Malaysian gay community worried following Matty Healy’s anti-homophobic outburst
The 1975 singer Matty Healy‘s recent appearance at Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lampur in Malaysia has left many of those within the country’s gay community feeling uneasy about the possible repercussions of his behaviour.
At the festival, The 1975’s frontman spoke out against Malaysia’s homophobic laws, before kissing the band’s bass player Ross MacDonald during a live performance of ‘I Like America & America Likes Me’.
Healy told the crowd: “Unfortunately you don’t get a set of loads of uplifting songs because I’m fucking furious. And that’s not fair on you, because you’re not representative of your government. Because you’re young people, and I’m sure a lot of you are gay and progressive and cool”.
Later, Healy announced the band had been banned, while the festival organisers announced that the rest of the weekend had been cancelled. The Malaysian government also responded saying that it will tighten entry requirements for foreign artists to perform in Malaysia in the future.
While many have cited Healy’s right to freedom of expression, many Malaysians – particularly in the gay community – have come forward to talk about the harmfulness of Healy’s actions in setting back the community’s hard-earned work to nurture a safer, more accepting place.
Drag performer Carmen Rose described Healy’s speech as a risk to the work of activists, but that it’s OK for him because “he gets to fly out of the country and not face the consequences, while our people have to face the brunt of what just happened”.
On TikTok, one user describes the issue at length: “Unfortunately, our country has a really bad history of anti-LGBTQ legislation, and it hasn’t been the safest place for queer people to exist. There’s so much shit about, ‘Oh my god Matt Healy did an amazing thing for the Malaysian queer community by standing up for the rights’. No, Matt Healy, you’re a fucking idiot. Do you have any idea what the repercussions of the situation is?”
“Do you have any idea how difficult it is for queer people to exist? You have shown the power of Malaysian authority when it comes to this shit. You said yourself that you didn’t look into it – I hate this bullshit white saviour complex of people coming into regions like Southeast Asia with no prior research whatsoever to what the culture is like to what the repercussions of certain things are, and ruining it, not just for them, but for people that actually live there”.
Following Good Vibes in Malaysia, The 1975 took the decision to cancel the rest of their Asian tour. In a statement, the band wrote, “The band never take the decision to cancel a show lightly and had been eagerly looking forward to playing for fans in Jakarta and Taipei but unfortunately, due to current circumstances, it is impossible to proceed with the scheduled shows.”
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