We first learned about Indonesia’s heavy anti-homosexual policy and culture through an article brought to our attention from @linda_from_accounting’s instagram. Seeing the headline, “Indonesian police detain 12 transgender women for ‘re-education to become ‘real men’,” we were shocked, dismayed and knew we had to investigate to make sure we were a channeled voice of combativeness against these basic humanitarian crimes.
But when we digged deeper what we found shocked us on multiple levels.
- Last May, the Indonesian government publicly caned two men 83 times for having gay sex.
- The day prior to the caning, 141 gay men were arrested in the country’s capital for being present at a ‘gay sex party’.
- Gay hook-ups apps have been banned and pulled from Google Play in Indonesia.
- The government is now instituting a ban on all online “gay propaganda”, after a specific request from the police.
- Indonesia officially classified homosexuality as a mental disorder earlier this year.
- Aceh is a region of the Indonesia where gay sex is already illegal, having suceeded from upholding government policy in 2005, they enforce Shariah law, outlawing homosexuality entirely. Consensual gay sex is punishable by up to 100 lashes.
- In the latest case of the raid against transgender women in Indonesia, the police invaded multiple beauty salons, rounded up transgender women and publicly humilated and arrested them. They forced the women into mens clothes, and to run in circles chanting until their “male voice came out.” They then detained the women and publicly shaved their heads, holding them in lock-up over the next 5 days while they attempted to rid them of their ‘disease.’
And if it couldn’t get any worse, the Indonesian government will vote tomorrow, Valentine’s Day, to outlaw homosexuality altogether across the whole country.
This outlaw would mean that homosexual sex, as well as extramarital heterosexual sex, would carry a maximum prison sentence of 12 years and 5 years.
Feminist activist Tunggal Pawestri, along with others, has launched a petition to fight the proposed ban on homosexuality in Indonesia. It already has 60, 000 signatures. What can be done to help stop the law from passing, Pawestri says, is to simply put “more pressure on the parliament or the government to do the right thing.” The more voices the government feels that openly have an anti-stance against their proposed stripping of human rights against queer people, the more likely we’re to see the law not pass, even if their hearts haven’t changed in the matter.
You can spread awareness as to whats going on in Indonesia by sharing this and other like minded articles. Sign the petition to fight the Indonesian ban on homosexuality here.
