The 1975’s Matty Healy has hurt Malaysia’s queer community, not uplifted it

We welcome solidarity with LGBTQ+ causes, but in the wake of the 1975's inflammatory gay kiss on stage, artists need to be more considerate in their allyship

Every day, the realities of my queerness make me hold on tighter to the ones I love. As a mixed race first generation immigrant, whose mother moved from Malaysia to the UK in the 1960s, I get to enjoy the benefits of the land that once colonised my mother's. I can walk down the street holding the hand of my lover, and kiss their face, but if we went home to Malaysia, this love would be fined, caned or locked away. Not for me, as a foreigner to my motherland and of Chinese descent, but for my partner, a Malaysian born Malay.

In Malaysia, there are no LGBTQ+ rights, with a penalty of up to 20 years in prison for sodomy; Global Trans Rights Index ranks Malaysia as the second worst country in the world for transgender rights. And a privileged white man - the lead singer of British band the 1975 - has inadvertently made this situation worse.