Instead of working to bring social equality to all citizens in the country, many Indonesian politicians have instead been contributing to the recent moral panic on LGBT rights by publicly discriminating against them – with some going so far as to compare the dangers posed by pro-LGBT groups to that of terrorists.
Hidayat Nur Wahid, vice chairman of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), is one of the politicians who has been speaking out the loudest against LGBT rights, as evidenced by this tweet:
“LGBT, according to Law no. 18/2014, fall under the category of ‘People with Mental Health Problems’. They need to be cured, not legitimized to oppose the Constitution.”
Musician Glenn Fredly criticized the notion that LGBT individuals suffer from mental illness by hitting back at Hidayat’s tweet with this sick burn:
“It’s more appropriate to say that the corrupt politicians from your party suffer from mental illness.”
We’re with Glenn on this one (save from disrespecting the mentally ill by comparing them to corrupt politicians). Instead of trying to deny LGBT their rights – an issue many of them are clearly ignorant about – maybe our politicians should look at themselves in the mirror before casting judgment on others.
But while we’re at it, let’s dissect Hidayat’s tweet on LGBT and mental illness. We’ve actually looked at Law no. 18/2014 on Mental Health and nowhere in it did we find that LGBT individuals are categorized as “mentally ill” or even “at risk of mental illness”.
But let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that being LGBT was indeed classified as a mental illness. Well, here are just a couple of things that same law had to say about protecting their rights:
– To erase stigma, discrimination, and violations of basic rights of the mentally ill as a part of society
– To increase the tolerance and involvement of the general society towards the betterment of mental health
And, as an added bonus, here is one crucial thing the law has to say about the media’s involvement in protecting the rights of the mentally ill (we’d argue that many Indonesian media outlets have actually been actively promoting discrimination towards LGBT lately):
– Promote positive understanding towards mental illness by not airing or publishing articles or materials that lead to the stigmatization and discrimination of the mentally ill
In any case, we’re glad to see a celebrity like Glenn Fredly speaking out against LGBT discrimination. There are definitely a handful of them who are brave enough to speak out for social justice, but we believe that if there are more of them, they could play a big hand in helping the nation to become more tolerant as a whole.
