Fedina S. Sundaryani, Haeril Halim and Apriadi Gunawan, Jakarta/Medan – Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir has withdrawn his previous statement that members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community should be barred from university campuses.
Nasir said on Tuesday, LGBT communities were allowed to host on campus activities if they had been granted permission from their university. Furthermore, he specified that such groups would be allowed on campus as long they did not promote indecent acts, such as intimacy and sexual intercourse.
"I do not prohibit LGBT members from conducting activities on campus. [However] campuses are guardians of morality, so there should not be any activities that violate the conduct of decency, such as public displays of affection or making love on campus," he told the press in Jakarta.
"Gathering for academic purposes, as university students, is not the problem. If they want to conduct consultations, research and education that will help them, then go ahead," he added.
Nasir said that he did not have a problem with members of the LGBT community, adding that he once had a transgender friend during his time in university. "Even someone who identifies as transgender has the right to an education," he said.
LGBT activities on campus came into the spotlight recently when conservative media coverage attacked the Support Group and Resource Center on Sexuality Studies (SGRC) at the University of Indonesia (UI), highlighting its LGBT Peer Support Network, a counseling service in cooperation with melela.org, an online platform for LGBT individuals and their supporters to share their experiences. The group also encourages discussions and studies on topics surrounding gender and sexuality.
Messages have been circulating online calling on the public to establish anti-LGBT groups on campus and several lawmakers have slammed the SGRC UI.
Despite Nasir's retraction, the persecution against SGRC UI has triggered mixed reactions among academics. Indonesian Rector Forum head Rochmat Wahab said that the university campus was not a place for LGBT organization as it went against "normative" values.
"A campus is a place to develop character, leadership skills, social awareness and academia. If we look through the lens of our social norms, it is clear that it would be a violation to allow such groups to flourish," said Rochmat, who is also the Yogyakarta State University (UNY) rector.
The North Sumatra Muhammadiyah University (UMSU) in Medan welcomes LGBT individuals to study at the campus. UMSU spokesman Ribut Priadi said all students in the university were given Islamic education that would prevent them from partaking in any promiscuous act. "We believe this can prevent the deviant behavior of LGBT from developing," he said.
North Sumatra University (USU) rector Runtung Sitepu said he would dismiss any of his students involved in LGBT community activities on the campus. "What will the students become if they no longer maintain moral norms?" he asked.
A lecturer in law at Sam Ratulangi University in Manado, North Sulawesi, Flora Kalalo, said that sexual preference was an individual's right. She said that, as long as LGBT individuals did not disturb activities on campus, they were not "a problem".
[Lita Aruperes contributed to this article from Manado.]
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/27/minister-backtracks-lgbt-ban-hostility-remains.html