Recently Deddy Corbuzier apologized for his May 7 podcast with the provocative title “Tutorial on how to be gay in Indonesia”, featuring a German-Indonesian gay couple, Ragil Mahardika and Frederik Vollert, and took the episode off the air.

Why? Because the podcast had triggered a huge brouhaha from conservative Muslim groups and many netizens, who accused him of campaigning for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Deddy denied it.

"From the start I said I don't support the LGBT community.” But then he said, “I simply see them as human beings; I’m just revealing the fact that they are around us, and I personally feel that I have no right to judge them," which seems very much like an implicit defense of LGBT.

Nevertheless, his apology and removal of the podcast drew criticism from LGBT groups as it gives the impression that “the sentiment and discrimination were justified”. Oh dear! It seems that Deddy was caught between a rock and a hard place.

Predictably, Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second-largest Muslim organization, and the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) condemned the podcast and the LGBT community in general, saying that they were abnormal, that they needed to be cured, not tolerated. Ho hum, got anything new and nice to say for a change?

Initially, I was pleasantly surprised when I read that Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said, “There is no law to ensnare Corbuzier and LGBT perpetrators.” Was he actually defending LGBT? Then, I realized that he was implying that Indonesia needs a law to regulate what he deems to be deviant LGBT behavior.