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Pageant winners champion LGBT rights
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Coming out loud: Faizal (second right) from Jakarta and Oxelia (right) from Gorontalo, northern Sulawesi, are voted Mister and Miss Gaya Dewata 2017 after a lengthy workshop and grand final at Bhumiku Convention Center in Denpasar, Bali. (JP/Luh De Suriyani)
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Bali-based NGO is advocating for the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community through creative channels and methods.
The NGO, the Gaya Dewata Foundation, is one of Bali’s oldest and was founded by Putu Jaya. One of its advocacy methods is an annual pageant.
Dubbed the Miss and Mister Gaya Dewata Contest, the pageant recently finished its 2017 edition, themed human rights for the LGBT community.
There were 24 pageant finalists comprising gays and transvestites from Purwokerto, Central Java; Surabaya; Malang, East Java; Palopo, South Sulawesi; Bandung, West Java; Bima, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB); and a Pakistani named Naomi.
Gaya Dewata Foundation director Christian Supriyadinata said the finalists received training on human rights, sexual orientation, gender, identity, expression and the body during the pageant.
“Their awareness of human rights allowed them to know what they were doing,” Christian said.
One of the human rights issues the finalists discussed was on civil administration constraints, Christian said. For example, transvestites cannot declare themselves as female on their identity cards because of their male status on birth certificates.
The finalists’ understanding of human rights was then put to the test during the night of the pageant at the Bhumiku Convention Center in Denpasar, Bali, on Nov. 8.
Six contestants earned spots in the final round, in which the masters of ceremony — Sofia and Andre — asked why it was important for them to have an understanding of human rights.
Oxelia, a finalist from Gorontalo, Sulawesi, answered that an understanding of their rights of expression and duties as individuals in a society was important, while Faizal from Jakarta said that stigmatization and discrimination against the LGBT community needed to end.
With their answers, Faizal and Oxelia were named Mister Gaya Dewata and Miss Gaya Dewata, respectively.
In addition to being educated on human rights issues, the finalists also received training on the importance of HIV/AIDS tests during the pageant.
The training changed their behavior from being fearful of examinations to being willing to undergo medical check-ups, according to Christian.
To have LGBT representatives campaign for the importance of HIV/AIDS tests is important for Bali, which recorded around 176,000 infection cases in 1987, putting the resort island third in recorded cases after Jakarta and Papua.
As of now, HIV/AIDS prevention method principles in Indonesia are defined by the ABCDE acronym, which stands for “abstinence, be faithful, condoms, do not inject drugs and education,” coupled with the encouragement to visit health clinics for early detection as well as ARV treatment to inhibit the spread of HIV.
Badung Regency’s AIDS Control Commission Secretariat chief Ayu Cempaka appealed to the pageant finalists during the opening to help the commission curb the number of cases by campaigning about the importance of HIV/ AIDS tests in the finalists’ respective regions.
Winners of Miss, Mister Gaya Dewata will promote human rights LGBT representatives will campaign for HIV/AIDS tests
