United Kingdom pop band The 1975 had its set at a Malaysian music festival cut short after frontman Matty Healy kissed a male bandmate onstage and criticised the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws.
Homosexuality is a crime in Muslim-majority Malaysia and human rights groups have warned of growing intolerance against the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
In videos posted on social media, Healy was seen kissing bassist Ross MacDonald after giving a profanity-laden speech to the audience at the Kuala Lumpur music festival Good Vibes on Friday night, in which he criticised the Malaysian government’s stance against homosexuality.
He said the band had considered pulling out of the show but did not want to disappoint their fans in Malaysia.
“I made a mistake. When we were booking shows, I wasn’t looking into it,” he said, adding that he did not see the point of “inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with”.
Healy later cut short the set, telling the crowd: “All right, we gotta go. We just got banned from Kuala Lumpur, I’ll see you later.”
Link from www.aljazeera.com