beings,\u2019 she added. \u2018You can\u2019t just divide human rights for some humans and take it away for others. LGBTs are citizens and voters.\u2019<\/p>\n

Marina\u2019s message of equality<\/h2>\n

Her comments were largely directed at Malaysia\u2019s new government, Pakatan Harapan (PH).<\/p>\n

Led by Mahatir, PH won a shock victory in Malaysia\u2019s general elections in May, ousting\u00a0the coalition which had been in power for over 60 years,\u00a0Barisan Nasional.\u00a0Following the win, Marina\u2019s father became the oldest world leader by becoming prime minster for a second time at the age of 92.<\/p>\n

\u2018Now, I\u2019m not from the government. But I feel with the change of government on May 9, a lot of hope is riding now on PH,\u2019 Marina said. \u2018But the government is being run by new people, many of whom are inexperienced in running the country. For 61 years, we only had one group in power anyway.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018The culture in Malaysia has not changed yet, even with PH\u2019s good intentions. So we can\u2019t be slack and stop our efforts to bring up issues from the marginalised communities,\u2019 she added.<\/p>\n

Billed as reformers, the new government has signaled that it will focus on building human rights, including for the LGBTI community. But almost three months after the election, this has yet to materialise in any real substantive form.<\/p>\n

LGBTI rights: a divisive issue<\/h2>\n

LGBTI rights remain a contentious issue in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

A majority of Malaysians believe that homosexuality should not be socially accepted, and the\u00a0country has\u00a0bans on \u2018positive\u2019 portrayals of LGBTI people on television and in film, and recently\u00a0blocked access to HIV and LGBTI websites<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In July, an\u00a0LGBTI activist resigned as the press officer for a government minister<\/a>\u00a0after an influx of threats and public outcry over him being openly gay.<\/p>\n

However, also in July\u00a0Malaysia\u2019s Minister for Religious Affairs\u00a0that the\u00a0strict enforcement of transgender sex workers had failed, and that more proactive measure were needed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copy :\u00a0https:\/\/www.gaystarnews.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathmandu (Pahichan) August 6 – Human rights campaigner\u00a0Marina Mahathir\u00a0said that the LGBTI community in Malaysia \u2018just wants the same [rights] as everyone else\u2019.
\nShe also\u00a0called for more education and understanding of LGBTI rights in Malaysia, Free Malaysia Today reported.
\nMarina is the daughter of Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohammed, and a well-known human rights campaigner.
\n\u2018You don\u2019t have to approve of their lifestyle [\u2026] but you cannot deny the fact that they are humans entitled to the same dignity stipulated in every religion, Islam included,\u2019\u00a0she said during the opening of a transgender shelter …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":10634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,621,490,11],"tags":[971,502],"class_list":["post-10633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights","category-news","category-slider","category-world","tag-homosexuality","tag-lgbti"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10635,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10633\/revisions\/10635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}