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# Indonesian LGBTQ+ activists targeted by conversion therapist
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/indonesian-lgbtq-activists-targeted-by-conversion-therapist/
- Published: 2021-02-22T12:45:55.000Z
- Updated: 2021-02-22T12:03:27.000Z
- Description: A handful of LGBTQ+ activists in Indonesia have reported being harassed by a social media account which offered conversion therapy.
- Author: Rachel Badham
- Tags: News, ban conversion therapy, conversion therapy, Indonesia, LGBTQ, LGBTQ+ rights

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/lgbt-indonesia-pride-1.jpg)

A handful of LGBTQ+ activists in **Indonesia** have reported being harassed by a social media account which offered conversion therapy, with some of the victims already having been subjected to the controversial form of treatment in the past. According to [*Asia One*](https://www.asiaone.com/digital/conversion-therapy-website-haunts-indonesian-lgbt-activists?ref=scenemag.co.uk), a message was sent to a number of prominent LGBTQ+ activists in the country, which read: *“It’s not too late to return to God. God has not left you. Indonesia is a Muslim country, and we reject all sins. Let us help you drive Satan out from inside of you and you can become normal again.”*

The messages were sent from an Instagram account which has since been deleted. The messages also included a link to a website which offered conversion therapy in the form of electric shocks, exorcism and ‘corrective’ rape. **Acep Gates**, a 25-year-old activist who was targeted, said he was left *“shocked and angry”* after the incident. Gates had already been subjected to conversion therapy twice, which he said left him *“depressed”* and needing therapy.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/conversiontherapyyban-1.jpg)

**Pelangi Nusantara**, an LGBTQ+ rights advocacy group, has set up a petition to have the website shut down, saying: *“With enough support, we want the Ministry of Law and Human Rights to ban all forms of conversion therapy in Indonesia.”* Same-sex relations are legal everywhere in Indonesia except the province of **Aceh**, where homosexuality is punishible by flogging. In [January](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/indonesian-men-beaten-for-same-sex-relations/), two men were publicly flogged 77 times for allegedly having sex. LGBTQ+ people have also been targeted by authorities in other Indonesian regions, with a handful of men[ being arrested last year](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/indonesian-men-arrested-for-holding-gay-gathering/) in **Kuningan** for hosting what police described as a ‘gay party’.

**Amnesty International Indonesia** has condemned the treatment of LGBTQ+ people in the country, saying: *“No-one deserves to be brutalised and humiliated in this way…Targeting and criminalising people because of their real or perceived sexual orientation is inhumane.”*

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/end_conversion_therapy.jpg)