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Leave students alone: Activists

Jakarta Post - November 5, 2016

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Indonesia bars LGBT job applicants for new youth position – BBC News. October 13, 2016
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Syamsul Huda M. Suhari, Gorontalo – Students must not be the target of discriminatory policies set by the State University of Gorontalo (UNG) as they need to study in a safe and supporting environment regardless of their sexual orientation, activists say.

A coalition of 16 NGOs have lambasted UNG rector Syamsu Qamar Badu for issuing a campus policy that monitors and forces lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students back to "normalcy".

Not only was it discriminatory, the regulation also violated basic human rights for people to get an education as stipulated in the Constitution, head of Nahdlatul Ulama's Institute for Research and Human Resources Development (Lakpesdam) Wahiyudin Mamonto said on Friday.

"The policy is based on mere hatred," he said in a statement sent to The Jakarta Post.

Suara Kita director and LGBT rights activist Hartoyo also called for Syamsu to revoke his plan to establish a special team to "normalize" LGBT students. UNG's campus should instead provide equal opportunity to education for all of its students.

"UNG must guarantee non-discriminatory education for people of whatever sexual orientation," he said.

Syamsu announced Thursday that he had set up a silent operation in a move that served as a warning to LGBT students. His plan included counseling and special treatment for students discovered to be of LGBT orientation by the team in order to maintain the campus' image as "the college of civilization".

"This identification process will not be easy, but we can't just let it happen if there are male students wearing lipstick on campus," he said.

Even though he said he would not have LGBT students expelled, the campus would revoke scholarships to those who refused to give up their LGBT identity.

Meanwhile, Kristianto Galuwo from Gorontalo's branch of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) also called for mass media to refrain from reporting news on the LGBT community based on hatred.

He regretted a news report by a local newspaper that called the LGBT community a virus spreading on campuses. Journalists must work within its code of ethics and not write reports based on prejudice and discrimination against people's race, religion or gender, Kristianto added.

AJI Gorontalo and Lakpesdam are among 16 organizations in the coalition along with Arus Pelangi, AJI Manado, North Sulawesi Transgender and Lesbians, the Manado Men community and Bandung-based Padjadjaran Resource Center on Gender and Human Rights Studies.

The country's LGBT community has been facing hard times following remarks from state officials earlier this year demeaning their existence as not part of Indonesian cultural norms.

The condemnation also led to several hard-liners groups pushing for bans toward LGBT communities in several areas such as Yogyakarta, where the first transgender Islamic boarding school eventually succumbed to threats and shut down their operations in February.

The latest attack on the community occurred when a group of academics under The Family Love Alliance (AILA) filed a judicial review to the Constitutional Court in August seeking to outlaw any sexual relationship outside of marriage, including partners of the same sex.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/11/05/leave-students-alone-activists.html.