Malaysians lampoon minister over stress-gay link: ‘They never work hard in parliament?’
Malaysian Religious Affairs Minister Zulkifli Hasan has come under fire for claiming in parliament that work stress turns people gay.
Malaysia’s Religious Affairs Minister Zulkifli Hasan speaking in parliament on Jan 26, 2026. (Photo: Facebook/Zulkifli Hasan)
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A Malaysian minister has become the butt of jokes for claiming that work stress can turn people gay, as continued government intervention of what it describes as sexually deviant behaviour piles pressure on the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community.
The enforcement spotlight fell on Malaysia’s sexual minorities two weeks ago after religious authorities and police acted on complaints from a sultan and Islamist politicians that a camping retreat was promoting the LGBTQ lifestyle.
The community came under fresh scrutiny when Religious Affairs Minister Zulkifli Hasan said on Tuesday (Jan 27) that work stress was among several factors allegedly pushing people into sexual orientations that were not strictly heterosexual.
“Societal influence, sexual experiences, work stress and other personal factors come under this category [of possible causes],” Zulkifli said in a written parliamentary reply to a question by Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff, a lawmaker with the opposition Islamist party PAS.
Citing a 2017 study by “Sulaiman et al”, the minister said the combination of such elements “can contribute to the increase in LGBT acts”.
The blowback on Malaysia’s raucous social media was swift.
Posts on Zulkifli’s statement drew thousands of comments, with many taking the opportunity to poke fun at the minister while questioning the logic behind his assumptions.
“By this logic, I’m genuinely shocked my entire office isn’t gay by now,” read a comment by social media user Muaz Zam.
Others made their own correlations between Zulkifli’s statement and the performance of elected representatives in Malaysia’s 222-seat parliament.
“In other words: they never work hard in the parliament?” read one comment.
LGBTQ rights advocates, however, say the government’s “ridiculous” position also points to a more worrying trend of state-sanctioned repression of the community, especially if it starts citing unverified sources that stigmatise sexual minorities.
“This misinformation reinforces the assumption that LGBT people’s sexual orientation and gender identity can be corrected, changed or are not real or as valid as cisgender heterosexual identities,” Thilaga Sulathireh of LGBTQ rights group Justice for Sisters told This Week in Asia.
“The fact is diversity in sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics is completely natural and normal. This has been proven by medical and other bodies,” Thilaga added. “The minister must retract and correct the misinformation.”
Malaysian law still criminalises certain consensual same-sex acts under the federal Penal Code’s colonial-era “unnatural offences” provisions. Muslims can also be prosecuted under parallel sharia criminal law nationwide for same-sex conduct or gender expression.
Two weeks ago, organisers of a “Glamping With Pride” event aimed at building LGBTQ support networks and health awareness in the community were forced to cancel the retreat after death threats and pressure from the authorities.
The incident came just months after a raid in northern Kelantan state that police had initially framed as a “gay sex party”. Civil society groups denied the claim, saying it was an HIV medical outreach programme.
This article was first published on SCMP.
