In this current climate of “LGBT panic” in Indonesia, with numerous religious and political leaders seemingly competing over who can denounce gay rights the loudest, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has once again spoken up for the LGBT community using reason, compassion and his signature wit.

Yesterday, while he was giving a talk to young people, a student from the University of Indonesia’s Department of Sociology asked Ahok about the LGBT controversy, specifically asking the governor whether the government should have the right to regulate people’s affections and whether corruption was worse than LGBT.

Ahok prefaced his remarks by saying “If you mean in terms of religion and holy books’ (stance on LGBT), then no. God created Adam and Hawa, not Adam and Ali (the Islamic equivalent of ‘God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve’).”

But Ahok then went on to recount an eye-opening experience he had during a three-week trip to San Francisco in the United States sometime back. He said the people in his group happened to walk by what looked like a wedding that was about to take place in City Hall.

“Basically the guys were curious to see the bride. As we were waiting, we wondered where the bride was, as the groom was already with the pastor, “Ahok said, as quoted by Kompas.

Ahok said that a few minutes later, a man came, neatly dressed, carrying a child. As it turned out, he was there to marry the groom.

“With the pastor there, they were asked if they were ready to get married right there in City Hall. It was the death of me!” Ahok joked to the laughter of hundreds of students.

Ahok said that for him, as long as the LGBT community and other communities do not interfere with the rights of others, they were not a problem.

“There are no good human beings in this world, everybody is a sinner. We cannot judge others.”

Perhaps not the strongest statement in favor of gay rights, but Ahok is still the only Indonesian politician that we know of (with the notable exception of Coordinating Minister for Legal, Political and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan) to have spoken out in favor of protecting the rights of the LGBT community.

Previously, he said that no one has the right to determine people’s sexual orientations, noting that LGBT individuals have always existed in society ever since the era of the prophets.

The government, according to Ahok, should instead focus on the more pressing matter of the spread of HIV/AIDS, which is a critical issue affecting LGBT communities and the rest of Indonesia.

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