Forced exorcisms touted as ‘cure’ for LGBT Indonesians

Jakarta: Transgender people could face being forced to undergo exorcisms to ‘save’ them from hell under proposed laws in Indonesia. The move comes after reactionary Islamic lawmakers in the conservative Aceh province tabled a so-called ‘Family Resilience’ bill. Andin is haunted by memories of being forced into an exorcism to ‘save’ her from being transgender - a ritual that could become mandatory for Indonesia’s LGBT community if the controversial new law is passed.

For two decades Andin has endured harassment and abuse as her family desperately tried to ‘cure’ her. Treatments ranged from being bombarded with Koranic verses while trapped in a locked room for days, to being doused with freezing water by an imam promising to purge the ‘gender disease’.

But it is the exorcism that breaks her heart. She was taken against her will to a strange religious guru near her hometown of Medan in Sumatra.

He showed her a burial shroud commonly used to cover the dead and prayed over her.

He then gave a stark choice: relinquish life as a woman, or go to hell.

‘‘Nothing changed after the exorcism. I’m still LGBT, but my family didn’t give up easily,’’ says Andin, 31, who asked that her real name not be used.

‘‘It’s traumatising - the horror of that memory stays in my head.’’ Forced exorcism is a common story for gay and transgender people in the world’s biggest Muslim majority nation, where a conservative shift has seen the community increasingly targeted in recent years.