reader Posted February 7, 2018 Posted February 7, 2018 From Bangkok Post JAKARTA: The United Nations human rights chief on Wednesday criticised proposals in Indonesia's parliament to criminalize gay sex and extramarital sex, saying such laws could hurt the country's beleaguered LGBT community and other minorities. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said he had raised the issue with President Joko Widodo during a three-day visit to the world's largest Muslim-majority country, where hostility toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community has risen sharply in recent years. "Discussions of (revisions to the criminal code) betray strains of intolerance seemingly alien to Indonesian culture that have made inroads here," Zeid told a news briefing, adding that he believed the proposed rules were "discriminatory". "The hateful rhetoric against the LGBT community that is being cultivated seemingly for cynical political purposes will only deepen their suffering and create unnecessary divisions," he said. Indonesia's parliament is currently deliberating revisions to a Dutch colonial-era criminal code, including proposals to outlaw sex outside marriage, same-sex relations, and co-habitation, all of which were previously unregulated by law. https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asean/1409022/un-slams-indonesia-move-to-outlaw-gay-extramarital-sex Quote
