Scapegoating queers: Pink-blocking as state strategy

Malaysia’s ‘democratic transition’ in May 2018, when a challenger coalition ousted the long-dominant incumbent coalition, raised hopes of a new political climate, more respectful of civil liberties. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Malaysians shared that sentiment. A growing number even protested openly for political liberalization as part of an umbrella movement for electoral reform.

Within months of the election, several high-profile incidents peppered a series of attacks on queer spaces and both state-sponsored and private harassment of LGBTQ Malaysians – even as Malaysia ticked upwards in global metrics of ‘democracy’. Attention to LGBTQ peoples and issues remains high in Malaysia, driven far less by queer activism than anti-LGBTQ agitation, in line with a government-led, base-ingratiating ‘pink-blocking’ agenda, rooted in both ‘Asian Values’ and religious discourse. Here as elsewhere – and as ever-more evident, well beyond Southeast Asia – queer identities and acts offer a handy diversion and scapegoat.

In Muslim-majority, increasingly Islamist Malaysia, anti-queer policies and policing affirm commitment to the presumed moral high ground of Malay-Muslim rights: pink-blocking offers a way to build coveted electoral support. This strategy contrasts with ‘pink-washing’ strategies in countries lacking a similarly socially conservative, substantial base and/or competitive elections, and/or when there are political incentives to appear gay-friendly on the global stage.

Speaker & chair biographies

Prof. Meredith Weiss is a professor of political science at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY) and founding director of the SUNY/CUNY Southeast Asia Consortium. She specializes in comparative politics, with a focus on Southeast Asia, particularly Malaysia and Singapore. Her research centres on questions of social mobilization, civil society, parties and elections, governance, and drivers of political stasis or change.

Dr. Sharmila Parmanand is an Assistant Professor in Gender, Development and Globalisation at the LSE Department of Gender Studies and Associate Academic at the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre.

*Banner photo by Raphael Renter | @raphi_rawr on Unsplash

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