GAY INFONESIA - SMRC Survey: LGBT has the right to live in Indonesia. The Saiful Mujani Research & Consulting (SMRC) survey shows that although the LGBT group is perceived as a threat and considered to be against the religion, most Indonesians say the group still has the right to live in Indonesia.
The survey results were delivered Saiful Mujani Research & Consulting (SMRC) in a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday (25/1). SMRC Strategic Communication Director Ade Armando said the results show that most Indonesians still uphold the value of tolerance.
"The figure is 57 percent, so the majority say they have the right to live, for those who believe in democracy and human rights (human rights), this is good news," said Ade.
SMRC has conducted three public opinion surveys on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) on March 22-30, 2016, 3-10 September 2017 and 7-13 December 2017. The survey populations were conducted with face-to-face interviews this is an Indonesian citizen who already has the right to vote. The third study with error rate of 3.1-3.2 percent involves 1220 respondents.
Respondents who think that LGBT has the right to live in Indonesia are spread among all public groups by gender category (male-female), residence (urban-rural), religion, ethnicity, age, education level, income level, and occupation.
According to Ade, the results of the three surveys show an increase in community knowledge about LGBT. In a similar survey last March, only 48.8 percent of respondents knew about LGBT, but in this survey it increased to 58.3 percent.
Approximately 50 percent of LGBT people know the government is obliged to protect LGBT as other citizens. However, others think the government does not need to guarantee the protection of this group.
Ade further said 81.5 percent of respondents agreed that gay and lesbian sexual behavior was forbidden by religion; and the majority of respondents objected if LGBT people became their neighbors or became government officials.
From the eyes of medicine, according to neurosurgeon Rio Hasan, LGBT (lesbian, gay, and bisexual) is normal; whereas transgender is a disorder. Rio Hasan underlines that lesbians, gays, and bisexuals are sexual orientations and this is not a disease or an abnormality; while transgender is a person who feels uncomfortable with his gender identity.
Rio explains from a biological point of view, not all men are XY chromosomes and not all women are XX chromosomes. According to him, there is a female XY and XX there are men. He added that many women do not have a uterus and an ovary, and vice versa there is a small man, like a clitoris.
"These uncertainly identified species are called intersex, and now there are 43 groups of intersexes," says Rio.
Former Chief Justice Mahfud MD previously said the Indonesian government has actually long accepted people who have LGBT abnormalities, but not with their behavior.
"I think we've never questioned LGBT as a person, it's a question of behavior, not people, even been discussed in the government since 30 years ago, but not the person, if I 100 percent accept the person, not the sexual behavior," said Mahfud MD.
According to lecturer of FISIP Communication University of Atmajaya Yogyakarta Dina Listiyorini, during the end of 2015-2018 the news about LGBT is very vigorous in the last three years. Responding to the SMRC survey results which concluded that more and more people of Indonesia know LGBT, Dina even questioned how deep their knowledge about LGBT.
Dina assesses that most of the media in Indonesia appear to be clearly rejecting LGBT, although mainstream media are still more tolerant than non-mainstream media. He added that based on the information obtained by the family it became the first place where LGBT groups experienced violence.