Special Reports: Transgender groups fear violent protests
Published: Dec. 10, 2012 at 12:02 AM
by United Press Internationalhttp://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2012/12/10/Transgender-groups-fear-violent-protests/UPI-59281355115720/JAKARTA, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Indonesia's transgender community said its members fear rising intimidation from the Islam Defenders Front after the religious group closed a transgender festival in Jakarta. Their fear is heightened by the belief that police are reluctant to protect them in general should verbal intimidation turn into violence, a report by The Jakarta Post said.
Merlyn Sofyan, a transgender activist, told the Post that transgender groups throughout Indonesia have reluctantly curtailed social events and educational classes in the past two years over such fears.
Yulianus Rettoblaut, chairwoman of the Indonesian Transgender Communication Forum, said the recent festival wasn't a beauty contest but a celebration of their identity. Police witnessed the forcible intrusion of Front members but didn't help when 200 or so transgender people were harassed by dozens of Front members, she said.
A report by the Jakarta Globe newspaper said Salim Alatas, head of the Jakarta chapter of the Front, acknowledged that his members went to shut down the event. He said transgender events are "morally destructive and not educational" and the Front will always oppose them where ever they are held.
The fundamentalist Islam Defenders Front was set up in Indonesia in 1998 by Saudi-educated Muhammad Rizieq Syihab and aims to establish Islamic Shariah as the law in the country.
