Lawmakers in Indonesia’s Depok city are trying to pass an anti-gay law to fight HIV

Lawmakers in Indonesia’s Depok city are trying to pass an anti-gay law to fight HIV
Image: Prabowo Subianto in 2011

Local councillors in a satellite city of Jakarta have put forward a local ordinance that would criminalise sexual minorities and gender diverse people, according to an Indonesian news report.

A Depok city council member for the Gerindra (Great Indonesia Movement) Party of failed Indonesian presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto told the Suara Jabar news agency that the law was a response to a growing number of HIV infections in the city.

“We have proposed an anti-LGBT draft regulation … to be discussed and ratified as a regional regulation,” said Depok City Council member and Gerindra Party member Hamzah on Sunday.

“All parties have agreed to this draft regulation, the initiator of which was the Gerindra faction.”

The Gerindra Party claim that LGBTQI people are in breach of Indonesia’s national ideology of Pancasila, or Five Principles.

The Five Principles are “belief in the one and only God,” “a just and civilized humanity,” “a unified Indonesia,” “Democracy, led by the wisdom of the representatives of the People,” and “social justice for all Indonesians.”

The Gerindra Party claims LGBTQI people breach the first two of those principles.

They also claim that the law is aimed at curbing new HIV infections.

“In 2014 there were 4,932 gays [living in Depok] and increasing, there are now around 5,791 gays,” city council member Hamzah said.

“The Depok City Health Office also noted that people with HIV or AIDS in this city reached 168 people in the September 2018 period. The number was dominated by patients with deviant sexual behavior [sic], namely gay male lovers,” he said.

“This has been proposed for a long time and nearly seven factions have agreed and we from Gerindra have asked for this to be ratified immediately.”

Homosexuality is not illegal under national laws in Indonesia. However it’s autonomous region of Aceh punishes people in same-sex relationships with floggings under Shariah law and other local governments have tried to criminalise homosexuality by legally defining LGBTQI people as sex workers or as “pornographic.”

Prabowo Subianto is an ex-husband of one of Indonesia’s former president Suharto’s daughters and ran against the country’s current president Joko Widodo in national elections in January, receiving 44.5 percent of the vote.

You May Also Like

Comments are closed.