NOVEMBER 30 — I was equal parts amused and disturbed to find out about the #HomophobicMalaya campaign against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) community in the past few weeks.
The campaign was supposedly organised to unite the so-called “underground scene” comprising punk, skinhead and metal fans/musicians in Malaysia, through a poster which proudly declares “Malaysia underground scene rise and fight against homosexuals, LGBT. Save Malaysia.”
Interestingly enough, the poster included also the Quranic verse 11:82, which related the destruction of the prophet Lot’s people by a rain of stone.
Thus, the logic of the poster seemed to be that the scene must together rise and fight the LGBT movement in order to save Malaysia from the divine ruin allegedly promised by God.
Ostensibly, the movement was born after the recent Court of Appeal decision awarding victory to the transgender community by declaring the Negri Sembilan Shariah law outlawing cross-dressing unconstitutional.
I was even more amused and disturbed by the fact that such a bigoted statement supposedly came out of the punk and metal subcultures, which have their own share of LGBT heroes.
For example, Florida-based punk band Against Me! has for its vocalist and guitarist, Laura Jane Grace, who came out a transgender in 2012 to begin her transition towards living as a woman.
After five albums, the band released their last album “Transgender Dysphoria Blues” in January this year, where Laura first sang as a woman.
Those who listen to punk would surely agree that Against Me! is no less a punk band than others, and no less punk even with Laura coming out.
As for the metal subculture, there is no bigger metal gay icon than Rob Halford, the vocalist of legendary 45-year-old British heavy metal band Judas Priest.
With his high-pitched and operatic voice, there is no mistaking Halford as one of the most respected metal vocalists in its history.
Halford came out as gay in 1998, after reportedly suffering from depression, alcoholism and drug abuse from trying to hide his sexuality all this while.
The band is still flying high , with its latest album “Redeemer of Souls” just released in July this year, and entered the Top 10 charts in the US.
There are of course several other LGBT musicians in the punk and metal scene. There was Darby Crash, the gay vocalist of LA punk band The Germs.
Peter Shelley of Buzzcocks and Iggy Pop were rumoured to be bisexuals. Billie Joe Armstrong of the best-selling pop punk band Green Day — which surely influenced every other Malaysian kid in the late 90s — said he identified as a bisexual in 1994.
Gaahl, who sings for Norwegian black metal band Gorgoroth, is gay. Otep Shamaya of alternative metal band Otep is a lesbian. Mina Caputo, vocalist of heavy metal band Life of Agony, is a transgender.
There is no denying that there are still elements of homophobia in the punk and metal scene, especially when some of the musicians need to maintain their machismo.
But what’s really baffling is that the Malaysian subculture chose to shun the LGBT community when they themselves are similarly shunned by the authorities and some part of the public.
Just like there is a fatwa outlawing sexual reassignment surgeries that has started a slew of anti-cross-dressing laws against the transgenders, several states in Malaysia have gazetted fatwa, or religious edicts, prohibiting Muslims against black metal.
States such as Terengganu, Malacca and Kuala Lumpur have outlawed black metal, claiming that it is against Islamic teachings.
Selangor went one step further by issuing a blanket ban on “black metal, heavy metal, proto metal, doom metal, power metal, speed metal, thrash metal, death metal dan progressive metal” in 2007.
Selangor’s religious authorities claimed that “these deviants”, among others, step on and burn Qurans, worship the Devil, are free-thinkers, apostates, worship fire, promote murder, and are prone to free sex.
I kid you not.
This stereotype is so blown out of proportion, and many of us can still remember the frenzy whipped up in the late 90s when the black metal scare swept Malaysia. Being in a boarding school back then, I remember wardens conducting spot-checks and confiscating any black T-shirt which looked “metal”, and of course “metal” cassettes.
Can anybody take seriously those who declare a blanket ban on “black metal, heavy metal, proto metal, doom metal, power metal, speed metal, thrash metal, death metal dan progressive metal”? I bet none of them has ever listened to even one song from each of those widely different genres.
But it’s also frustrating that the backlash against #HomophobicMalaya has been no less bigoted. Their critics, also Malaysian youths, take pleasure in slamming their homophobic brethren by accusing them of the same stereotypes mentioned above.
In short, they berated those who supported #HomophobicMalaya by claiming that the punk and metal scene are just as unIslamic, and those in the scene are behaving against teachings of the faith. Which is problematic in itself.
Both the queer and the “underground” communities have long been shunned by parts of society. All #HomophobicMalaya has done so far is making both communities more shunned than ever.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
