Overwhelmed by fear, members of the ma gay rights group the Indonian town of Banda Aceh started burng pil of documents outsi their headquarters late October, worried that the sharia police would raid them at any moment.
Contents:
- GAY MEN ACEH WILL NO LONGER BE NED PUBLIC
- STRICT SHARIA FORC GAYS TO HIDG INDONIA'S ACEH
- SURVEILLANCE NATN: BEHD ARRT OF GAYS ACEH
GAY MEN ACEH WILL NO LONGER BE NED PUBLIC
* no wa gay aceh *
The Indonian provce of Aceh has announced will no longer ne men acced of beg gay public, stead the punishments will be nducted wh the prison. Last year two men when ned 83 tim after they plead guilty to havg gay sex.
STRICT SHARIA FORC GAYS TO HIDG INDONIA'S ACEH
For gay men Indonia’s Aceh provce, exile should be an optn * no wa gay aceh *
While homosexualy has never been illegal Indonia, the Aceh provi operat unr Islamic sharia law. A man and a transgenr woman were arrted for hostg a “gay party”, while two younger men were arrted recently for havg gay sex, after vigilant broke to their acmodatn. BANDA ACEH, Indonia/JAKARTA (Rters) - Overwhelmed by fear, members of the ma gay rights group the Indonian town of Banda Aceh started burng pil of documents outsi their headquarters late October, worried that the sharia police would raid them at any moment.
Indonia’s northernmost provce of Aceh had weeks earlier passed an anti-homosexualy law that punish anyone ught havg gay sex wh 100 lash. Amnty Internatnal cricized , sayg would add to a climate of homophobia and fear.
SURVEILLANCE NATN: BEHD ARRT OF GAYS ACEH
“We are more aaid, of urse, ” said a 31-year-old transgenr person who, along wh three other members of the lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) group, Vlet Grey, burned the pamphlets, group rerds and other papers. We burned them all, ” said the group member, who cled to be intified out of fear of beg provce’s tight-kn gay muny, timated by some at about 1, 000 people, has bee creasgly margalized sce Aceh was allowed to adopt Islamic sharia law as s legal was granted special regnal tonomy as part of a 2005 peace agreement endg a three- old separatist the anti-homosexualy law was passed September, Vlet Grey began warng s 47 members to keep a lower profile and for gay and transgenr people to avoid gog out together as upl one has been arrted unr the law, which Aceh officials say will not be enforced until the end of 2015 to allow rints time to prepare for . But this has not eased the fear the gay before the law, life was not easy for gay people the most religly nservative part of Indonia, the north of Sumatra island where Islam first arrived the gay muny is a target of regular harassment om sharia police and rints.
Aceh thori fend the law, sayg do not vlate human rights bee gay people are ee to live together but jt n not have law also sets out punishment for var acts apart om gay sex cludg unmarried people engagg displays of affectn, adultery and unrage sex.
”Outsi Aceh, Indonia is generally tolerant of gay people, particularly urban areas like Jakarta. Engagg homosexual acts is not a crime unr Indonia’s natnal crimal but remas taboo many nservative parts of the untry, which has the world’s largt Mlim rights groups fear other nservative provc, such as South Sumatra and East Java uld follow Aceh’s lead if Indonia’s new print, Joko Widodo, do not step and overturn the ’s admistratn is reviewg the law to see whether vlat human rights but n only requt chang and nnot overturn , said Teguh Setyabudi, the home mistry’s head of regnal Vlet Grey member hop the law will eventually be overturned so she n walk home whout watchg her back fear.