Constitutional Court Justice Apologizes for Remarks Against Gay Marriage

Jakarta Globe, Dessy Sagita, March 13, 2013

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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

In the letter, Hartoyo wrote about his struggle as a gay Muslim living in Indonesia.

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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