Gay Party Raids, 20 Men Arrested By Malaysian Police, HIV Condolences Confiscated

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JAKARTA - Malaysian authorities arrested 20 men in the northeastern Kelantan state during a gay party raid late at night.

Kelantan state police chief Mohd Yusoff Mamat said the police arrested the men following up on public information about activities in rental prooperti in the state capital of Baharu in June.

"When interrogated, they claimed to be part of a gay group," he told a news conference reported by Reuters on Thursday, July 17.

Mohd Yusoff said that although authorities found no evidence of sexual activity during the meeting, the police found condoms and HIV drugs at the location.

Police charged the three men with possession of homosexual pornography material on their phones.

However, authorities cannot sue other men because there is no special law or physical evidence to indict them.

"We are worried about such behavior. We will continue to monitor the movement of gay groups," he said.

The LGBTQ community faces increasingly stringent scrutiny in Malaysia, where sodomy is a crime and Islamic sharia law that prohibits same-sex relations and is cross-clad.

This multiethnic and multi-religious country has a dual legal system, with Islamic law for Muslims that runs side by side with civil law.

Authorities previously stopped the music festival in 2023, after British pop band frontman The 1975 kissed a male bandmate on stage and criticized Malaysia's anti-LGBTQ law.

In 2018, two women were lashed in courtrooms witnessed by dozens of people after they were found guilty of trying to have lesbian sex.

Rights groups Justice for Sisters and Amnesty International say LGBTQ content accounts for nearly half of all banned publications in Malaysia between 2020 and May this year.