Indonesian University Tries to Weed Out LGBTQ Applicantsby Kristi Eaton May 9 2017, 12:50 pm ET
A state university in Indonesia has come under fire from international human-rights advocates for requiring prospective students to
declare on a form that they are not lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender before applying and enrolling at the institution.
Andalas University in West Sumatra has since removed the digital form from its website, but school administrators stand by the requirement, according to a local new source.
"If a student doesn't want to sign the form, there's no need to register," Tafdil Husni, a University of Andalas official, told local news site Padangkita.com last week. The report also noted the form was taken down to be revised, not permanently removed.
Andalas University did not respond to NBC Out's multiple requests for comment.
The controversy surrounding the university form, which was ignited at the end of April, is just one of many involving LGBTQ rights in the Southeast Asian nation, the
world's fourth-largest country by population and the largest Muslim-majority country.
Kyle Knight, an LGBTQ researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the onslaught of anti-LGBTQ statements started in January 2016, when Indonesia's Minister of Higher Education,
Muhammad Nasir, said he did not want lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender student groups on university campuses.
"Psychiatrists proclaimed same-sex sexual orientation and transgender identities as 'mental illnesses,'" according to the report, which was published in August, and "the country's largest Muslim organization called for criminalization of LGBT behaviors and activism, and forced 'rehabilitation' for LGBT people."
Within three months of the Minister's comments, "the cacophony had died down, and the moral panic subsided, but the repercussions continue to be felt by LGBT people in Indonesia," the report stated.
As for the controversy involving Andalas University, Rahadian said the increase in intolerance, especially toward LGBTQ people, is based on moral and religion beliefs, with a misunderstanding and lack of knowledge about the issue.
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In Indonesia, LGBT is still considered as a mental disorder, which is pretty backward since the [American Psychiatric Association] declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1974," Rahadian said. "The student council of Andalas University released a statement [in late April], in which they said that LGBT is a 'disease, worse than prostitution, rape and even murder.' There are a few LGBT friends from Andalas University that are currently in touch with us, updating with new information, while expressing their concern and fear of the LGBT hunting."
Knight said university administrators are bowing to pressure from conservative groups and militant Islamists. They use LGBTQ issues to increase support for their political causes and distract from the real issues in the country, he said.
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In another recent instance of reported anti-LGBTQ activity in the country, Human Rights Watch said
Indonesian police conducted a raid targeting gay men, ordering 14 of them at a hotel in the country's second-largest city, Surabaya, to undergo HIV testing. The organization said eight of the men were then arrested on charges of violating anti-pornography laws. The World Health Organization's guidelines say mandatory, compulsory or coercive HIV testing is not appropriate.
"Indonesian police are again violating the basic rights of LGBT people by invading their privacy," Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "The Surabaya raid subjected these gay men to traumatic humiliation ... and threatens the privacy rights of all Indonesians
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