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Well organized advocacy groups take on politicians
Keep it short: In Aceh, the only province that formally adopts Islamic law, sharia enforcement officers target not only LGBT people but also men who sport hairstyles that are not deemed Islamic
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span class="inline inline-center">Keep it short: In Aceh, the only province that formally adopts Islamic law, sharia enforcement officers target not only LGBT people but also men who sport hairstyles that are not deemed Islamic.(Antara/Ampelsa)
In Indonesia, the issue of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights started to become a major national issue that grabbed world attention only a few years ago when conservative religious leaders and public officials began to exploit the issue for their own political ends.
Since then the LGBT community has been scapegoated for various ills besetting Indonesia, such as the spread of HIV, moral decadence and prostitution. Today, the issue is a hot political “commodity” that no political actors want to miss out on.
Until the early 1990s, LGBT people used to enjoy relative peace free from fear of persecution. In cities, they formed social organizations to facilitate communications and the fight for common causes. When anti-LGBT sentiments grew, advocacy groups sprang up.
Dede Oetomo, a Felipa de Souza Award-winning gay activist and founder of the Surabaya-based LGBT organization GAYa Nusantara, recalls that when gay activists founded the Jakarta Transgender Association (Hiwad) in 1969, it was no big deal.
As the first well-documented transgender organization in the country, Hiwad secured the support of the then Jakarta governor, the legendary Ali Sadikin. Back then, transgender people were regarded as “socially disabled” and entitled to support from the Social Affairs Ministry.
No objection was raised and no political fallout undermined him for the sympathy. On the contrary, Hiwad and Ali’s support even inspired transgender communities in other regions to form their own organizations.
“Transgender groups were welcomed at that time,” Dede told The Jakarta Post.
Another gay organization, Lambda Indonesia was established in 1982. Billed as the largest in Asia, it dissolved in 1986 as a result of mismanagement. But Lambda’s demise did not mean the end of the idea. Thanks to the friendly political climate, in 1987 Dede founded GAYa Nusantara, which still exists today.
Dede, 64, is also a sociologist and AIDS activist. In 2012, he was a candidate for the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM). His sexual orientation was supposedly his undoing.
Ironically, LGBT people enjoyed greater freedom during the authoritarian New Order than they do now in the supposedly democratic era of today. So in 1986, lesbians established the Indonesian Lesbian Network (Perlesin) but the organization was also short-lived, again as a result of mismanagement.
Relations with the government were so warm that gay groups were treated as “partners” in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS. Particularly GAYa Nusantara was often invited by the Health Ministry for joint projects.
But that was until 1993 when the groups began to lose the government’s favor. “We were no longer invited to their meetings and they no longer recognized us as partners,” Dede recalled.
Why the government had a change of heart remains a mystery. One could only guess that it may have been because some conservative Muslim leaders and national media began to make an issue of unorthodox relations.
In the wake of the 1998 political reform and the rising Islamic conservatism, advocacy groups appeared to defend the marginalized LGBT people. Because the conservative Muslim groups were better organized, the battle became more open and less one-sided.
Among the support groups, the Indonesian Federation of LGBT Community (Arus Pelangi) is probably the best known today. Established in 2006, it focuses on campaigns to raise public awareness about sexuality and different sexual orientations and expressions.
Now while lawmakers are working to make same-sex relations a crime, Arus Pelangi has joined forces with rights organizations like the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation Institute (YLBHI) the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) and the Indonesian Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) to block the controversial draft law.
In the course of time, Arus Pelangi has also expanded its agenda to cover all issues related to democracy and human rights. Recently, together with like-minded groups, it has actively lobbied lawmakers to drop controversial articles in the Criminal Code bill, such as the criminalization of some same-sex relations and the extension of the adultery definition to include consensual premarital sex.
“These [controversial] articles are dangerous not just for the LGBT community but for the whole of civil society, including journalists,” Arus Pelangi chairperson Yuli Rustinawati said as she took part in a street protest against the bill.
Politicians insisted on including the criminalization of homosexuality and casual sex after the Constitutional Court rejected a petition on the subject by a group of Muslim academics affiliated with an Islamic group, the Family Love Alliance (AILA).
The Constitutional Court rejected the petition on the grounds that drafting new provisions was the remit of lawmakers.
Even though more LGBT organizations have emerged, one problem remains: Many LGBT people are too afraid to come into the open for fear of pressure, including from families and peers alike.
As Yuli says, it is not always easy to be open about one’s sexual orientation in the country.
