[1] The national criminal code does not prohibit cross-dressing or adult, non-commercial and consensual homosexual conduct between consenting adults, although it does contain a higher age of consent for same-sex sexual conduct, and there are some reports that police have sometimes harassed gay or transgender people using vaguely worded public indecency laws.
[4] Indonesia does have a reputation as being a relatively moderate and tolerant Muslim nation; however, the recent survey revealed that intolerance of minorities is growing, with the highest level of hostility directed at the gay and lesbian community.
The Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) found in its most recent poll conducted in 2012 that 80.6 percent of its sample population objected to having gays or lesbians as neighbors.
In early 2016, LGBT people and activists in Indonesia faced fierce opposition and attacks of homophobia and hate speech, even launched by Indonesian authorities.
[6] Coming out to family and friends is seldom carried out by LGBT people in Indonesia, as they are more afraid of rejection and social backlash.
[3] Waria, the male to female cross dressers for a long time have played their parts in Indonesian culture.
Numerous Indonesian traditional performances such as lenong and ketoprak often featuring transsexuals as an object of jest, humor and ridicule.
While ludruk drama and lengger lanang dance performance featuring male cross dresser as female dancer.
[9] Traditionally Indonesians are quite tolerant towards LGBT people, as long as they keep quiet and stay discreet about their private lives.
The anti-LGBT rhetoric began in January 2016 when Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir said LGBT people should be barred from university campuses.
Followed by the case of dangdut singer Saiful Jamil, who has been named a suspect in a sexual assault involving an underage male fan.
[10] On the other hand, amids fierce hostilities, some officials have defended the LGBT community - including Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan.
Unlike in other Asian cultures such as Indian, Chinese or Japanese, homosexual erotica in paintings or sculptures are almost nonexistent in Indonesian arts.
A rare exceptions is the 18th-century account of alleged homosexuality of Arya Purbaya, an official in Mataram court, although it is not clear whether it was actually based on truth or vicious rumors to disgrace him.
Story in this book which took place circa 1630, mentions that one of the main character, Mas Cabolang and his attendants encountered homosexual couple the Jathilan dancers in Ponorogo region.
In the traditional matrilineal Minang society, homosexuality exists between older men called Induk Jawi (lit.
Other terms used include amrot-amrotan (from Arabic Imrot meaning women) and musahaqoh to describe lesbian relationships between female students.
Hurgronje findings concur with Dr. Julius Jacobs who conducted research in Banyuwangi among the Balinese in the late 19th century.
Discriminatory police raids conducted against homosexual men by the pornography law can lead to an imprisonment of 15 years.
[23] Although the subjects of homosexuality are considered as a shame and people often refuse to discuss it in public, some culture and traditions in Indonesia records same sex relationships and activities, or LGBTQ behaviors.
A male lengger dancer would wear traditional female Javanese dance attire, which includes konde (hair bun), kain batik, kemben (torso wrap) or kebaya, selendang (sash), kembang goyang hair jewelry, all in full make up, and they will dance as graceful and glamorous as a woman.
[27] On the Indonesian side of New Guinea, similar rituals have been recorded as being practiced among the Kimam people in southern Papua province.
Thus to wash away female contamination in preparation to become brave warriors, young boys need to ingest semen, regarded among these tribes as the quintessential male essence.
In Indonesia, effeminate male homosexual or male-to-female transsexual are called banci, bencong or waria (Indonesian: wanita-pria lit: female-male).
Those terms; banci, bencong, kucing and homo does have derogatory meanings, except for waria, gay and lesbian that have gained neutral perception.
Name calling and gay bashing usually occur during teenage years, but rarely involves physical abuse and is mainly verbal.
Such as they usually took certain line of works such as beauty salon owner or worker, beauticians, make-up artist, to traveling cross-dresser ngamen (street musician) to lewd activities such as a transsexual prostitute.
Waria, male to female transgender ritualists, performers and prostitutes, have long played a role in local Indonesian cultures, gay and lesbi did not exist as subject positions before the New Order period, when men and women came to recognise themselves in fleeting depictions of mostly foreign homosexuals and reached the conclusion that a 'gay world' could exist in Indonesia, too.
The contrast between gays and lesbis reflects the juxtaposition of parallel cultural worlds: if gay men can congregate in parks - and even in their parents' households - relatively unnoticed and unimpeded, this is due in good part to their adherence to a nationally pervasive gender ideology that limits young women's movements, valorises male friendships and frowns upon social mixing between unmarried women and men.
[28][failed verification] In 2005, the Indonesian Government gave Aceh province the right to introduce Islamic sharia laws which criminalizes homosexuality, albeit only to Muslim residents.