In a historic first, a Malaysian man won a court challenge against Islam’s ban on gay sex. In 2019, the man was charged with attempting to have “intercourse against the order of nature.”
“This is historic. This is monumental for LGBT+ rights in Malaysia,” Numan Afifi, the founder of LGBT+ rights group Pelangi Campaign told AFP. Paling Campaign wasn’t involved in the lawsuit. In a unanimous decision, Malaysia’s top court ruled that Islamic provision used the man was unconstitutional and the same cannot be enacted into law. The man’s lawyer said the ruling also indicates that the case against the man, filed in 2019 should be dropped.
The South Asian nation is known to up its crackdown on the gay community, say LGBT activists. There has been a rise in arrests and punishments ranging from caning to jailing.
Though same-sex acts are illegal in Malaysia, convictions have been rare.
Under British colonial-era law, that bans gay sex, known as Section 377, gay Malaysian men can face up to 20 years in prison if caught engaging in what is deemed as ‘unnatural sex’. In a country where the majority of the population is Muslim, gay people aren’t open about their sexuality.
