The 1975 frontman Matt Healy snogged a male member of the audience during a concert in Dubai in protest of the nation’s strict LGBTIQ laws.
Healy was performing the UK band’s track “Loving Someone” when he jumped into the crowd and locked lips with a fan who had asked Healy to marry him.
After the concert Healy, an avid supporter of the LQBTIQ community, tweeted his gratitude to the crowd, but admitted the band may not return.
“Thank you, Dubai you were so amazing,” the singer wrote.
“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 different,” he added.
In Dubai, same-sex relations between men are outlawed under the state’s penal code.
Some fans criticised the singer for putting the fan in a dangerous situation, with some fearful authorities may be searching for the man Healy kissed.
“You’re endangering the boy by sharing the video,” one user wrote.
“He kissed a fan in a VERY homophobic nation and put a harmless man’s life at risk,” another fan said.
“F*** [Healy] for placing somebody in a life-threatening scenario,” another added.
Rammstein members kissed to protest homophobia in Russia
This is not the first time a musician has protested LGBTIQ discrimination during a performance.
In June of this year, two members of the German metal band Rammstein kissed onstage in Moscow.
The band said it was a show of defiance at Russia’s notorious anti-LGBTIQ laws.
Russia’s “gay propaganda” law, introduced in 2013, effectively bans all public expression of LGBTIQ identities.
The country’s government has used it to justify crackdowns on groups and protests by the LGBTIQ community.
Despite being unsure if The 1975 will be allowed to return to Dubai, Healy is remaining pleasantly optimistic.
“Maybe they will let me back in, let’s just wait and see,” he said.
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