Jakarta says ‘no room’ for LGBTs

BACKWARD STEP: The Indonesian government said that protecting LGBT rights is not a priority, with one minister likening gay rights groups to a ‘type of modern warfare’

AFP, JAKARTA





Indonesia yesterday said that there was “no room” for the gay community in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, as activists blasted officials for an unprecedented series of attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens.

A wave of angry rhetoric directed at homosexuals earlier this year — including a call to ban them from university campuses — was the first time senior officials had publicly attacked the Southeast Asian nation’s gay community, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released yesterday.

Indonesia’s LGBT citizens have long been targeted by vigilante Muslim groups.

Motorists pass by graffiti calling for tolerance in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on Monday. Photo: AFP

However, the community experienced an “immediate deterioration” in their rights following a sustained assault by ministers, religious hard-liners and influential Islamic organizations over a two-month period, HRW said.

In response, the government said protecting LGBT rights was not a priority.

“Rights of citizens like going to school and getting an ID card are protected, but there is no room in Indonesia for the proliferation of the LGBT movement,” presidential spokesman Johan Budi said.

Some of the most high-profile figures making anti-gay statements during the backlash — which activists believe might have been triggered by media coverage of the US decision to legalize same-sex marriage — were government ministers.

The higher education minister called for a ban on LGBT organizations on university campuses, while the defense minister likened homosexual rights groups to a “type of modern warfare.”

In their report, HRW said that “what began as public condemnation quickly grew into calls for criminalization and ‘cures,’ laying bare the depth and breadth of officials’ individual prejudices.”

The spike in anti-LGBT vitriol, predominantly during January and February, has intensified violence against sexual minorities throughout Indonesia, the report said.

Indonesia’s largest Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama, in February described gay lifestyles as perverted and a desecration of human dignity. In Aceh, the only Indonesian province that applies Islamic law, the local government urged business owners to refuse to hire gay citizens.

In interviews with activist groups, HRW reported gay rights organizations shut their offices and even hid staff as threats mounted against them.

In Yogyakarta, a Muslim group forced the closure of a transgender Islamic boarding school, while a peaceful rally in the same city in support of Indonesia’s LGBT community was shut down.

“The impact of anti-LGBT rhetoric from government officials is enormous for us as individuals. For those of us who have worked so hard and risked so much to come out, it is a major step backward,” a lesbian activist in eastern Indonesia told HRW.

Activists have also filed a judicial review at the Indonesian Constitutional Court aimed at making gay sex a crime. The court is currently holding hearings into the case.