TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Senior Adjunct Commissioner Ahmad Untung Surianata alias Untung Sangaji, Chief of the North Aceh District Police Department, feels that the threat posed by transvestites is worse than that of terrorism. Transvestitism is a contagious disease which must be eradicated, Untung said. "Excuse me if I smash anything having to do with transvestitism," the police officer said on Saturday night two weeks ago.
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That Saturday night, Untung led his men and wilyatul hisbah (Islamic law police) officers to comb through five beauty salons in Lhoksukon and Pantonlabu, two subdistricts in North Aceh. At those facilities, the police rounded up 12 men who they named were transvestites. Those 12 were immediately taken to the North Aceh District Police Department.
The police then proceeded to lop off their hair, giving them crew-cuts. In photos taken by the police and disseminated on social media, two of the men whose heads were being shaved were not wearing shirts. In another photo, those who were arrested were lying on the grass. Untung said that this was all part of ‘guidance’ to make them more ‘macho’.
Claiming to have succeeded in restoring their manliness, the police released the 12 on Monday last week. As it turned out, seven of them relocated to Medan and the rest to other places. "They were traumatized after being so mistreated," said Hartoyo, an activist of the Suara Kita Association, an organization which defends the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBTs), who worked with the group who had been arrested in North Aceh.
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According to Hartoyo, of the 12 who were arrested, only one was actually a transgender. Three others were visiting the salons, and the rest worked in those places. They were all residents of North Aceh, except for the transgender individual, who was from a different regency in the east of Aceh. "Some of them indeed had dyed hair, but that does not make them transvestites. One of them is married and has a child," said Hartoyo.
The men arrested said that they felt humiliated. They had been arrested though they had committed no crime. Hartoyo said that this was the first time they were raided like this. "Some had operated their salons for years, and the public has never had any problems with them," he said.
A similar incident took place in Tasikmalaya, West Java, on Tuesday night two weeks ago. A group called the Alliance of Muslim Activists and Residents of Tasikmalaya (Almumtaz) dispersed a party at a restaurant, accusing the event of being an LGBT party. "We received a report from residents at 8 pm that there was an anniversary of the Tasikmalaya LGBT community. They said there were 150 people there," said Almumtaz coordinator, Abu Hazmi.
Read the full article in this week's edition of Tempo English Magazine
