ETAN stands in solidarity with Indonesia's LGBT
community
The East Timor and Indonesia Action
Network (ETAN) strongly condemns recent and ongoing attacks against
lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people in Indonesia. ETAN
stands with those Indonesian organizations and activists opposing all
forms of discrimination and violence against LGBT people.
There has been a shocking rise in hate speech
and homophobic actions in Indonesia. In recent months, anti-LGBT
policies have spread and members of the LGBT community face ongoing
harassment and death threats. Statements attacking LGBT people have come
from all levels of government and include education officials calling
for a ban on LGBT groups on school campuses and Indonesia's
Vice-President Jusuf Kalla asking
UNDP to defund LGBT organizations.
Indonesia's leadership is ignoring its responsibility to include and
protect all of its citizens by allowing this environment of intimidation
and hatred to continue and spread.
These
courageous voices of Indonesian organizations and individuals
opposing discrimination and violence against LGBT people must be
joined by others in Indonesia and throughout the world.
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Luhut Pandjaitan, Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal
and Security Affairs, qualified his call to respect the rights of LGBT
people with pseudo-science, when he added that homosexuality is the
result of a chromosomal condition that requires "curing."
Pandjaitan's statement was followed in February 2016 by the Indonesian
Psychiatric Association's
classification of homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder, another
sign of the heightening of homophobic attitudes in the country. (The
World Health Organization stopped listing homosexuality as a psychiatric
disorder in 1990.)
The attacks on LGBT people highlight the
growing deterioration of human rights throughout Indonesia. Journalists
have been arrested and environmental activists murdered. Religious
minorities face growing threats and discussions of past human rights
violations, including the 1965/66 massacre of hundreds of thousands,
have been canceled under official and unofficial threats.
These
courageous voices of Indonesian organizations and individuals opposing
discrimination and violence against LGBT people must be joined by
others in Indonesia and throughout the world.
We call on
President Joko Widodo to take immediate action to end the threatening
anti-gay rhetoric and show leadership in protecting the safety and
rights of LGBT people. Widodo was elected on a platform that included a
respect for human rights. He must condemn the discriminatory statements
and policies of those in his administration. He must also ensure that
perpetrators of violence against the LGBT community are prosecuted.
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| Indonesia's Communication and Information Ministry
ordered a ban on LGBT themed emojis. At least one social
media platform, LINE Indonesia, removed them. |
See also
