👺Institutional violence

Also known as structural violence, institutional violence refers to inequalities, exclusion, and neglect resulting from negative attitudes, beliefs, practices, and policies against specific populations or groups. institutional violence is not limited to acts by state actors, but it could also be perpetrated by other institutions such as corporations, religious groups, and media, among others that have a significant influence on the structure or norms in a society.

Cultural violence is also a form of structural and institutional violence. This refers to the "existence of prevailing or prominent social norms that make direct and structural violence seem “natural” or “right” or at least acceptable." Cultural violence, which is pervasive against LGBTQIA+ people, manifests in the form of demonization, condemnation, stereotypes, and disapproval, among others.

The following are examples of institutional violence faced by LGBTQIA+ people in Malaysia.

👮 Criminalization

Malaysia criminalizes LGBTQ+ people under various laws on the basis of sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, and consensual sex between adults. (see this link). Criminalization has systemic effects on LGBTQ+ and gender-diverse persons, including but not limited to the following:

• Extensive gendered human rights violations including arbitrary arrests, detention, raids, judicial caning, increased violence by state actors with impunity, and cruel, humiliating, and degrading treatment during arrests and detention, including strip searches, harassment, denial of basic rights such as medical care. SUHAKAM reported that 39 out of 100 trans women surveyed were arrested by state authorities because of their gender identity and/or gender expression.

• Inability to enjoy and exercise fundamental rights, including being inhibited from accessing services and information. A survey showed that 59.1% of 220 LGBTIQ and gender-diverse respondents were not comfortable reporting cases to government agencies.

• Negative perceptions among the general public, which increases discrimination, exclusion, and impunity towards violence against LGBTQIA+ people in Malaysia.

Anti-LGBTQ laws and discrimination are estimated to cost approximately 1% of a country’s annual gross domestic product (GDP). In Malaysia, this would amount to about RM16 billion.

👽 Lack of Legal Gender Recognition

The lack of legal gender recognition for trans, intersex, non-binary, and gender-diverse increases their vulnerability to GBV across online and offline spaces. For example, a SUHAKAM study reported that trans women who were detained were placed in facilities meant for cisgender men and in the same cell with cisgender men inmates. Respondents in the same study also reported being sexually violated by prison authorities and inmates while in detention.

🤢 Pathologization

Pathologization refers to the wrongful medicalization of LGBTQIA+ people's SOGIESC, reinforcing the belief that they can be cured through medical or other interventions., For example, intersex people have reported being forced to go through sex- or gender-normalizing surgeries as infants or children. They tend to experience poorer educational outcomes and lower quality of life as a result.

LGBTQIA+ people are subjected to a range of conversion practices or SOGIESC change efforts due to the belief that LGBTQIA+ people suffer from mental disorders.

A 2022 survey conducted by Justice for Sisters shows that pressure to change SOGIE manifests through:

• Pressure to get married

• Threats of violence, emotional or financial withdrawal, or being reported to state agencies

• Pressure to meet mental health or health providers, religious persons, or others to heal, cure, or correct them

• Verbal violence, including name-calling

• Forced to perform gendered roles or engage in gendered activities.

• Surveillance

Conversion therapy, or more accurately conversion practices, is defined as a range of practices or sustained efforts that aim to change, suppress, or eliminate a person’s SOGIE. These can include psychotherapeutic, medical, and faith-based interventions.

Conversion practices often involve practices amounting to torture, including “corrective” rape, medical interventions, abuse, threats, exorcism, and harassment.

Conversion practices have been documented to be harmful and result in long-term adverse effects, including depression, self-harm, and suicidal tendencies. In Malaysia, LGBTQIA+ people are pathologized as an illness or unnatural condition that must be cured through conversion practice or “therapy” through various state actions.

A Justice for Sisters survey found that LGBTQIA+ respondents in Malaysia are vulnerable to conversion practices by state and non-state actors. A SUHAKAM report reported that 17 out of 51 trans and intersex people were ostracized by family or community, with 15% being forced to see mental health professionals and 9% referred to religious authorities.

Source - Balik ke Pangkal Jalan