Anti-LGBTI sentiments have spread throughout the country in recent years with increasing arrests and violent attacks against the LGBTI community, the declaration of homosexuality as a mental illness, and proposals to criminalise gay sex.
“The thing is, there are bodies piled up out the back of conversion therapy camps, because of the list of kids who have committed suicide.”
Human Rights Watch said that police in West Sumatra trawled Facebook and found images of two of the women hugging and kissing.
Documents and decrees reviewed by HRW suggest lists of allegedly gay and bisexual men could be handed over to authorities.
Aceh’s governor had decreed earlier this year that corporal punishments would only take place inside prisons or detention centres.
The president asked for “forgiveness” of the country’s past treatment of LGBTI people.
Last week, an official deliberately tore up a document which prevented a mother from securing her trans daughter’s release.
The new laws, which would see up to five-year prison sentences for convictions, could be voted on this month.
Activists in the capital Baku say police have carried out a number of raids.
The countries most likely to criminalise gay sex or relationships are in southern and east Africa, the Middle East, and south Asia.
