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ssst, guess what? In the first two weeks of December I engaged in a lot of sex-filled activities '€” straight, gay, queer and everything in between! Woohooo!

Exciting, huh? Indeed, but not in the way you think. They were activities related to Human Rights Day, which falls every year on Dec. 10, and to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, commemorated every year on Nov. 25.

On Dec. 5, I attended the launch of the 87th issue of Jurnal Perempuan (Woman'€™s Journal), which had as its theme '€œKeragaman Gender dan Seksualitas'€ (Gender and Sexual Diversity). The event was organized by Jurnal Perempuan (JP), the first feminist journal in Indonesian, the Ardhanary Institute (a lesbian, bisexual, transgender organization) and the Dutch Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (HIVOS).

The three main speakers all spoke about LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) rights. Gadis Arivia (a philosophy lecturer at UI and the founder of JP) presented her research on the challenges for LGBT in Indonesia '€” and the challenges for her in researching LGBT who are elusive about their identity because of the stigma and abuse they suffer.

Did you ever think of yourself as queer? Most likely not, if you'€™re straight. But Hendri Yulius, the second presenter, assures us that we can all be queer, which is about the fluidity of human fantasy and desire. For example, a woman could be fantasizing about a woman'€™s body while she'€™s having sex with a man. Hendri himself, who is gay, is not aroused by watching two men kissing, but he is by watching two women smooching. Try to get that around your head!

The point that Hendri is making is that sexual desire, femininity and masculinity are all fluid. Many of us are conscripted by culture into stereotypical gender roles that we perform like actors playing out a tight movie script. Imagine how fun and exciting it would be to have the freedom to explore outside of that script!

One of the problems in present day Indonesia is the tension between religious norms and human rights standards that is clearly reflected in the way that LGBT people are treated. Masthuriyah Sa'€™dan, a young jilbabed lecturer from Islamic State University (UIN) in Yogyakarta, addressed this issue, drawing upon the work of Khaled M. Abou El-Fadl, a professor of law from UCLA, to reconcile this tension so that the rights of LGBT people are accommodated by both religious and state law.

For me it was exciting '€” and also very touching to listen to the presentations, as well as to the discussions. In 1981 and 1991, as guest editor of the journal Prisma, I pioneered gender and sexuality studies, then unknown in Indonesia. It was a lonely journey. So decades later, witnessing the sophistication of the current discourse and dialogue in Indonesia on sexuality, I felt rewarded. I also felt that now it was I who could learn from the third generation of scholars and activists immersed in gender and sexual studies.

One of the accusations leveled at LGBT in Indonesia is that it'€™s immoral and that it'€™s a Western import.

Is it really? on Dec. 10, I attended a film screening organized by the Ardhanary Institute, Calalai, in betweenness, about the five genders that traditionally exist among the Bugis of South Sulawesi. Besides male and female, there are also calabai (effeminate men), calalai (masculine women) and bissu, priests who act as intermediaries between people and gods, embodying both masculine and feminine traits. Far from being stigmatized, these five genders have an integral role in Bugis society, each having different and fluid roles.

The event also launched a book by Lily Sugianto, Eksistensi Calalai dalam budaya Sulawesi Selatan (The Existence of Calalai in the Culture of South Sulawesi). There have been other works on the three genders outside of the binary male and female in Sulawesi, but Sugianto'€™s study takes the women'€™s, or calalai'€™s perspective. Nowadays, invariably the bissu is a calabai, which indicates rising sexism within Bugis society.

Could this be a result of modernization? Possibly, in the same way that the matrilineal system of the Minangkabau in South Sumatra has also been eroded by modernism. Incidentally, in the Bugis and Minang cultures, both Muslim societies, Islam and traditional values are '€” or were '€” like the weft and the weave of the societal fabric.

Then on Dec. 11 I attended a screening and discussion of the film Bulu Mata (Eyelashes), about LGBT, focusing on waria (transgender women) in Aceh. What? The mind boggles! LGBT in Aceh, where sharia is implemented? How does one even reconcile it one'€™s mind, let alone in practice?

Recently, Aceh'€™s criminal code, which spells out jarimah (sinful and illegal acts) such as khamar (drinking), maisir (gambling), khalwat and ikhtilath (being alone with the opposite sex), zina (adultery), sexual harassment, rape, liwath (male homosexuality, sodomy) and musahaqah (lesbianism) was passed. Punishments under the code, the qanun jinayah, are harsh, involving fines, prison and caning.

Transgender women in Aceh, like in many other areas in Indonesia, face discrimination and abuse. Despite feeling persecuted and having basic rights denied, in the film the waria state their acceptance of sharia and their love for Islam and Aceh. How does one reconcile this? Painful or what?

Since Indonesia embarked on democratization in 1998, we have adopted many if not most of the instruments of human rights, which are also enshrined in our Constitution, but how do we implement them if even our lawmakers, such as Muhammad Nasir Djamil of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), state that the LGBT in Indonesia are a threat to the life of state and national integration of Indonesia? He added: even more so than separatism.

In a speech on Dec. 11 to commemorate Human Rights Day, President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo reaffirmed his commitment to continue promoting the protection of human rights. Hello? With regards LGBT, the state has largely been absent pak Jokowi!

So maybe it'€™s time now that Jurnal Perempuan should educate not just activists, but also lawmakers and government officials to attend their public education courses and get them properly queered.

Who knows, they might actually like it!
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The writer is the author of Julia'€™s Jihad.