Tag Archives: Indonesia

Agence France-Presse reports: A gay couple was publicly whipped in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province on Friday (July 13), despite an earlier pledge by officials to stop the punishment after it drew international criticism. The two men were flogged more than 80 times each for having gay sex, which is outlawed under local Islamic law, as a jeering crowd hurled abuse …

The Associated Press reports: Riding a tsunami of moral conservatism and anti-gay prejudice, Indonesia’s Islamic political parties appear on the cusp of a major victory: outlawing all sex outside marriage. Revisions to Indonesia’s criminal code being considered by Parliament would allow prison sentences of up to five years for sex between unmarried people. Those changes would also criminalize gay sex, …

Coconuts Jakarta reports: Indonesia’s IT Ministry says it has filed a request to Google to block around 70 LGBT social networking apps from being available to download in the country through the Google Play Store. IT Minister Rudiantara confirmed today that the ministry is unable to block the apps themselves as they are all available under Google’s platform. One of …

The Associated Press reports: Indonesia’s top court on Thursday ruled against petitioners seeking to make gay sex and sex outside marriage illegal in a victory for the country’s besieged LGBT minority. The 5-to-4 decision by the nine-judge panel of the Constitutional Court rejected the arguments of a conservative group, the Family Love Alliance, which believes Indonesia is being swamped by …

The Washington Post reports: This week, a government journal in the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan announced that the country’s interior ministry had compiled a registry of “proven” gays and lesbians. The list named 319 men and 48 women, whom Tajik federal prosecutors identified in operations they called “Morality” and “Purge.” A purge — likely in the form of mass …

The Guardian reports: The reality of working in a factory making clothes for Ivanka Trump’s label has been laid bare, with employees speaking of being paid so little they cannot live with their children, anti-union intimidation and women being offered a bonus if they don’t take time off while menstruating. The Guardian has spoken to more than a dozen workers …

Reuters reports: Police in Indonesia’s most populous province plan to deploy a taskforce to investigate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activity, a move likely to fuel concerns of a widening crackdown on the community in the Muslim-majority country. West Java police chief Anton Charliyan disclosed the plan on Tuesday as two gay men in the province of Aceh were …

ABC News reports: Two men in Indonesia’s Aceh province were publicly caned dozens of times Tuesday for consensual gay sex, a punishment that intensifies an anti-gay backlash in the world’s most populous Muslim country and which rights advocates denounced as “medieval torture.” More than a thousand people packed the courtyard of a mosque to witness the caning, which was the …

The Associated Press reports: Indonesian police detained dozens of men including several foreigners in a weekend raid on a gay sauna in the capital, another sign of growing hostility to homosexuality in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. Police spokesman Argo Yuwono said 141 men were detained for questioning in the raid Sunday evening on the gym and sauna in …

The Jakarta Post reports: Along with a group of hard-liners, the Pancoran Police arrested 13 men on Saturday night at an apartment block in South Jakarta for allegedly holding “a sex party”. Despite no strong evidence that the men had committed any crime, around 50 members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) barged into an apartment in the Kalibata City …

J. Lester Feder reports at Buzzfeed: A group of academics and activists urged the Constitutional Court of Indonesia to criminalize fornication and homosexuality on Tuesday in the latest hearing of a lawsuit that began earlier this year. The suit, which has been brought by 12 academics and activists, has already had several hearings, but captured international attention earlier this month …

From the Jakarta Post: Apparently under pressure to take preventive measures against the spread of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) propaganda through the internet, the Communications and Information Ministry is drafting a bill to ban websites that promote such activities. Ministry spokesperson Ismail Cawidu said the ministry had set up a panel that would meet to discuss the matter …

Indonesia’s crackdown on its LGBT population continues. Gay Star News reports: Indonesia has banned men from behaving effeminately or dressing in women’s clothing on TV. The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) issued a directive Tuesday (23 February) after receiving complaints from viewers. The directive specifically banned: Men wearing feminine fashion. Men wearing feminine make-up. Feminine body language exhibited by men, including, …

Things just continue to get worse in Indonesia. J. Lester Feder reports at Buzzfeed: On Friday, Indonesia’s former Information and Communications Minister Tifatul Sembering, tweeted, “A saying of the Prophet [Mohamed]: Whomever you find committing the acts of the community of Lot (homosexual) should be put to death.” Sembering is now a member of Parliament from the Islamist Prosperous Justice …

Coconuts Jakarta reports: We seriously do think that Indonesian politicians are competing to see who can say the craziest, most scaremongering thing possible about LGBT issues. After Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu recently declared that the pro-LGBT movement was more dangerous than nuclear warfare, today we have Tangerang Mayor Arief Wismansyah saying that feeding your baby canned milk and instant noodles …

Coconuts Jakarta reports: The climate of moral panic over LGBT rights in Indonesia is really getting scary now. With messaging app LINE having been intimidated into pulling their pro-LGBT stickers in Indonesia and the government pushing Whatsapp and Facebook to follow suit, several prominent Indonesian politicians are now pushing for the government to block all websites containing pro-LGBT content. “As …

Last fall Russian police launched an investigation into whether Apple’s so-called “gay emojis” violate the national ban on gay propaganda. Yesterday Indonesia asked Facebook to block them entirely. TIME reports: Indonesian authorities on Thursday said they would ask Facebook and its popular messaging service WhatsApp, to block subscribers from using emojis and stickers with LGBT themes. Ismail Cawidu, spokesperson at …

The Jakarta Globe reports: The country’s LGBT community has long faced discrimination, and even physical violence. New to that list, though, is the threat of death sanctioned by the Indonesian Council of Ulema, or MUI, the country’s highest Islamic clerical body. On March 4, the MUI issued a fatwa, or edict, proposing punishments ranging from caning to the death penalty …

(Via Christian Nightmares)

Via the Los Angeles Times: Searchers recovered bodies from the Java Sea on Tuesday and found what officials said wreckage from Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 as the three-day mystery over the plane’s whereabouts reached a heartbreaking resolution for the families of 162 people aboard. “I am absolutely devastated,” Tony Fernandes, AirAsia’s chief executive, said in a statement. “This is a …