Malaysia's government halted a music festival in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, a day after the frontman of British pop rock band The 1975 kissed a male bandmate onstage and criticised the country's anti-LGBT laws.
  • V ‎ ‎ @beehaw.orgEnglish
    47·
    11 months ago

    Just the other day, I saw a comment on Lemmy lamenting how artists skip over Malaysia for their world tours. This should make it very clear why that is the case.

  • Nechesh@beehaw.orgEnglish
    39·
    11 months ago

    Good on the band, but it just makes me think more people should make an effort to fully boycott all countries with regressive laws like this. Embargo them.

      • Nechesh@beehaw.orgEnglish
        9·
        11 months ago

        Regressive states should be boycotted too but fortunately the right to marriage has not been eroded in any state yet, although they are trying.

        • Pigeon@beehaw.orgEnglish
          6·
          11 months ago

          There was just a judge in the news for refusing to officiate a same-sex marriage. In many places it’s at the stage of being eroded, just not officially. Bigots are starting to feel like it’s safe to discriminate more blatantly than before.

          Even if this judge gets slapped down, cases like this put couples in the position of having to shop around for judges, and/or find time and funds for a lawyer, when they should by all rights be able to just celebrate like any other couple, and in the meantime they’re left temporarily without marriage rights for hospital visitation/medical decision making, taxes, and parentage.

          Also if either person or their child is trans there’s a whole nother pile of shite to deal with, particularly re. state laws like Florida’s that allow essentially legal kidnapping if a child or parent is trans. If you’re trans and have a child from a previous marriage, or if you have a trans child from a previous marriage, you could easily end up in a situation where state law gives precedence to your ex when it comes to parental rights, and I can easily see this being worse if the state also doesn’t want to recognize your new marriage/partner because gay.

          Edit: to clarify I think we’re not disagreeing actually, from what you said. I just wanted to elaborate on this.

          • Nechesh@beehaw.orgEnglish
            3·
            11 months ago

            Yea I think we’re on the same page. Bigots are emboldened right now and trying to take away rights. Things are definitely getting more difficult for LGBT people in some areas.

  • bbbhltz@beehaw.orgEnglish
    12·
    11 months ago

    Do you think, maybe, if they hadn’t stopped the festival, that it wouldn’t have become an international news story? Streisand Effect strikes again!

  • thumbtack@beehaw.orgEnglish
    7·
    11 months ago

    i think the one person in the article makes a good point about how this sort of thing can make it more difficult for lgbt people actually living in malaysia, but overall i’d say i think that this is a super great thing overall. it’s ridiculous and terrible how intolerant and stuck in the past some countries are.

  • sculd@beehaw.orgEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    For some reason the BBC has an article on this news saying that 1975 is acting as “white saviour”…

    WTF. Is the BBC insane?

    Its the Malaysian government oppressing its people and they are just artists trying to protest.

    • RileyIsBad (she/her)@beehaw.orgEnglish
      45·
      11 months ago

      hahahahahaha that’s such an ass take dog

      everyone should abso-fucking-lutely protest against any laws that discriminate against consenting adults’ sexualities, as it’s literally a human rights violation

      if a country gets their titties and/or testies in a twist cause of a wittle gay kiss, but would be totally fine if a straight couple did the same shit, then they deserve constant reminders that they’re on the wrong side of history

      edit 1: the fuck is a countey? meant country edit 2: thank you mods :) for context, original comment was arguing that they should respect the laws of the country

    • hamiltonicity@beehaw.orgEnglish
      43·
      11 months ago

      Gay people in Malaysia are imprisoned for up to 20 years. This is not a law that deserves respect, and anyone who believes otherwise is a monster.

    • UngodlyAudrey🏳️‍⚧️@beehaw.orgMEnglish
      31·
      11 months ago

      I will concede that probably they should not have even bothered playing in Malaysia at all. However, protesting garbage laws is the right thing to do. Slavery was legal in the U.S. at one point. It was illegal(even in the North, where slavery itself was banned) to help escaped slaves evade the authorities. What I’m saying here is, some laws don’t deserve to be “respected”. This is an evil law, one that should be mocked, scorned, and flaunted.

      • alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgMEnglish
        22·
        11 months ago

        I will concede that probably they should not have even bothered playing in Malaysia at all.

        on the other hand: playing has highlighted the irrational response of Malaysia’s government and regressive laws, so in the end i’d say it worked out pretty well

      • tangentism@beehaw.orgEnglish
        11·
        11 months ago

        Artists United Against Apartheid didn’t play gigs in South African to protest the situation there.

        If they had, it would have been a degree of complicity with the regime.

        TBH, every major artist should loudly express that they are deliberately skipping playing in Malaysia for specific reasons.