THE Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) community in Malaysia has always had a difficult time being accepted as part of Malaysian society bureaucratically and socially due to religious and cultural sensitivities to the point where they have to keep their identity a secret to avoid persecution.
A recent study by travel website Asher & Lyric in determining the best and worst countries for transgender people in 2023, placed Malaysia as the second worst out of 203 countries.
According to the study, 203 Best (& Worst) Countries for Trans Rights in 2023, revealed the data for the transgender community’s rights was based on over “100 hours” of research reviewing all 203 countries’ “individual laws and gathered data from a variety of trusted international sources to create the definitive ‘Global Trans Rights Index’”.
According to the ranking chart, Guyana ranks first as the worst country for transgender individuals, followed by Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Malawi, and United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The study also shared that in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Malawi, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), transgender people severely lack employee, discrimination, and criminalisation protections.
In the ranking chart, the transgender community in Malaysia was said to “face obstacles” and a subject of police targets.
Besides that, the factors provided for the study included:
1. Worker protections
2. Protection against discrimination
3. Criminalisation of violence (against trans people)
4. Transgender legal identity laws
5. Trans murder rates
Based on these factors determining how safe the country is for the transgender community, Malaysia was graded “F” on the scale of A being the highest and F the lowest, and -105 points in the Global Trans Rights Index.
