Fighting for inclusiveness to gender and sexual diversity in the Indonesian context Hani Yulindrasari (original) (raw)
Do Indonesian tolerate gender and sexual diversity? The answer seems obvious; generally, people would say of course no! The dominant answer, maybe No! Indonesian cannot tolerate gender and sexual diversity, heterosexuality should be the norm, and we have to maintain that. Most surveys support this answer. A study by SMRC in 2016-2017 shows that 87.6% of respondents thought that LGBT is a threat to society 1. But is it like that? My answer is a little bit more complicated than that. This essay will problematise the Indonesian people's attitude toward gender and sexual diversity. My aim is not to belittle the struggle of the LGBT community or to deny the magnitude of discrimination experienced by the community. I write this essay with the spirit of encouraging Indonesian LGBT community to be more true to themselves and supporting them to be slowly open to the people they care the most, fighting for love and support, because the acceptance is there and it is in Indonesian tradition that we, Indonesian, are acceptance toward gender and sexual diversity. The same survey by SMRC also shows that 45.9% of the respondents would accept if their family member came out as gay, lesbian or transgender. Those who against gender diversity claim that homosexuality and transgenderism is a foreign concept; therefore, it is culturally appropriate to reject the concept. Moreover, there is a religious doctrine that homosexuality and transgenderism are sinful and forbidden. The religious conservative groups, primarily Islamic conservative, argue that heteronormativity should be protected from the "evil" of non-normative gender and sexual construct. Protecting heteronormativity means protecting families and future generations. The heteronormative insecurity has become hegemonic in Indonesia. What I mean by heteronormative insecurity is the irrational fear that homosexuality and transgenderism will take over the society and ruin the social order. This 1 https://nasional.tempo.co/read/1053909/survei-smrc-876-persen-masyarakat-menilai-lgbt-ancaman
Sign up for access to the world's latest research.
checkGet notified about relevant papers
checkSave papers to use in your research
checkJoin the discussion with peers
checkTrack your impact
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.