LGBTQ people in Indonesia are suffering more and more every day at the hands of the authorities.
In this latest instance, a West Jakarta official has admitted to ignoring the requests of a mother who wants her transgender daughter released from a social house.
The woman was arrested last month while drinking a coffee in Cengkareng on her way home from a beauty salon, according to The Jakarta Post.
However, when Neneng’s mother, Tarnisem, visited Duri Kosambi subdistrict head Irwansyah Alam with the official documents requesting her release, he tore them up.
“I tore the document so that [Tarnisem] and others wouldn’t misuse it,” Irwansyah said.
“Just let [Neneng] spend some more time in the social house to create a deterrent effect [to being transgender].”
“Neneng is the only one who earns money in my family,” Tarnisem said.
“I visited him [Irwansyah] twice to ask him to sign the letter. On Thursday [March 1], he tore the letter while saying, ‘I don’t want to handle this kind of problem’.”
Following her confrontation Irwansyah, Tarnisem received help from an officer based in the Cenkareng district and managed to get another letter signed by an official.
After completing everything she needed to free her daughter from the social house, on 5 March she was reunited with her.
It comes after the Indonesian city of Depok recently announced plans to crack down on the LGBTQ community.
The city’s deputy mayor, Muhammad Idris, outlined a program that would include a 200-strong force of police officers, social service workers and religious leaders that would “anticipate the spread of LGBT” among young people.
Idris explained that the new force has been brought together for religious rather than legal reasons.
“We have created an integrated team to handle LGBT, we will collaborate with police and mass organisations,” he said in comments, as reported by the Coconuts news website.
“Religion has agreed that LGBT acts are forbidden, so legally we will overcome this problem so that it will not spread.”
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