The Indonesian government stoked an unprecedented attack on the security and rights of sexual and gender minorities in early 2016. The government campaign included hateful rhetoric, discriminatory edicts, and the use of force to repress peaceful assembly.
Human Rights Watch reports that beginning in January 2016 a series of anti-LGBT public comments by government officials grew into a cascade of threats and vitriol against LGBT Indonesians by state commissions, militant Islamists and mainstream religious organizations. That outpouring of intolerance has resulted in proposals of laws which pose a serious long-term threat to the rights and safety of LGBT Indonesians.
Officials’ biased and untrue statements about LGBT people provided social sanction for harassment and violence against LGBT Indonesians, and even death threats by militant Islamists. State institutions, including the National Broadcasting Commission and the National Child Protection Commission, issued censorship directives banning information and broadcasts that portrayed the lives of LGBT people as “normal” as well as so-called “propaganda” about LGBT lives. That combination of discriminatory rhetoric and policy decisions harmed the physical security and right to free expression of LGBT people across the country.
