A gay Muslim survives in a homophobic society
My Facebook feed has recently seen a flurry of violently homophobic posts writes Noor Ramadani in The Jakarta Post ; one friend even sent an invitation to attend an Islamic exorcism, or ruqyah, in reaction to my vocal support for LGBT rights.
Certain so-called psychologists appearing on the Indonesian Lawyers Club (ILC) television talk show have fuelled this madness by claiming that homosexuality is an illness. Uninformed Muslims have spread this misinformation on Facebook as an argument for their discriminatory stance.
One of the most commonly stated concerns of the anti-LGBT lobby is the development of children. If they are to be believed, gay propaganda spread through the media is alarming; it even contains pornography.
Being a young gay Muslim in Indonesia is certainly not easy; people of the same faith will bring down your self-esteem and you may grow up hating yourself. I wondered if gay children were prepared to face such challenges.
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Photo By SatyrTN (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons