“[The men] shouted ‘Your pussy has never had a dick so that’s why you can be like this,’ and ‘The Americans are paying you to behave like this – to sin against Islam and Indonesia'," an activist told Human Rights Watch (HRW).



The police officer stood by as the men tried to enter the rented room shared by the two women. Two activists barred their way.

"If you don’t let us in the room, we will force our way in and rape you," one of the men threatened.



After more insults and threats, the men eventually left. But, an activist told Human Rights Watch, the couple were advised not to report the incident to police – for fear of retaliation.

“The police were clearly already spying on us if they came with that group to a private room, so there wasn’t much we could expect," they said.

"How can we report the police to the police?”

In a new report, Human Rights Watch has found that a series of anti-LGBT comments from government officials triggered an unprecedented wave of violence and harassment against LGBT Indonesians from early 2016.