Jakarta Globe, Dessy
Sagita, March 13, 2013
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articles
A
constitutional court justice issued an apology after making a statement against
gay marriage during a fit and proper test at the House of Representatives.
“I
apologize if my opinion offended the gay community. I will ask for God’s
forgiveness,” judge Arief Hidayat said in a statement on Wednesday.
During a
fit and proper test in front of the House Commission III, which oversees legal
affairs, a commission member asked Arief about his opinion on gay marriage. He
replied that he was against it because it was unconstitutional and against his
religious values.
Hartoyo, a
gay rights activist and the secretary general of Ourvoice, an LGBTQ advocacy
organization, posted an open letter in reaction to Arief’s statement on the
group’s website.
 |
"I
represent myself as a Muslim and
gay." / Photo: FB
|
He detailed
an incident in which he and his partner were assaulted in Banda Aceh in January
2007. After a group of men forcefully entered his home, they took the couple to
the police station, where they were forced to strip down and were physically
beaten.
Six police
officers abused Hartoyo and his partner verbally with a number of homophobic slurs
and then proceeded to take them outside to spray them with cold water.
Hartoyo
added that his homosexuality was something he was born with and not a product
of Western culture.
“I have
never been to any Western countries and I have fallen in love with men even
before I understood what Indonesia and Islam were. I have been a homosexual
even before I knew that homosexuality is considered to be a sin by many
religious teachings,” the letter read.
“Mr. Arief:
if gay marriage is part of Western culture then how would you explain the fact
that gay marriage is still disputed in Western countries — such as the United
States — even today? Will those who are against gay marriage in those countries
then argue that homosexuality is an eastern, southern or northern reality?
History in fact proves that when western countries criminalized homosexuality,
it was us who actually celebrated sexual diversity in our culture,” Hartoyo
wrote.
His letter
was featured internationally by several media outlets, including dot 429
Magazine, an online periodical based out of San Francisco.
Following
the publication of the letter, David Mills, an openly gay judge from
Massachusetts, wrote an e-mail to Arief encouraging him to answer Hartoyo’s
letter.
“Mr. Arief
replied to my e-mail shortly after judge Mills wrote to him,” Hartoyo said on
Wednesday.
Arief said
that even though he meant no harm to the country’s gay community, he stood by
his stance that based on the Constitution, marriage was only legal between a
man and a woman. He went on to say that gay marriage was in violation of the
state’s official ideology Pancasila.
“However,
as a citizen of the country, you and your community should be protected from
violent acts,” he wrote.
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