Jeka Kampai, Padang – The Pariaman municipal government in West Sumatra has responded swiftly to anxiety about deviant behaviour by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people in the city.

The LGBT problem has been officially included in a regional regulation (perda) and LGBT people can now be fined 1 million rupiah (approx US$70) if they create unrest.

The bylaw was enacted during a plenary meeting of the Pariaman Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) on the evening of Tuesday November 27 at the Pariaman City parliamentary building.

The bylaw containing the provisions on LGBT is a revision of the existing Regional Regulation on Peace and Order. There are two articles in the bylaw which regulate LGBT people and transgender women (waria), namely Articles 24 and 25.

Article 24 regulates the activities transgender women and those whose activities disturb public order. Article 25 meanwhile prohibits the activities of women and men who commit immoral (asusila) acts between the same sexes.

“Perpetrators of asusila and same-sex relations in the form of LGBT and waria will incur sanctions and fines if they disturb public order”, said DPRD Pariaman speaker Fitri Nora from Prabowo Subianto’s Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) when she handed the bylaw over to city leaders.

Violations of these two articles are subject to a fine of as much as 1 million rupiah.

Pariaman Deputy Mayor Mardison Mahyudin claimed that the bylaw was enacted based on the wishes of all parties in Pariaman City. “Many residents are anxious. There have been many reports, so we needed to make a regulation”, Mahyudin told Detik.com on Wednesday November 28.

According to Mahyudin, there will be derivative bylaws enacted in the form of regulations at the village and ward level.

“Later there may well be village regulations or ward regulations, whose punishments will not just be a 1 million rupiah fine but there will also be social sanctions”, he said.

The social sanctions referred to will be applied in each respective community, where each region applies different customary laws and various kinds of punishments. They could be paying for cement [to build a village structure] or something else. (asp/asp)

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was Perda Pariaman Sumbar Ancam LGBT dengan Denda Rp 1 Juta.]

Source: https://news.detik.com/berita/d-4322284/perda-pariaman-sumbar-ancam-lgbt-dengan-denda-rp-1-juta