Tag: indonesia gay rights
Indonesian men caned for gay sex in Aceh
Two men have been caned 83 times each in the Indonesian province of Aceh after being caught having sex. The men stood on stage in white gowns praying while a team of hooded men lashed their backs with a cane. The pair, aged 20 and 23, were found in bed together by vigilantes who entered… Read more »
Indonesia Police Arrest 141 Men Accused of Having Gay Sex Party
Jakarta, Indonesia — The police in Indonesia have arrested 141 men at a sauna in the capital on suspicion of having a gay sex party, the latest crackdown on homosexuality in the country. After the arrests in Jakarta on Sunday night, the police released to local news organizations numerous photographs of shirtless men who had… Read more »
Jakarta gay club raid leads to more than 100 men arrested
More than 100 men have been arrested for pornography, a crime that can carry a jail sentence, during a police raid on the Atlantis gay club in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. About 140 men were detained for questioning. Andreas Harsono from Human Rights Watch told the ABC some of the men were naked in a… Read more »
Sharia court sentences gay men to public lashing in Indonesia
A Sharia court in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province sentenced two gay men to a public caning Wednesday. The men, ages 20 and 23, were arrested in March by vigilantes within their community in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province. They were subsequently found guilty of violating Aceh’s strict Islamic laws and were sentenced to… Read more »
Give 80 lashings to men arrested for having gay sex, prosecutors urge judge
Two Indonesian men arrested for having gay sex have been told their punishment should be 80 lashes in public. The 20 and 23-year-old defendants reportedly appeared at the Shariah court last night without a lawyer, and heard the prosecution tell the judge they should receive 80 lashings with a cane. The case in Banda Aceh… Read more »
Indonesia’s LGBT community survives despite growing threats from government, clerics
Indonesia’s reigning transgender beauty queen holds her head up high as a wave of intolerance sweeps across Indonesia. Kiki, or Qie Nabh Tappiii, became Miss Waria Indonesia at a time when Indonesian officials, clerics and even government ministers regularly launch verbal assaults on the nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Waria is the… Read more »
Gay couple arrested for having sex face up to 100 lashings
A gay couple face up to 100 lashings by cane after a neighbours reported them to police for having sex. If found guilty the two men will be the first to be caned in Indonesia for gay sex, according to the Shariah police’s chief investigator. The men, aged 23 and 20, were arrested in the… Read more »
Gay Indonesians On Edge as Incidents of Brazen Homophobia Rise
Jakarta — Homophobic rhetoric is nothing new in Indonesian politics. In recent months, elected officials have labeled gay Indonesians as morally corrupt, inconsistent with national values, and “worse than nuclear warfare.” But the recent arrest of several gay men at a private party in south Jakarta’s Kalibata City was a shock for many, both because… Read more »
13 men arrested in Indonesia for holding ‘gay sex party’ even though they committed no crimes
Around 50 members of an extremist religious mob barged into the gay person’s home Jakarta police have arrested 13 men for holding a ‘gay sex party’ even though there is no evidence they committed a crime. Around 50 members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) barged into an apartment in South Jakarta, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar… Read more »
LGBT Jakartans: ‘Worse than a nuclear bomb? We just want to be accepted’
Intro: “In the Guardian newspaper Nov 26 was this report composed by a ‘typical’reporter Stanley Widianto which attempts to scare people into thinking that Armageddon is about to happen for the LGBT community in Indonesia. As usual the writer has found the worst examples of fear to re-enforce his negative point of view. He does… Read more »
What’s behind Indonesian authorities’ desire to control LGBT sexuality?
Indonesia’s LGBT community has been weathering “unprecedented attacks” through hateful public comments by top public officials since early this year. But the biggest threat yet has come recently in a legal move by a conservative group, the Family Love Alliance (AILA), to criminalise any sexual activity outside marriage. The Constitutional Court is deliberating the alliance’s… Read more »
Indonesian police want gay dating app ban
Jakarta – Indonesian police said Friday they want a ban on gay dating apps in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country after a paedophile ring allegedly used popular service Grindr to pimp boys. It was the latest move by Indonesian authorities against homosexuals, who have faced a sudden backlash this year, with the government recently… Read more »
A Happy Warrior in a Faltering Battle for Indonesian Gay Rights
Surabaya, Indonesia — After the United States Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage last year, a leading Indonesian television station held a prime-time debate about whether this Muslim-majority democracy should do the same. On one side of the stage stood a conservative Muslim theologian and a member of Parliament, both of whom strongly rejected the idea… Read more »
Indonesia has ‘no room’ for LGBT community says president’s spokesperson
The spokesperson for the president of Indonesia has said that the country has “no room” for the LGBT community. Amid reports of an unprecedented amount of anti-LGBT attacks in Indonesia, Johan Budi, the spokesman for the president, has said there is “no room” for the LGBT community. He said, “Rights of citizens like going to… Read more »
Things to Know About LGBT Issues in Indonesia
The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population of Muslim-majority Indonesia has long faced homophobia, but attacks and harassment have reached a fever pitch in recent months, with antigay rallies by religious hard-liners and declarations by some officials that it represents a threat to the country’s values. Here are five things to know about being LGBT… Read more »
Virulent anti-gay remarks test Indonesia’s moderate image
Jakarta, Indonesia (AP) — Gays are a contagion, declares the banner in bold red and black lettering that hangs on the sidewalk of a bustling neighborhood in the Indonesian capital close to embassies, luxury hotels and the homes of some of the country’s leaders. Erected by an ultra-conservative Islamic group, it’s the latest manifestation of… Read more »
Islamists Shutter First Trans Mosque
Indonesia is more progressive when it comes to gender fluidity than the West, but that tolerance has come under attack by Islamists. On Sundays, Shinta Ratri would sit in the back of the mosque, in her hijab and a full-body prayer garment, preparing to pray among her transgender sisters. Most of them would line up… Read more »
Indonesia psychiatrists label homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender as mental disorders
Indonesia’s leading psychiatric body says that LGBT can be cured through proper treatment. The Indonesian Psychiatrists Association (PDSKJI) has said that such ‘sexual tendencies’ are triggered by external factors and can be healed through psychiatric treatment. PDSKJI member Suzy Yusna Dewi talked to the Jakarta Post to address the country’s rising concerns on the growing… Read more »
MUI: UNDP’s $8 million program to protect LGBT rights will destroy Indonesian culture
The “LGBT panic” in Indonesia continues. After pushing to get rid of “gay emoticons”, religious leaders and Indonesian politicians are now going after a much more serious target – an initiative by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) aimed at protecting LGBT rights. On Sunday, Tengku Zulkarnain, the secretary general of the Indonesian Ulema Council… Read more »
Indonesia tackles homophobic harassment by Muslim hardliners
An Indonesian mayor has reprimanded a hardline Muslim group targeting homosexuals in the country’s third largest city, Bandung. Government officials have ordered Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) to remove homophobic banners that call on gays and lesbians to leave the city. Last week the FPI raided boarding houses in the city where they believed gay people… Read more »
LGBT Indonesians on campus: too hot to handle
Although same-sex practices and gender non-conformity have always been part of Indonesian culture, universities appear unaware or unwilling to acknowledge this fact. Photo by Flickr user torbakhopper. On the weekend, controversy over a support group for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) students at the University of Indonesia led Muhammad Nasir, the minister of research,… Read more »
Queer Southeast Asia: Recognition, Respect & Legitimacy
Over the past few decades, diverse new cultures and communities based on same-sex preference and transgender identity have become increasingly prominent in all the countries of Southeast Asia. Across the cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity of region, and despite the distinctive colonial and semicolonial political histories of the modern states of Southeast Asia (see Jackson… Read more »
Anti-gay laws come into effect in Indonesia’s Aceh province
Gay sex in the region to be punishable by 100 strokes of the cane. A strictly Muslim, and increasingly conservative, province in Indonesia has enacted a law punishing gay sex between Muslims. The province is the only one in the country that is allowed to implement Sharia law. Gay sex is not illegal in the… Read more »
Being LGBT In Southeast Asia: Stories Of Abuse, Survival And Tremendous Courage
LGBT groups in Southeast Asia are working double-time to bring about change. This is a 10-part series on LGBT rights in Southeast Asia, which uncovers the challenges facing the LGBT community in the region and highlights the courageous work of activists there. For the next nine days, we’ll be telling the stories of each country… Read more »
Address stigma and discrimination against LGBT people
Komnas HAM has called for an end to discrimination and stigma against the LGBTI community, urging the government to issue more supportive regulations. The former Chairperson and member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) Hafid Abbas has called for an end to discrimination and stigma against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender… Read more »
Indonesia Anti-Gay Fatwa Ignites Debates
Jakarta – A new fatwa by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) that criminalizes homosexuality in the world’s most populous Muslim state, has drawn mixed reactions, with rights activists seeing it “discriminatory”. “The fatwa combines molestation, which is a crime in the penal code system in Indonesia, with sexual orientation, which is not regarded as a… Read more »
Indonesian activists reject Muslim clerics’ anti-gay fatwa
Criticism greeted a harsh proposal from Indonesia’s top Islamic clerical group, which called for the country to enact a law against same-sex intimacy and to impose the death penalty. The proposal was contained in an edict, or fatwa, from the Indonesian Council of Ulema, which is known as the MUI, from its Indonesian name, Majelis… Read more »
Families must end LGBTI violence and improve rights in Asia
Bangkok (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Some of those most guilty of violence and discrimination against gays, lesbians and transgender people in Asia are their families, which must instead play a key role in improving LGBTI rights, activists from the region said. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI) in Asia face the threat of… Read more »
Strict sharia forces gays into hiding in Indonesia’s Aceh
Overwhelmed by fear, members of the main gay rights group in the Indonesian town of Banda Aceh started burning piles of documents outside their headquarters in late October, worried that the sharia police would raid them at any moment. Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh had weeks earlier passed an anti-homosexuality law that punishes anyone caught… Read more »
Indonesia’s Aceh introduces whipping as punishment for gay sex
Banda Aceh, Indonesia – The Indonesian province of Aceh on Saturday approved an anti-homosexuality law that can punish anyone caught having gay sex with 100 lashes, a lawmaker said. After a three-decade-old separatist movement, a peace agreement signed in 2005 granted special autonomy to Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra, on condition that it… Read more »
Transgender Islamic school reopened
A Pesantren Waria (Islamic boarding school for transgenders) in Yogyakarta has once again opened its doors, and brought the subject of freedom of religion for all — regardless of sexual orientation — back into the public arena. After the death of its founder Maryani last month, the school moved to a house belonging to Shinta… Read more »
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