MALAYSIA

Rock band The 1975 is being sued by organizers of a music festival kissed a man on stage as a protest against the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws last July. The festival is seeking $2.4 million in damages alleging breach of contract after the festival was shut down by authorities. 

The English rock band was headlining the Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur on July 21, 2023, when Healy delivered a performance that festival organizers Future Vibes Asia allege included drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes on stage, appearing to “spit excessively including towards the audience” and giving a “profanity-laden speech,” all of which they say was in violation of their performance contract.

“Variety” reported at the time that Healy told the crowd “I don’t see the fucking point … of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with … I’m sorry if that offends you, and you’re religious … but your government are a bunch of fucking r——. I don’t care anymore. If you push, I’m gonna push back. I’m not in the fucking mood.”

At that point, Healy kissed bassist Ross MacDonald on stage, resulting the band getting booted from the stage by government censors and banned from performing in Malaysia.

Authorities then shut down the entire festival, which still had two more days of performances by local and international acts, including American band The Strokes.

In filings in the UK High Court, Future Sound Asia is seeking $2.4 million in damages from the band, whom they say were paid $350,000 to perform.

The 1975 have not provided a response in court. 

The band has also been sued separately by other artists who claim they lost opportunities and income because of the festival being shut down. 

THAILAND

Thailand has become the 44^th member state of the Equal Rights Coalition, an intergovernmental agency tasked with advancing the rights of LGBTQ and intersex people across the world. 

Thailand is the first Asian country to join the international body, which also includes member states from Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East.

The Equal Rights Coalition was founded in 2016 under the leadership of Uruguay and the Netherlands to promote LGBTQ and intersex human rights, through forums and idea exchange with a particular focus on reducing violence and discrimination, ending criminalization of LGBTQ and intersex people, and including LGBTQ and intersex people in development projects.

Thailand has made great progress on LGBTQ rights in recent years, including legalizing same-sex marriage and adoption earlier this year, and introducing a government bill to facilitate legal gender change.

The ERC has worked to expand its own capacity this year, launching a secretariat hosted by ILGA-World in Geneva. 

NEPAL 

The Supreme Court of Nepal has for the first time ordered that the government recognize a transgender woman as a woman, without her having to submit to medical verification. The ruling applies only to this specific case but may set a precedent for future cases.

Human Rights Watch reported that Rukshana Kapali, a trans law student, was granted the order that she should be recognized as a woman on all government documents. Kapali has sued the government more than 50 times since 2021 in order to get her gender recognized, due to inconsistently applied rules across the country. 

Although Kapali has been granted relief, other trans people will continue to have to sue to have their gender legally recognized, until the government creates a consistent regulation.

In 2007, the Supreme Court ordered the government to recognize a “third gender” or “other” option on the basis of self-identification. “Third gender” is a common way that many trans people in South Asian cultures self-identify. 

However, because the government has failed to institute a clear nationwide policy around updating legal gender, many trans people face roadblocks. Some are forced to undergo surgery first, which requires travelling outside the country, and then to have invasive medical examinations in-country. 

Human Rights Watch has called on the government to address this by creating a clear policy on updating legal gender based on self-determination.

“The government can and should make the system work for everyone by issuing a directive that allows people to self-identify their gender on official documents, without medical or other verification,” Human Rights Watch says in a press release.

UNITED KINGDOM

The British Medical Association has called for the government to pause implementation of the controversial Cass Review of gender care for trans youth, and a lifting of the government’s ban on the use of puberty blockers for under-18s. 

The BMA, a trade union that represents nearly 200,000 doctors and medical students across the UK, has made the amid a growing anti-trans moral panic across the UK, fueled by far-right commentators, including “Harry Potter” creator J.K. Rowling, which captured the attention of the Conservative Party that governed the country for 14 years until last month.

But the new Labour government has been swift to uphold some of the previous government’s anti-trans policies, including announcing that it would move to make the ban on puberty blockers permanent.

The previous government had launched a review of trans youth care under Hilary Cass, who published her findings this spring. The Cass Review ultimately called for a move away from medical interventions for trans youth and instead proposed a model of better mental health support. 

Trans activists and medical researchers criticized the report for its selective review of studies and lack of consultation with trans patients, which they have said give the impression that the review was designed to come to a conclusion that would effectively bar young people from transitioning or forcibly detransition them. 

A government spokesperson has rebuffed the BMA’s call for a pause on implementation of the Cass Review while it completes its own research.

“NHS England will be implementing Dr. Cass’s recommendations so that children and young people get the safe, holistic care and support they need. We do not support a delay to vital improvements from the NHS to gender services,” a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told the BBC.

The ban on puberty blockers had also been challenged in court by the advocacy group TransActual, but a judge ruled last week that the ban was lawful.