Indonesia Seems Set to Ban Gay Sex

World's fourth largest country -- and largest Muslim country -- had long been seen as tolerant on such matters, but that has been changing.

Washington Post (Vincent Bevins) reports on the plan, which would also outlaw extramarital sex:

Prodded by religious conservatives, Indonesia is moving toward outlawing gay sex — and even sex outside marriage — in a jarring change for a country long seen as a bastion of tolerance in the Islamic world….

Ichsan Soelistio, a member of a special commission in the Indonesian House of Representatives working to update the country's criminal code, said the body has reached consensus to include laws outlawing extramarital sex as well as gay sex, and is likely to do so soon but with some limitations.

"More-conservative elements want full criminalization, which we reject," Soelistio, a member of Indonesia's largest political party, said in an interview this week. "But we have agreed to accept a law which allows prosecution of sex outside marriage and homosexual sex, but only if one of the sexual partners or their family members report the crime to police." …

"That is not protection," said Lini, an Indonesian LGBT activist. "LGBT Indonesians are often rejected by their families or the victims of violence within the family. Allowing their parents to throw them in jail legally is the opposite of helping." …

She said she has been shocked by how quickly political sentiment has shifted on the issue: "Six months ago, I would have thought it very unlikely a law like this would actually be passed. Now we have little reason to feel optimistic."