He said laws and rules alone would not end discrimination. “You must be able to change the culture to realise that discrimination of sex, race, gender as well as sexuality is no longer acceptable,” he told FMT.
Using the United States as an example, he said just 50 years ago, black people were not allowed to sit in the same restaurant with whites in certain states. “But even now, with all the laws in place, discrimination is still there,” he said.
Paulsen, a human rights lawyer and legal director of the Fortify Rights organisation, hoped that Malaysia would take concrete measures to achieve LGBT equality in the next decade or so. It might require more than one government term to accomplish this, he said.
His remarks come in the wake of criticism of the sports ministry by Suhakam, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, which called out the resignation of Numan Afifi, a former press officer to sports minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman, as a case of possible workplace discrimination.
Numan made headlines last year for organising a Pride Day breaking of fast event for the gay community. He resigned as Syed Saddiq’s press officer after being attacked for his ties to the LGBT community.
Paulsen said that it remained an open question whether the LGBT community would be fully accepted here as citizens accorded the other rights of everyone else under the Pakatan Harapan government.
The new government was only two months in power. “We have to wait for another few years, with the next government, and the government after that. Things can’t be rushed or forced,” he said. The Pakatan Harapan government would not be able to move quickly when under fire, especially from certain pressure groups using social media, he noted.