COMMENT | If work stress could really “turn” someone gay, then Malaysia’s most exhausted citizens, such as our single mothers who often juggle two or three jobs just to keep a roof over their children’s heads, would already be marching in Pride parades and waving rainbow flags. Which is why a recent parliamentary reply linking work stress to LGBTQ+ behaviour did more than raise eyebrows: it turned Malaysia into a subject of international mockery. This was not a careless aside or a joke taken out of context. It appeared in a written parliamentary reply by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Zulkifli Hasan, responding to a question from Rantau Panjang MP Siti Zailah Yusoff. Siti Zailah asked Parliament for the latest data and statistics on LGBTQ+ trends in Malaysia, including percentage breakdowns by age group and ethnicity, as well as the main contributing factors to any increase in cases.