Cops force transgender makeover

INDONESIAN police forcibly cut the hair of a group of transgender women and made them wear male clothing, authorities said yesterday, amid a crackdown on the LGBT community in the world’s biggest Muslimmajority nation.

The incident happened after police on Sunday raided several beauty salons in conservative Aceh province and rounded up a dozen transgender employees over claims they had teased a group of boys.

Police accused the employees of violating the province’s religious laws.

Dozens of locals tried to attack the group of beauticians as they were hauled off to the police station, but they were pushed back by authorities, they said. Police then lopped off some members’ long hair with scissors as well as forcing the group to wear male clothing and speak in a masculine voice.

“We have reports from mothers that their sons were teased by the transgender women,” local police chief Ahmad Untung Surianata said yesterday. “Their numbers are growing here – I don’t want that.”

Aceh on Sumatra island has been ruled by Islamic law since it was granted special autonomy in 2001 – an attempt by the central government to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.

Homosexuality and gay sex are legal everywhere in Indonesia except in Aceh.