Indonesia in recent years has seen a sharp increase in the vili cation and persecution of sexual and gender minorities. What began in 2016 as vitriol espoused by the nation’s top politicians quickly descended into persecution by police and other authorities, with 300 LGBT people being arrested in 2017 alone. Hampering advocates and activists ability to respond to this new situation is a 2016 ban on foreign aid money for LGBT programs, which had been their primary source of funding. Things haven’t always been this way however, homosexuality is not and never has been criminalised in Indonesia, and gender diversity is a cultural tradition throughout many parts of the country. In this session we will explore the multiple factors contributing to the moral panic and its consequences. Gavin argues that the primary reason political homophobia has become so potent in Indonesian discourse is that sexual and gender minorities form a nexus point for two powerful narratives, anti-foreign nationalism and conservative Islam, which are challenging the fading narrative of democracy and civil rights, two decades after Indonesia’s transition to democracy
