Lucita Lucinta. | Photo: YouTube
A TV chat show has received a sanction for talking about trans people in Indonesia.
The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) said it was going to sanction ‘Brownis Tonight’. The sanction was for content that ‘addresses the transgender issue’.
Brownis Tonight got into trouble for addressing rumors that one of its guests, singer Lucita Lucinta, was not assigned female at birth. Lucinta presents as female and denied the rumors.
That was apparently enough to get the show into trouble.
In a statement the KPI said Brownis Tonight had violated ‘the provisions on respect for privacy rights, child protection, and protection to persons with a particular gender identity’.
KPI central commissioner, Hardly Stefano, said it had received many complaints about the episode. He reminded broadcasters ‘to not give LGBT promotion space through any broadcast program’.
‘The rules are clear, both about respect for moral values and norms and decency, or on the protection of children and adolescents that prohibit the presence of content that encourages children and adolescents from learning about inappropriate behavior and/or justifying such behavior,’ he said.
‘Based on these violations, the Central KPI provides administrative sanctions in the form of a written warning.’
The persecution is getting worse
Homosexuality and transgenderism is not illegal in Indonesia, but an ongoing crackdown on LGBTI people has seen the community increasingly persecuted.
The persecution has made LGBT subjects taboo and clearly any kind of LGBT content can get media into trouble.
A draft bill is in the Indonesian Parliament which would ban any kind of ‘LGBT behavior’ on TV.
In 2016, the KPI introduced an explicit ban on ‘effeminate men’ from appearing on TV.
