The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dainius Pūras, during his country visit to Malaysia between November and December 2014 expressed concerns over the “so-called “corrective therapies” practiced by state agencies. In fact, a few countries, including Malta and parts of Canada have introduced laws to ban conversion therapy given the harm it has caused not only on LGBTIQ persons, but also the people around them. There are many forms of rehabilitation, reparative or conversion therapy, including medical and religious methods, all of which are harmful. Despite claims of ‘menyantuni’ or ‘politely approaching’ LGBT persons, many documented cases have shown that such attempts resulted in an invasion of privacy, increase of lack of personal security and safety, increase of targeting and harassment of persons based on gender expression and actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity, increase of isolation, all of which can have severe long term impact on the students academic performance, health and well-being.Ĭonversion, reparative or rehabilitation and efforts to change sexual orientation and gender identity have been rejected by all major national mental health organizations due to the lack of evidence that support the efficacy of these efforts or therapies, and its harmful impact.
We are extremely concerned by the overall harmful impact of such programmes, which aim to change one’s sexual orientation and gender identity using a dakwah (missionary ) approach.
In March earlier this year, USM also released a poster and short video competition inviting submissions on ‘ menyantuni golongan LGBT’ (evangelizing with the intention to change one’s sexual orientation and gender identity) open to students of USM and the general public. We, the undersigned, strongly object the ‘ Back to the Fitrah: Menyantuni LGBT Kembali ke Jalan Allah’ forum slated to take place on 24th March 2018 in University of Science Malaysia (USM) featuring two panelists, and the overall trend of increasing anti-LGBT programmes in educational institutions.
Tan Sri Razali Ismail – Chairperson, SUHAKAMĭatuk Paul Low – Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dato’ Suriani bt Dato’ Ahmad – Secretary-General, Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development Dato’ Sri Alias Bin Haji Ahmad – Secretary-General, Ministry of Education Malaysia
0 kommentar(er)
