The Jakarta Post
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsFulfilling civil rights of sexual minority group
The media has participated in, hence justified, the act of intolerance committed by the authorities.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Set as preferred source
S
haring happy moments on social media is fun. Positive responses and congratulations add to the merriment. But that’s not the case for Suriya Koedsang. His happy wedding photo he posted on social media resulted in bullying, even threats, because of his same-sex marriage. The wave of hateful responses came not from his own country, Thailand, but from Indonesian netizens.
What is wrong with Suriya? The wedding ceremony took place at his own home and was attended by his family members and close friends. Moreover, the event occurred in a country that recognizes same-sex marriage. Why were Indonesian netizens inflamed?
Discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) community is rampant in Indonesia, the world’s largest predominantly Muslim nation. In September 2020, for example, police arrested 56 people in an apartment in Kuningan, South Jakarta for allegedly holding a gay party. It seems gays are legally prohibited from partying in this country.
The media has exacerbated the stigma on the LGBT community by reporting the arrest in an unfair manner by giving no space to the people arrested to speak out. In doing so, the media has participated in, hence justified, the act of intolerance committed by the authorities.
In one of its serial reports related to the gay party, the country’s biggest news portal, detik.com, blasted video footage entitled "This is what the initiator of ‘hot space’ gay party looks like".
How much hatred and hostility do Indonesians have against LGBTIQ people? Is there any hope for the minority group to live and enjoy rights like other citizens?
At the end of 2019, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) announced a ban on LGBTIQ people from its recruitment of new employees. This discriminatory policy quickly generated public protests, one of them from the Gerindra Party, one of the largest political parties in the country.
