A Malaysian politician has claimed that he believes people become part of the country’s LGBTIQA+ community because they are under stress at work.
Zulkifli Hasan, who is a Minister in the country’s Religious Affairs Department told the parliament his belief after fellow MP Datuk Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff asked if there were official figure son how many people in Malaysia were suspected of being homosexual.
Hasan said there was no way of knowing how many people were gay or lesbian, before going on to cite a study which claimed that a wide range of factors could play a role in shaping someone’s sexuality including social influence, sexual experiences and other personal factors.
Hasan then went on to outline that work stress might be turning people gay.
His comments have been lampooned by the Malaysian people with people making social media comments including “By this logic, I’m genuinely shocked my entire office isn’t gay by now,” and many suggesting the theory can put to rest concerns about secret homosexuals in parliament – because they never do any work.
Accusations that politicians are gay are regularly levelled by opponents in Malaysian politics. Current Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was accused of partaking in gay sex when he was the opposition leader. He was jailed in 1999 on charges of corruption and sodomy and severed five years in prison before the charges were overturned.
One statistic the Minister was able to share was how many people have been arrested and prosecuted for being gay. Between 2022 and 2025 135 cases were recorded.
Local LGBTIQA+ rights group Justice for Sisters have described the minister’s statement as “ridiculous”.
“This misinformation reinforces the assumption that LGBT people’s sexual orientation and gender identity can be corrected, changed or are not real or as valid as cisgender heterosexual identities,” spokesperson Thilaga Sulathireh told local media.
“The fact is diversity in sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics is completely natural and normal. This has been proven by medical and other bodies,” Thilaga added. “The minister must retract and correct the misinformation.”
