“I Don’t Want to Change Myself”

Anti-LGBT Conversion Practices, Discrimination, and Violence in Malaysia

H U M A N
R I G H T S
W A T C H
Glossary................................................................................................................................ i

Summary............................................................................................................................... 1

Methodology.........................................................................................................................5

I. Background ....................................................................................................................... 6

II. State Rhetoric on Changing Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Malaysia ........... 18

III. Policing of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity........................................................35

IV. Discrimination and Violence ......................................................................................... 48

VI. Human Rights Obligations under Malaysian and International Law ............................... 57

VII. Recommendations ....................................................................................................... 68

Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 71

Annex I: Laws Criminalizing Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Malaysia ...............72

Annex II: Universal Perioappedic Review (UPR) .................................................................. 84

Annex III: Letter to the Malaysian Ministry of Health ......................................................... 86

Annex IV: Letter to the Prime Minister of Malaysia ............................................................. 89

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“I Don’t Want to Change Myself”
Anti-LGBT Conversion Practices, Discrimination, and Violence in Malaysia

Officials under successive Malaysian governments have routinely denounced lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people,
and endorsed discredited conversion practices that seek to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. The criminalization of
same-sex activity and gender diversity, as well as persistent anti-LGBT rhetoric and action by state officials, has fostered an environment
that encourages widespread discrimination against LGBT people.

Drawing on interviews with 73 LGBT people in Malaysia as well as advocates, journalists, and service providers, “I Don’t Want to Change
Myself” documents how anti-LGBT rhetoric and policy jeopardize the human rights of LGBT people in Malaysia. This persistent hostility
threatens the rights to health and privacy and freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, and puts LGBT people at
risk of discrimination, arbitrary detention, and torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

The report calls on the Malaysian government to immediately stop sponsoring, funding and otherwise supporting conversion practices,
and instead, in consultation with LGBT community groups, educate police, judges, and other public officials on gender, diversity, and
human rights. At the same time, the government should repeal laws that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender
identity.

An illustration depicts queer people in Malaysia,

who face widespread societal pressure to change
their sexual orientation or gender identity.
© 2020 Row Yow

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