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The endless trials for Indonesian trans men
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Business: Tama (right) visits his friend, a trans woman who helps to sew Tama's Pride merchandise on Dec. 15, 2021. (JP/Taufan Wijaya) (JP/Taufan Wijaya)
I
ndonesian trans men continue to face challenges and attacks from society and their closest circles. From jeers to violence, acceptance is still a long way off.
Mario Prajna “Tama” Pratama, a trans man from Yogyakarta recalls the first time he opened up about his gender identity. Ten years ago, he told a close friend, only to be met with a dismissive comment regarding how he was trying to “climb the ladder to a higher [social] class.”
The 32-year-old said that the words of his friend, a woman, hurt and drove him to tears. He felt discredited as a person who had finally found his true self.
In an environment that Tama thought was increasingly open to gender identity, he saw how being a trans man still came with plenty of stigma and misconceptions.
Misunderstood
Unlike other members of the LGBTQ community, who already face discrimination and other challenges, the trans men interviewed for this story feel that as a community, they are the least discussed, and therefore least understood by the majority of Indonesians.
To date, there are only three transmen organizations or communities in Indonesia, Transmen Indonesia (TI), Persatuan Priawan Indonesia (Indonesian Transmen Association) and Trans Men Talk. TI, founded in 2015, is the oldest of the three – showing how young these communities are.
