Indonesia examines foreign teachers’ sexual orientation

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Indonesia examines foreign teachers’ sexual orientation

Schools will not hire lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (L.G.B.T) people

Hostility against L.G.B.T practices growing across Indonesia

The clampdown on L.G.B.T people now cuts across all workplaces

Foreign teachers at private schools in Indonesia recently have been required to answer meddling questions in what can be termed psychological examination aimed at identifying those with abnormal sexual orientation.

Waadarrahman , an official with the Ministry of Education and Culture, said that a school would certainly not hire a foreign teaching applicant if any of the examining psychologists declared him or her to have a deviant sexual orientation. That is to say that he is any of these: lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

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The goal of such scrutiny in the school system in Indonesia is to determine teachers’ sexual orientation and attitude toward gay rights. The gay rights exists under a government regulation made in 2015 that prohibits international schools from hiring foreign teachers who have an indication of abnormal sexual orientation.

Last September, The Parliament came close to passing an overhaul of the criminal code that would have efficiently barred lesbian and gay relations.

The test comes as individuals who practise lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender (L.G.B.T) face growing hostility across Indonesia, which was once seen as among the most tolerant Islamic countries in the world.

Indonesians have not really demonstrated strong distaste over the practices by means of protests until recently. Officially, Secular Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population.

The clampdown on L.G.B.T. people in Indonesian workplaces extends beyond schools. The office of Indonesia’s Attorney General, which is responsible for enforcing laws against discernment, last month, advised job applicants not to have “sexual orientation disorders” or “behavioural deviations.”

Homosexuality is currently legal in Indonesia except in the Autonomous Aceh Province, where gays and lesbians can be caned under Sharia Law, the Islamic Legal Code.