Violence against sexual minorities intensifies
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-11/indonesia-says-no-room-for-lgbt-movement/7721838
The spike in anti-LGBT vitriol, predominantly during January and February this year, has intensified violence against sexual minorities throughout Indonesia, the report said.
Indonesia’s largest Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama, in February described gay lifestyles as perverted and a desecration of human dignity.
In Aceh, the only Indonesian province that applies Islamic law, the local government urged business owners to refuse to hire gay citizens.
In interviews with activist groups, HRW reported gay rights organisations shut their offices and even hid staff as threats mounted against them.
In Yogyakarta an Islamist group forced the closure of a transgender Islamic boarding school, while a peaceful rally in the same Central Javan city in support of Indonesia’s LGBT community was shut down.
“The impact of anti-LGBT rhetoric from government officials is enormous for us as individuals. For those of us who have worked so hard and risked so much to come out, it is a major step backward,” a lesbian activist in eastern Indonesia told HRW.
Islamic activists have also filed a judicial review at the Constitutional Court aimed at making gay sex a crime, and the court is currently holding hearings into the case.
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