The Malaysian government has officially replaced the term “LGBT” with “deviant culture” (Malay: “budaya songsang”) in its public communications and educational materials, framing LGBTQ+ identities as out of sync with the country’s religious and cultural values. Human rights advocates argue that this new terminology further stigmatizes LGBTQ+ people and reinforces discrimination.
And, as related to our recent coverage of the teenager who was prosecuted under the Russian LGBT Extremist law, Russian authorities have jailed a nightclub owner and two employees under the country’s broad prohibition on what it labels the “international LGBT movement” – an extremist designation by Russia. This case is yet another reflection of the ongoing enforcement of laws that criminalize and heavily restrict LGBTQ+ expression and organizing, and is part of a wider crackdown on LGBTQ+ communities and queer civil liberties in Russia.
There are telling connections to note here between these stories on charged signifiers in Malaysia and Russia and the ways that trans people are increasingly being labeled as “domestic terrorists” in the United States. Such examples illuminate how political rhetoric can powerfully function as tools of classification, fear mongering, and division. Globally, some governments and institutions are ratcheting up their efforts to reframe gender and sexual minorities from protected populations to social/moral risks, the Trump administration very much included. The political potency of words is therefore more than descriptive, but constitutive, as it can influence which lives are understood as legitimate and acceptable.
