Brilio.net/en - Over the last weeks, the Indonesian LGBT movements have been violently tackled by religious and political opponents.
It started last month, when the Minister of Higher Education, Mohammad Nasir, denounced the psychological support given to the homosexual students. The victims of this overt discrimination have been organizing in demonstrations in some parts of the country and through social media.
On February 11th, Ismail Cawidu, representative at the Ministry of Communication, declared that the following apps: Whatsapp, Twitter and Facebook, will have to remove any emojis and stickers referring to LGBT-related subjects. We have our own rules, our own religious values and standards that those services must comply to, he explained.
Even the language around the LGBTQ community is becoming even tougher this week, with a very controversial declaration of the Ryamizard Ryacudu, Minister of National Defence:The gay community represents a threat and we need to resort to the techniques of modern war to fight against it.
Finally, the president of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (high religious authority), Yusnar Yusuf, invited the population to think in a positive way about the solutions that could be brought to rescue LGBT people. According to this latter, they indeed suffer of a mental disease and need to be cured.
The Indonesian Council of Ulemas, the highest religious authority of Islam, is requiring that the Government make sexual relationships between two persons of the same sex, a crime punishable by law. Their assumptions are based on the fact that homosexuality is not only a deviance but also an unconstitutional act.
According to the national medias, Indonesian parliamentarians are currently examining the matter and already thinking of a laws project. There is actually already some local regulation like it is the case in the Aceh province, the only one in the country applying the strict directives of the Sharia rules (Islamic law). The local law states that homosexual relationships must be punished by wooden stick slashes.
President Jokowi has remained quiet for now and hasnt done any comments regarding this matter so far, despite the fact that his intervention is eagerly awaited by the NGO Human Rights Watch. He must urgently sentence any anti-LGBT words coming from the member of the Government, before this verbal conflict lead to more consequent abuses.
Pro-LGBT supporting demonstration took place last weekend in Jakarta but were perturbed by anti-LGBT groups. Furthermore, transgender school in Jogjakarta had to close and send students home upon threats (Read also: Yogyakarta shuts down school for transgender worshippers). Suara Kita, an association defending LGBT-rights, was recently forced to close its doors for security issues as well. The President of the association remains confident though and believes in Jokowis promises to fight against the abuses of human rights and to defend minorities. Promises made during his election campaign which made him gain the support of almost all the Indonesian LGBT community and that they would like now see him put those into practice now.