Malaysia’s tourism minister has denied the existence of gay people in the country, according to reports in German media.
Ahead of attending the ITB Berlin travel fair, Tourism Minister Mohamaddin Ketapi told German reporters that he wasn’t aware of gay people in the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian country.
“I don’t think we have anything like that in our country,” he said, responding to a question as to whether Malaysia would welcome gay travelers, according to German national broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
He also sidestepped a question concerning the safety of LGBT and Jewish travelers in the country, according to the broadcaster.
Mohamaddin later posted a statement on Twitter stating that his response to the reporter’s question referred to the non-existence of specific LGBT-focused tourist campaigns in the country.
Homophobia is ingrained in Malaysian politics and culture, and homosexual sex is illegal throughout Malaysia under colonial era criminal law.
Veteran politician Anwar Ibrahim, widely viewed as the successor to current Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, has been jailed twice on sodomy charges — once by Mahathir’s government, and gay people are routinely punished by public lashing in Terengganu, a Sharia-practicing state to the east of the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
An August 2018 raid on one of Kuala Lumpur’s only gay clubs saw around 20 men charged for “illicit behavior,” and came shortly after a brutal attack on a trans woman in a city close to the capital.
