TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The recent anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) ruckus should not be taken lightly. Debates surrounding the issue have not only turned absurd but also become hotbeds of hate speech and intimidation.

It all began with a community poster from University of Indonesia's Support Group and Resource Center on Sexuality Studies. The poster offering counseling for LGBT teens triggered outrage on the Internet. Some feel that the campus should not disgrace itself through such a forum. The debates became hostile as some formal media accommodated anti-LGBT slurs.

Most worrisome of all was the statements of public officials, who proposed banning LGBT students from campuses which were later taken back as well as those coming from religious figures. Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) records showed that 17 state officials, either executive or legislative, had issued discriminative statements against LGBTs. Several civil organizations even proposed drafting anti-LGBT laws.

Through a circular, the Commission for Indonesian Broadcasting and Child Protection have asked TV stations to disallow male show hosts from engaging in effeminate mannerisms. This was later made a justification for anti-LGBT groups to intimidate, discriminate and even threaten LGBTs. A group of people, for example, came to an Islamic boarding school for the transgendered in Yogyakarta to question their activities. Another organization distributed leaflets condemning LGBTs as worthy being 'burned, stoned and thrown from a high altitude'.

As such, it is time the government, together with experts, tackle proportionate and proper debates on whether deviant sexual orientations are 'diseases', whether they are contagious or not, whether they are congenital or socially constructed, whether they pose threats to children, whether LGBTs are the most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, etc.

Fighting claims that LGBTs are 'abnormal' people will need a long and complicated debate, even though World Health Organization (WHO) is considering on removing sexual orientation-related issues from its disease-classification system. All the above factors are still insufficient to stop some of state officials, legislative members, religious figures and even 'scholars' from issuing astounding statements.

Suspicion and ignorance can drive people to cross the line between freedom of opinion and expressing hate. Before hate speech could trigger even more widespread intimidation and discrimination, the government must step in and protect LGBTs who are also citizens with the right to live in peace like everyone else.

The police already have National Police Chief's Memo No. SE/06X/2015 regarding hate speech, which among others stipulates that hate speech is an effort to instigate hate against individuals and/or communities who may be distinguished from the mainstream culture in various aspects including sexual orientation. Armed with this, the police can at least make sure that no individuals or group lives under threat just because they are different. (*)

Read the full story in this week's edition of Tempo English Magazine