SELANGOR’S first-term assemblyman Lim Yi Wei spoke up in support of the LGBT community’s right to a decent livelihood in a public forum this afternoon, hours after Numan Afifi quit as the youth and sports minister’s press secretary.

“We have to ask ourselves – are we driving them into black market activities because we don’t even want to provide them with jobs?

“Some of you have your religious beliefs. We fully respect that. But outside of that, do we consider LGBT as equally Malaysian, equally human?

“If you say yes to that, then we must provide them with space to be productive citizens,” Lim said to a long and laud applause from a 400-strong crowd that packed the auditorium at Sunway University this afternoon.

She was responding to a question from the audience on Pakatan Harapan’s stand on the online bullying that led to Numan’s resignation.

Numan’s former employer, Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman, was also a panelist at the forum.

He addressed almost all questions from the audience but did not respond to Numan’s resignation.

Earlier this morning, Syed Saddiq said on Twitter that he has accepted Numan’s resignation.

“Your service has been invaluable bro (sic) since our campaigning days. Stay strong and I’ll always respect your decision.

“You’ll always be a bro,” he wrote.

Social media users have slammed Syed Saddiq for failing to defend Numan from the bullies that targeted him for being an LGBT activist.

A member of the audience, Navin Innasi, seated on the first few rows held up two A4 papers that read: “Do you stand for ALL human rights?” and “Gay? So what?” during the later part of the forum.

Met after the forum, Navin said he wished Syed Saddiq would speak out against the online bullies.

“I think the minister should have taken a stand against the cyber troopers. It’s bullying,” said the IT professional.

Numan said in his statement this morning that he is going abroad temporarily to decide what to do in future. – July 9, 2018.