Malay-Muslim men who have sex with men (MSM) are marginalized and hidden in Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country in southeast Asia. We explored the policy, network, community, and individual factors related to HIV infection among Malay-Muslim MSM through 26 in-depth interviews and one focus group discussion (n = 5) conducted in Kuala Lumpur and Kota Bharu between October 2013 and January 2014. As religion plays an important role in their lives, participants viewed homosexuality as a sin. Low risk perception and misconceptions about HIV/AIDS were common, and most participants expressed reluctance to consult a doctor unless they had symptoms. Additionally, buying condoms was embarrassing and anxiety-producing. Fear of discrimination by health care providers and community hindered participants from disclosing sexual behaviors and accessing health services. Homophobic comments and policies by the government and religious leaders were concerns of participants. A safe and enabling environment is needed to reduce HIV risks among Malay-Muslim MSM.
This study investigated sexual fluidity in attractions and subsequent fluidity in sexual identities, its associations with sexual orientation identity labels, and self-reported likelihood of future change in sexual identity labels in a sample of same-sex attracted Malaysian women and men. Participants completed an online questionnaire measuring sexual fluidity in attractions and sexual identity, sexual orientation identity labels and likelihood of future change in identity labels. Sexual fluidity in attractions was reported by 72% of women and 64% of men, with 44% of women and 38% of men reporting subsequent fluidity in sexual orientation identities. There were no significant gender differences observed in the frequency of sexual fluidity in attractions and change in sexual identity labels. There were also no significant gender differences in the self-reported likelihood of future change in sexual identity labels. Sexual fluidity was found to be associated with sexual identity labels representing non-exclusive sexual attractions for both men and women. Findings provide preliminary support for the presence of facilitative environments within a largely conservative and restrictive sociocultural and political landscape.
A central tenet of the health professions is that of equitable access to health care. However, disparities in equitable healthcare provision continues to be a challenge in many societies due to prejudices against the LGBTQ community. This study was aimed at exploring the attitudes of medical students toward LGBTQ patients in Malaysia. A qualitative approach was adopted to seek depth of understanding of clinical year medical students' perceptions and attitudes toward LGBTQ patients. Data were collected in 2018 through individual interviews and focus group discussions with a total of 29 participants, using a semi-structured question guideline. Purposive sampling comprised representation from the three major ethnic groups in Malaysia. Thematic analysis using NVivo highlighted three main themes i.e., neutrality, in compliance with the Professional Code of Conduct; implicit biases and tolerance of an Odd Identity; explicit biases with prejudices and stereotyping. The lack of knowledge and understanding of the nature and issues of sexuality is problematic as found in this study. They are primarily biases and prejudices projected onto marginalized LGBTQ patients who must contend with multiple jeopardies in conservative societies such as in Malaysia. With some state policies framed around Islam the concern is with the belief among Malay/Islamic students for LGBTQ individuals to go through conversion 'therapies' to become cisgender and heterosexual.
A bibliometric analysis was conducted to map out trends in publications on attitudes toward the LGBT community based on the 470 documents retrieved from the SCOPUS database for 2002-2022. The results revealed that the United States is the leading country contributing to the publications on attitudes toward the LGBT community and has a strong impact in the field (64.68%). The authorship analysis revealed that Flores, Woodford, and Worthen from the United States are the leading researchers in this field. Analysis of publication sources showed that the Journal of Homosexuality is the top publisher of findings on the LGBT community whereas the Journal of Interpersonal Violence and Sexuality and Culture have gained more traction among researchers in recent years. The analysis of the co-occurrence of author's keywords indicated that transgender is the gender group that is the most researched compared to other sexual identities. Negative attitudes such as homophobia, discrimination and being heterosexist toward one's sexuality or same-sex marriage are the current research foci. Religion and culture are seen as important predictors of attitudes about homosexuality and same-sex marriage policy. The study addresses the gaps in the literature by recommending future researchers to investigate attitudes toward other gender identities as a result of the revolution in sexual identities.