🫨Interpersonal violence

Interpersonal violence refers to violence within personal relationships or members of the general public.

The following are some common examples of interpersonal violence faced by LGBTQIA+ people in Malaysia.

👨‍👩‍👦 Family violence

Family violence refers to acts of physical, sexual, psychological, and economic violence occurring within the family unit.

LGBTQIA+ people in Malaysia have reported violence not only by their immediate family members but also by extended family members because of their SOGIESC. This includes physical, emotional, and sexual violence, withdrawal of financial and emotional support, surveillance, SOGIESC change pressure, and efforts, including conversion practices, forced marriages, and being disowned.

LGBTQIA+ people are particularly vulnerable to violence upon coming out or being outed. Family members who have a lower level of acceptance, familiarity, or knowledge about SOGIESC are more likely to react negatively to an LGBTQIA+ people family member. There are many cases of young LGBTQIA+ people being disowned and expelled from their homes, leaving them homeless and in economic precarity. In some cases, this severely affects their ability to continue their education.

An LGBTQIA+ group reported that two young queer men were disowned by their family members upon discovering their sexual orientation during the COVID-19 pandemic. In both cases, the families responded by forbidding the queer men to work and continue their studies. When they refused to meet their families’ demands, both were disowned, resulting in them reaching out to the LGBTQIA+ groups for shelter and other support.

Family violence has broad social and economic costs, resulting in mental health issues including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicidal ideation, and attempts. It also may result in social withdrawal, lost employment and productivity, and absenteeism from school.

👭Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) refers to acts of physical, sexual, psychological, and economic violence occurring between intimate partners, including spouses, former spouses, romantic partners, or ongoing sexual partners.

LBQ women who have been in a marriage with heterosexual men and trans people who were previously married face unique forms of violence from their former spouses. This includes threats to deny custody of children by outing or disclosing their SOGIE or relationship. Similar to family violence, IPV may result in mental health issues, social isolation, and decreased productivity. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers IPV a public health issue.

🤦‍♀️Non-Partner Violence

LGBTQIA+ people in Malaysia often experience violence based on actual or perceived SOGIESC in public and private spheres by unknown persons, schoolmates, gangsters, vigilante groups, customers or clients, authorities, and members of the public. Trans and gender-diverse people are particularly vulnerable to such harassment and violence because of their gender expression. Trans women sex workers are particularly vulnerable because of their visibility. in addition, LGBTQIA+ people or couples, especially queer women, who display public affection, for example, holding hands have also reported being subjected to microaggression.

🤖 Online gender-based violence (OGBV), also known as Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence

Online gender-based violence (OGBV) or technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TGBV) encompasses any form of gender-based harm that is facilitated, aided, or exacerbated through the use of information and communication technology (ICT), including mobile phones, the Internet, social media platforms, or email. This harm is directed at an individual due to their identity.

OGBV, in many cases, is part of a range of violence experienced by a person across various spaces. violence that begins in online spaces can spill over into offline spaces, or vice versa. Perpetrators of OGBV are diverse and can range from family members, partners or former partners, to strangers.

LGBTQIA+ people experience a higher frequency and broader spectrum of OGBV exacerbated by an already hostile online space. A 2023 election monitoring report that observed hate speech in relation to four thematic areas or specific vulnerable groups - race, religion, gender and LGBT (or SOGIESC), and refugees - revealed that offensive speech related to gender and LGBT topics was twice as common as that related to race and religion.

Against this backdrop, LGBTQIA+ people have reported doxxing, mobbing, sexual harassment and violence, non-consensual sharing of explicit images, reporting of LGBTQIA+ people by tagging state agencies, catfishing, blackmail, and death threats. In the absence of legal gender recognition for trans, intersex, and non-binary people, they are particularly vulnerable to doxxing of their personal information, such as their legal documents to expose their gender identity.

In many cases of OGBV, LGBTQIA+ people lack redress options, resulting in their self-censorship, and isolation, among other adverse effects.

This increased prevalence of OGBV can be attributed to the overall institutional violence faced by LGBTQIA+ people in Malaysia, which will be explained in the following section. These factors contribute to an environment of impunity.