English Pop Rock Band, The 1975‘s Matty Healy has kissed a male fan during a show in Dubai last night, defying strict anti-LGBTQ laws in the Arab state.
As the band performed their first show in Dubai, Healy left the stage during ‘Loving Someone’ and kissed the male fan after he had asked the singer to marry him.
Footage of the moment shows Healy inviting the fan to hug him, before the pair share a quick kiss. Homosexuality is illegal in Dubai and is punishable with up to 10 years in jail.
Posting on Twitter after the show, he wrote: “Thank you Dubai you were so amazing. I don’t think we’ll be allowed back due to my ‘behaviour’ but know that I love you and I wouldn’t have done anything differently given the chance again.”
He added: “But who knows maybe they will let me back in let’s just wait and see :).”
But who knows maybe they will let me back in let’s just wait and see 🙂
— ???????? (@Truman_Black) August 15, 2019
The Manchester band are outspoken advocates for LGBTQ rights and last year donated money to help establish London’s first LGBTQ+ Community Centre.
The band’s donation helped the centre reach its £50k fundraising target.
“I am a bit wary of talking about it because I don’t want to appear to be virtue-signalling, but me and the others in the band all felt it was obviously a good thing to put our money towards,” Healy said at the time.
It’s possible that The 1975 kiss could have broken the UAE’s strict anti-LGBT+ laws.
Same-sex relations between men are outlawed under the state’s penal code. Depending on the interpretation, the maximum punishment is either 10 years or the death penalty.
While the penal code specifically mentions the act of sodomy, a British man was arrested in October 2017 after touching another man’s hip.
Jamie Harron said he touched the man in order to avoid spilling a drink on him.
He was later sentenced to three months in prison for public indecency but was exonerated a day later by special order of the UAE prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.
The 1975 head to Auckland on September 18 and kick off their Australian tour in Melbourne on September 20.
Last Updated on Aug 16, 2019
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