Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia has been deemed the second worst country in the world when it comes to transgender rights, according to a Global Trans Rights Index released recently.
Malaysia was given a score of -105 and the highest danger rating of F with the comment that trans persons face obstacles in the country and are targeted by the police, said researcher couple Asher and Lyric Fergusson in the study published on their travel site.
“Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Malawi, and the United Arab Emirates are the subsequent worst countries for trans people.
“None of them have any worker, discrimination, and criminalisation protections, and ‘cross-dressing’ is criminalised with penalties up to imprisonment in eight of the top 10 worst countries for trans people,” the study said.
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Neighbouring countries fared much better with Thailand ranking 66 out of 203 countries, Singapore at 109, Indonesia (115) and Brunei (192).
The best five countries for the transgender community were listed as Malta, Portugal, Canada, Sweden and Bolivia.
To conduct the study, points were awarded or deducted based on protections for LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and more) workers, legal protections against anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, criminalisation of hate-based violence, transgender legal identity laws, and transgender murder rates.
The points were based on reports by the International International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and the “Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide" study by the advocacy network Transgender Europe.
“All metrics were given equal weight, except for trans murder rates and trans legal identity laws, which were given 2x weight,” the study said.
The Iowa-based Fergussons previously released an "LGBTQ+ Danger Index" on the safest and least safe countries to travel to for the community.
Transgender rights remain unrecognised by the Malaysian government, with the Home Ministry recently seizing over 100 watches from local branches of popular Swiss watchmaker Swatch, purportedly due to links to the LGBTQ+ rights movement.
On the other hand, in March, a study by market research firm Ipsos said that over half of Malaysian respondents agreed that transgender individuals should be able to live their lives as they wished and without interference.
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