Asia-Pacific
Indonesian students rally against gay meeting
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-25 15:51
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In their protest, the students carried several posters that said "Say no to homosexual conference in Surabaya", "Say no to lesbians" and "Surabaya is not gay city".
A spokesman for the demonstrators, Agus Kusdiyanto, said Surabaya was a religion-oriented city where the majority of the people were Muslim.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country, where most of its over 230 million population are Muslim who respect the Islamic teaching. Despite it is not against the law, the homosexual is forbidden by the Islamic teaching.
Kusdiyanto said that the local people highly cherished the eastern cultural values which do not tolerate homosexual activity.
Therefore, he said, Surabaya must not be a host of the homosexual conference.
"We demand that local authorities ban and stop any homosexual- related activity in Surabaya. If necessary, the government must order the organizing committee to apologize publicly and guarantee that such an event will never be held in Surabaya," he said.
The rally drew a response from the vice chairman of local lawmaker, Wisnu Sakti Buana, who said he too opposed the holding of the conference in Surabaya.
"We are not happy over Surabaya city being made a host of the conference. We urge the police not to give permission to the organizing committee to hold the event," he said.
Surabaya police on Wednesday decided not to issue a permit for the regional gay and lesbian conference, citing it was opposed by Ulemas.
Having no permit, the committee of the meeting aborted the conference, according to Raphael Da Costa, one of the coordinator who was quoted by Kompas.com.
