LGBT rights in Indonesia
The national criminal code does not prohibit private, non-commercial homosexual relations between consenting adults. A national bill to criminalize homosexuality, along with cohabitation, adultery and the practice of witchcraft, failed to be enacted in 2003 and no subsequent bill has been reintroduced.
In 2002, the Indonesian Government gave Aceh Province the right to introduce Sharia Law, albeit only to Muslim residents. For example, the city of Palembang introduced jail and fines for homosexual sex. Under the law homosexuality is defined as an act of ‘prostitution that violates the norms of common decency, religion, and legal norms as they apply to societal rule'. The following acts are defined as acts of prostitution: homosexual sex, lesbians, sodomy, sexual harassment, and other pornographic acts. Fifty-two regions have since enacted Sharia-based law from the Qur'an, which criminalizes homosexuality.
In Jakarta, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgendered, and transsexuals are legally labeled as "cacat" or mentally handicapped and are therefore not protected under the law. While Indonesia has allowed private and consensual sexual relations between persons of the same sex since 1993, it has a higher age of consent for same-sex relations than for heterosexual relations.
The Constitution does not explicitly address sexual orientation or gender identity. It does guarantee all citizens various legal rights, including equality before the law, equal opportunity, humane treatment in the workplace, religious freedom, freedom of opinion, peaceful assembly, and association. Such legal rights are all expressly limited by the laws designed to protect public order and religious morality.
The status of transvestite, transsexual or other transgender persons in Indonesia is complex. Cross-dressing is not, per se, illegal and some public tolerance is given to some transgender people working in beauty salons or in the entertainment industry, most notably the celebrity talk show host Dorce Gamalama. However, the law does not protect transgender people from discrimination or harassment and it also does not provide for sex change operations or allowing transgender persons to gain new legal documents after they have made the transition.
Discrimination, harassment, even violence directed at transgender people isn't uncommon. Transgender people who don't hide their gender identity often find it difficult to maintain legitimate employment and thus are often forced into prostitution and other illegal activities to survive.
The Islamic Indonesian Ulema Council ruled that transgender persons must live in the gender that they were born with. "If they aren't willing to cure themselves medically and religiously", said a Council member, they must be willing "to accept their fate to be ridiculed and harassed."
In 2012, Yuli Retoblaut, a fifty-year-old transgender person, publicly applied to be the head of the nation's human rights commission.
| The law does not unions or domestic | recognize gay marriage, civil partnership benefits. |
As of 2007, no law exists to protect Indonesia citizens from discrimination or harassment on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Law Against Pornography and Pornoaction prohibits "…any writing or audio-visual presentation â€" including songs, poetry, films, paintings, and photographs that show or suggest sexual relations between persons of the same sex." Those in violation of the law could be fined or sentenced to prison for up to seven years. However, the media is now giving homosexuality more media coverage in Indonesia.
Most political parties and politicians remain silent in the cause of LGBT rights but some politicians from the PDI-P and the moderately conservative PKB (National Awakening Party) support LGBT rights.
Indonesia contains the most Muslim people in the world with 89% of its citizens identifying themselves as Muslim. The family policy of the Indonesian authorities, the social pressure to marry and religion means that homosexuality is generally not supported. Both traditionalists and modernist Muslims, and also other religious group such as Christians, especially Roman Catholics generally oppose homosexuality. Many Islamic fundamentalist groups such as the FPI and the FBR (Betawi Council Forum) are openly hostile towards LGBT people by attacking the home or work of those they believe are a threat to the values of Islam.
Explicit discrimination and violent homophobia is carried out mainly by religious extremists, while subtle discrimination and marginalization occurs in daily life among friends, family, at work or school. LGBT people often suffer abuse by the hands of the police but it is hard to document due to victims refusing to give statements due to their sexuality. LGBT people are often arrested or charged due to their sexual orientation. Also gays in jails are sexually abused due to their sexual orientation, and often don't report it due to being traumatized and fear of being sent back to prison to suffer further abuse.
Indonesia does have a reputation as being a relatively moderate and tolerant Muslim nation, which does have some application to LGBT people. There are some LGBT people in the media and the national government has allowed a discrete LGBT community to exist, even organize public events. However, the conservative Islamic social mores tend to dominate within the broader society. Homosexuality and cross-dressing remain taboo and periodically LGBT people become the targets of local religious laws or fanatical vigilante groups.
In 1982 the 1st gay rights interest group was established in Indonesia. The "Lambda Indonesia" and other similar organizations arose in the late 1980s and 1990s. Today, some of the major LGBT associations in the nation include "Gaya Nusantara" and "Arus Pelangi".
The gay and lesbian movement in Indonesia is one of the oldest and largest in Southeast Asia. Lambda Indonesia activities included organizing social gatherings, consciousness-raising and created a newsletter, but the group dissolved in the 1990s. Gaya Nusantara is a gay rights group which focuses on homosexual issues such as AIDS. Another group is the Yayasan Srikandi Sejati, which was founded in 1998. Their main focus is health issues pertaining to transgendered people and their work includes providing HIV/AIDS counseling and free condoms to transgender sex workers at a free health clinic. There are now over thirty LGBT groups in Indonesia.
The Balinese are Hindu/animist, unlike the rest of predominantly Muslim Indonesia. Bali is a province of Indonesia, and the population of Bali is about 2.5 million.
Legal guidelines regarding HIV/AIDS don't exist, although AIDS is a major problem in most countries in the region. Those infected with HIV traveling to Indonesia can be refused entry or threatened with quarantine. Due to the lack of sex education in Indonesian schools, there is little knowledge of the disease among the general population. Some organizations, however, do offer sex education â€" though they face open hostility from school authorities. In the beginning of the gay rights movement in Indonesia, LGBT organizations focused exclusively on health issues which led to the public believing that AIDS was a ‘gay disease’ and led to LGBT people being stigmatized.
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