Indonesian soldiers get jail time for gay sex

Two Indonesian soldiers have been given a seven-month jail term for having gay sex, which is banned by the Southeast Asian nation’s military as “inappropriate behavior.”

The soldiers, who joined the army last year and were based on the archipelago’s main island of Java, were also booted from the army, according to a military court ruling dated November 9.

While gay sex is barred in the military, it is legal for civilians in the world’s biggest Muslimmajority nation, except in the conservative province of Aceh.

But there is widespread discrimination, and some gay Indonesians have been arrested for lewd conduct under antipornography laws.

“The defendants’ acts of committing deviant sexual behavior with the same sex were very inappropriate because as soldiers, the defendants should be an example for the people in the defendants’ surrounding environment,” the 60-page ruling reads.

“The defendants’ actions were very much against the law or any religious provisions,” it added.

The Indonesian Supreme Court posted the decision last week, but the case was only brought to light by the local news site Detik on Tuesday night.

In 2020, Amnesty International said at least 15 members of Indonesia’s military or police had been sacked for having same-sex relations in recent years.

“This has been the increasing pattern among the Indonesian armed forces and police in recent years, where members were being fired or taken into court just for who they are, who they love, who they like,” Amnesty International’s Indonesia Director Usman Hamid told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Usman said “inflammatory statements” by the country’s political leaders had helped to further stigmatize minority groups, including the LGBTQ community, adding that the recent case was only “the tip of the iceberg.”

LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer.