According to the LGBT Military Index 2014 Malaysia has the toughest stance in Asia against LGBT people in the armed forces.
Malaysia has come 92nd out of a list of 103 countries worldwide for ranked in terms of LGBT inclusion in the armed forces. This makes it the 12th most hostile to homosexuals out of all countries polled as well as the least friendly in Asia.
The survey was conducted by a research group of the Dutch Ministry of Defence and released by The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. New Zealand ranked as having the most gay-friendly military out of all countries worldwide.
In Asia, Thailand was ranked the most gay-friendly, coming in at 48th. The Philippines was 50th and Vietnam 53rd. South Korea, China, Indonesia, and Malaysia all fell in the bottom half of the rankings. There was no data on Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Singapore.
The rankings are based on the six factors of inclusion, admission, tolerance, non-exclusion, and non-persecution. In general countries at the bottom of the list are places where homosexuality is still considered a crime or an illness.
There were, however, some surprises. The USA achieved a relatively low ranking (40th) mainly because it bans transgender people from joining the military. Israel achieved a high ranking (9th), showing the army to be more progressive than wider society.
Malaysia has come 92nd out of a list of 103 countries worldwide for ranked in terms of LGBT inclusion in the armed forces. This makes it the 12th most hostile to homosexuals out of all countries polled as well as the least friendly in Asia.
The survey was conducted by a research group of the Dutch Ministry of Defence and released by The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. New Zealand ranked as having the most gay-friendly military out of all countries worldwide.
In Asia, Thailand was ranked the most gay-friendly, coming in at 48th. The Philippines was 50th and Vietnam 53rd. South Korea, China, Indonesia, and Malaysia all fell in the bottom half of the rankings. There was no data on Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Singapore.
The rankings are based on the six factors of inclusion, admission, tolerance, non-exclusion, and non-persecution. In general countries at the bottom of the list are places where homosexuality is still considered a crime or an illness.
There were, however, some surprises. The USA achieved a relatively low ranking (40th) mainly because it bans transgender people from joining the military. Israel achieved a high ranking (9th), showing the army to be more progressive than wider society.
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Reader's Comments
PM Najib and his team tend to ignore, forget and try not to touch on LGBT issues in Malaysia. Thus it indirectly sends out a clear message that the country doesn't accept, tolerate and recognize LGBT community but at the same time its 'pink citizens' are growing rapidly, and sadly many many are still in the closet, both in the public and private sector.
Hence a very precautionary sense of 'don't say, don't tell; don't flaunt, don't admit' has been flourishing in the society, but recently things are started to change slowly, especially in the younger cyber-generation.
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