Nicola Smith – Indonesia is debating a law that would ban LGBT characters from national television shows, in the latest move in a sweeping crackdown on gay rights in the world's largest Muslim nation.
The Jakarta Post reports that the proposed ban has been added to a broadcasting bill currently passing through the country's House of Representatives. Outlawed content would include programmes featuring any lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender "behaviour."
The new restrictions reportedly have broad cross-party support. "We can't allow LGBT behaviour on TV. It is against our culture," said legislator Supiadin Aries Saputra of the NasDem party.
"We have to ban it early before it becomes a lifestyle. It's dangerous and can ruin the morality of the younger generation."
Under the new bill, all shows would need to be screened, including adverts and documentaries, to ensure compliance.
"I am sure there are still more creative ways to entertain people [instead of showing LGBT behaviour]," Hanafi Rais from the National Mandate Party told The Post, while justifying the new law.
It is legal to be gay in Indonesia, apart from in the province of Aceh, where Sharia law is enforced. In May two men were publicly caned there after being caught having a consensual sexual relationship.
However, the LGBT community has come under increasing pressure from conservative forces across the country. In May police raided a gay sauna in the capital, Jakarta, arresting 141 men using loosely defined pornography laws.
Meanwhile the influential Family Love Alliance [AILA] has been pushing for Indonesia to outlaw any premarital sex. To do so would effectively ban LGBT relationships as same-sex marriage has not been legalised.
Rights groups are raising their voices in opposition to the proposed law. "The policy is obviously rooted in homophobia," Surpiyadi Widodo Eddyono, executive director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, told Vice News.
"If content containing violence is censored, fine. It's normal. But LGBTQ characters aren't a form of violence."