Tag: Indonesia

Police in Indonesia have arrested 141 men for attending what the authorities have called a “gay sex party”. The arrests took place in the capital city of Jakarta on Sunday (May 21). It marks the latest in a string of mass arrests in Indonesia, where the LGBT community appears to be coming under increasing pressure and persecution from the authorities. Nationally, Indonesian law does not explicitly prohibit private, non-commercial homosexual relations between consenting adults. In Aceh Province Islamic-based by-laws have been passed as...

The two men, aged 20 and 23, will receive the punishment in public on May 23 - just before the start of the holy month of Ramadan. A gay couple will be punished by 85 strokes of a cane in a public ceremony in Indonesia, after they were convicted of homosexuality. The two men, aged 20 and 23, will receive the punishment in public on May 23 – just before the start of the holy month of Ramadan. The couple are the...

Eight men have been arrested for holding a “gay party” in Indonesia. The two alleged organisers of last night’s event in Surabaya, the second biggest city in Indonesia, could face up to 15 years in prison. Six other attendees have had charges filed against them under the country’s strict anti-pornography law, according to Agence France-Presse. Shinto Silitonga, the local police’s head of detectives, said there were 14 men in two hotel rooms watching gay porn and performing “deviant sexual acts”. “This is the...

Aceh's Sharia Law could lead to discrimination and over-criminalization of LGBTI people in the province Two men were arrested in the Indonesian province of Aceh under the accusation they were gay and in a relationship. Neighbours reported the two students who said they had been acting ‘lovey-dovey’ for about three months. Police raided a rental home last week and alleged they caught the men while they were having sex. The police also said they found condoms in the home which proved the...

Around 50 members of an extremist religious mob barged into the gay person's home. Jakarta police have arrested 13 men for holding a ‘gay sex party’ even though there is no evidence they committed a crime. Around 50 members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) barged into an apartment in South Jakarta, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar (God is great)!’, and forced police to arrest the group of men. According to police, they were tipped off by a member from the extremist religious group...

The head of an Indonesian university has initiated a program to “normalise” gay students. The State University of Gorontalo (UNG) in northern Indonesia issued the new policies which target members of the LGBT community. Syamsu Qamar Badu, the rector of the university, announced that a “special team” will be employed to look out for and offer counselling too students who they suspect may be within the community. “This identification process will not be easy, but we can’t just let it happen if...

Indonesia’s president has condemned rampant anti-LGBT discrimination in his country. After months of silence, Joko Widodo has finally spoken against the worsening climate for LGBT people living in Indonesia, who have faced a sharp increase in legal and social prejudice over the last year. He told the BBC: “The police must act . There should be no discrimination against anyone.” The short statement comes following what Human Rights Watch describes as “months of increasingly hateful rhetoric from government officials and religious organisations”...

Homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, but police plan to charge the men with breaking anti-pornography laws. An Indonesian gay couple has been arrested after a photo on Facebook of the men kissing sparked anger, police said Friday, in the latest move against the country's homosexual community. There has been a growing backlash against gay people in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country this year, with government ministers and religious leaders lining up to denounce them. The 22-year-old university student and 24-year-old...