Indonesian province threatens public lashing as punishment for homosexual behavior

In a move that are some are calling straight out of the Dark Ages, Illiza Sa’aduddin Djama, deputy mayor of Indonesia’s most western province Banda Aceh, has called for the criminalization of homosexuality and a punishment of 100 public lashing for anyone found guilty of engaging in its conduct, reports England’s Pink News. Calling homosexuality “a social disease that should be eradicated,” Djama’s wish is to align public behavior with Shari’ah law, the code by which many devout Muslims live by.

“There is no law that could be used to charge them,” she lamented. “The existing [regulations] only stipulate about khalwat [being in close proximity] for intimate relations between unmarried males and females.” Furthermore, like in many repressive societies, intimate relations are often carried on in private, far beyond the prying eyes of the morality police.

Hartoyo, a well-known and widely respected gay rights activists in Indonesia, calls the need for such a measure ‘backwards’ and adds that Islam, like all religions, is open to interpretation. ““We’re living in 2013, not in the Middle Ages,” said the secretary-general of Our Voice, an LGBT advocacy group. “It’s sad to have a deputy mayor who could think that way… other countries have started to allow homosexual marriage, why coming up with such idea to punish the LGBT [community]?”

But in a sign that Djama may be an outlier, in March, a judge in Indonesia’s constitutional court issued an apology after making a statement against equal marriage during proceedings at the House of Representatives.

Hartoyo, however, remains undaunted. ““I will probably send her a warning letter [saying] that what she did only publicly showed how stupid she is,” he said. “She’s intellectual and has access to the Internet and other resources. To come up with that way of thinking is embarrassing.”