"These Political Games Ruin Our Lives" : Indonesia's LGBT Community Under Threat

The Indonesian government stoked an unprecedented attack on the security and rights of sexual and gender minorities in early 2016. The government campaign included hateful rhetoric, discriminatory edicts, and the use of force to repress peaceful assembly.This report documents how officials? biased and untrue statements about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people provided social sanction for harassment and violence against LGBT Indonesians, and even death threats by militant Islamists. State institutions, including the National Broadcasting Commission and the National Child Protection Commission, issued censorship directives banning information and broadcasts that portrayed the lives of LGBT people as ?normal? as well as so-called ?propaganda? about LGBT lives. That combination of discriminatory rhetoric and policy decisions harmed the physical security and right to free expression of LGBT people across the country.