Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) communities in Yogyakarta celebrated on Friday the Transgender Day of Remembrance by staging a silent rally at the Yogyakarta Police office. They urged the Police to immediately apprehend the perpetrators of violent acts against LGBT communities in Yogyakarta, which had left LGBT people suffering from injuries and bone fractures.

'€œThe level of violence against LGBT people in the public sphere in Yogyakarta has remained high,'€ Mario Prajna Pratama, an activist from LGBT rights advocacy group People Like Us Satu Hati (PLUSH), told thejakartapost.com on Friday.

The group recorded that the most violent attack occurred last year when LGBT communities celebrated the Transgender Day of Remembrance at the Tugu monument on Nov. 20, 2014. In the midst of the rally, several members from a radical group suddenly attacked the LGBT people attending the event. Seven people were injured and a transsexual suffered an arm-bone fracture.

'€œResearch conducted by rights group Arus Pelangi in 2013 showed that 89.3 percent of LGBT people in three big cities, namely Jakarta, Makassar and Yogyakarta, had experienced violence,'€ said Mario.

He said the violence experienced by LGBT people occurred in the economic, cultural, physical, psychological and sexual fields.

In Yogyakarta, violence against transsexuals has reportedly increased after a regional regulation (Perda) on homeless drifters and beggars took effect last year. Yogyakarta has since been considered an unsafe area for LGBT people. Recently, the police banned a discussion on LGBT issues at the University of Sanata Dharma following threats the organizers received from radical organizations.

The trend toward discrimination and violence has been rising of late. In 2010, the Q Film Festival was dispersed and in 2012, the Canadian activist, writer and liberal Muslim Irshad Manji was attacked. Manji'€™s event had to be cancelled in light of the violence.

'€œMany transsexuals are arrested while begging or playing musical instruments. In shelters, they are forced to perform like men by cutting their long hair,'€ said Mario.

Also on Friday, several transsexuals, accompanied by Yogyakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Yogyakarta) lawyers, came to the Yogyakarta Police office and asked for a progress report on how the police had handled violent attacks on their compatriots.

The head of the police'€™s criminal investigations unit, Comr. Heru Muslimin, said the police would continue to pursue the perpetrators of the violence. He also promised that he himself would handle the police'€™s investigations into the cases.

'€œWe have faced difficulties in investigating the cases because the victims could not offer up to us the particular features of the attackers,'€ he said.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance has been celebrated globally every Nov. 20 since 1999. Every year, dozens of LGBT people are tortured to death by people who do not like to see their presence in society. In 2015, around 79 LGBT people died of torture. The Transgender Day of Remembrance aims to decrease public hatred toward LGBT people. (ebf)

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