LGBT Campaigners Stand Up in Central Java

Jakarta Globe, Ari Susanto,December 15, 2013

Gesang, based in Solo, Central Java, also campaigns for HIV prevention in
the LGBT community. (JG Photos/ Ari Susanto)

Their gathering was once forcibly disbanded by hard-line Muslim groups, while at work and in their social lives they are discriminated against and their city is known for Islamic terrorism.

But the Gessang Foundation, a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights advocacy group and community — one of the first of its kind in Indonesia — has only been emboldened by these  challenges. The group strives to spotlight LGBT issues in Indonesia’s largely  conservative society, even at the risk of being targeted.

In December 2003 a gay gathering in Tawangmangu in Solo, Central Java, was intimidated by the Solo Islamic People (UIS) accusing them of spreading abnormal sexual behavior. The event had to be canceled by the organizer due to fears of violence.

The same happened in September 2006, when a Gessang gathering to campaign for HIV/AIDS prevention among gay men was disrupted by the Hizbullah Front, one of the largest Islamic organizations in Solo. The hard-line group burst into the venue and took over the stage, ending the event.

It is a sad example of how LGBT groups are still living under repression said Argyo Demartoto, the founder of Gessang. It is in this context that Solo’s proximity to Yogyakarta — where the Principle on the Application of International Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity was signed — is rendered ironic.

The Yogyakarta principle signed on Nov. 9, 2006 by lawmakers from across the world was adopted as global charter for LGBT rights, becoming effective on March 26, 2007 at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Gessang, established in 2005, has encouraged other LGBT communities in several cities of Central Java to form their own advocacy groups. Gessang now has more than 700 openly and non-openly LGBT persons making it one of the largest LGBT organizations in Indonesia.

“Most of them are men from the middle and upper classes, well-educated, from assorted professions including doctors, lawyers, lecturers, teachers, artists, businessmen, and others,” Argyo said, who is also a sociology lecturer at a state university in Solo.

He has conducted various studies on LGBT in Indonesia as part of his work.

According to Argyo, LGBT has long been a part of Indonesian culture including in Solo. Homosexuality was described vividly in Serat Centhini, a popular compilation of Javanese verse written in 1815 during the reign of Pakubuwana V of Solo’s Surakarta kingdom.

There are also traditions of homosexual behavior in Ponorogo, East Java and the island of Nias off North Sumatra. While people of transgender are found in almost all ancient traditions across Indonesia.

To promote LGBT rights, Gessang  regularly stages art and cultural performances like “September Ceria,” which showcases the community’s skills in  theatrical drama, singing, and dancing.

“The most urgent work for us now is to continue with our HIV/AIDS prevention campaign. If we talk about health and  sexuality, our agenda will be more accepted in wider society,” Argyo said.

In 2005, Gessang, in support with the Global Fund, helped the establishment of two voluntary counseling and testing clinics. Since then, Gessang has been working closely with Solo’s Health Office and the local office of the National AIDS Prevention Committee.

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Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: Regarding homosexuality or transsexuals. WHY are they the way they are and WHY are they not accepted in mainstream society?

Answer: [From the Kryon Office]

There is often a tremendous amount of information on subjects that are not necessarily part of the on-line magazine Q&A database. Kryon has been channelling for fourteen years, with 9 books covering many, many topics. Homosexuality was one of them from the very beginning. Please see our "Books index page" for subjects contained in the Kryon books: [http://www.kryon.com/direct.html]

An excerpt from Kryon Book 6, page 306

Question from the book: Dear Kryon, I am gay, and an enlightened man. I live in an American society that barely tolerates me, and actually has some laws against my way of life. The church I used to belong to cast me out as being evil and anti-God. I don't feel that I am violating some Human ethic. My love is as true as any heterosexual, and I am a light worker. Tell me what I should know.

Answer from the book: Dear one, less than two generations from now, there will be those who find this book and laugh at the quaintness of this very question. Before I answer, let me ask you and those reading this to examine a phenomenon about Human society and "God."

Thirty years ago, interracial marriage was considered to be wrong by the laws of God. Now your society finds it common. The spiritual objections around it were either dropped or "rewritten" by those divinely inspired and authorized to do so. Therefore, your actual interpretations of the instructions from God changed with your society's tolerance level--an interesting thing, indeed, how the interpretations of God seem to change regularly to match a changing culture!

The truth, of course, is that you find yourself in a situation that is known to create a test for you. Right now, in this time, you have agreed to come into your culture with an attribute that may alienate you from friends and religious followers. You have faced fear of rejection and have had to "swim upstream," so to speak, just as an everyday life occurrence. Your contract, therefore, has been set up well, and you are in the middle of it. Additionally, like so many like you, you have a divine interest in yourselves! You feel part of the spiritual family. What a dichotomy indeed, to be judged as evil by those who are the high spiritual leaders--interpreting God for today's culture.

Now I say this: What is your intent? Is it to walk with love for all those around you and become an enlightened Human Being in this New Age? Is it to forgive those who see you as a spiritual blight on society? Can you have the kind of tolerance for them that they seem not to have for you? Can you overlook the fact that they freely quote their scriptures in order to condemn you, yet they don't seem to have the love tolerance that is the cornerstone of their own message?

If the answer is yes, then there is nothing else you must do. Your INTENT is everything, and your life will be honored with peace over those who would cause unrest, and tolerance for the intolerable. Your sexual attributes are simply chemistry and setups within your DNA. They are given by agreement as gifts for you to experience in this life. Look on them in this fashion, and be comfortable with that fact that you are a perfect spiritual creation under God--loved beyond measure--just like all humans. But then you know that, don't you?