The Bandung City Legislative Council (DPRD) is planning to draft a regional regulation (Perda) in the prevention and disallowance of LGBT, which was an idea that came from the aspirations of a certain group of people. This suggestion was received positively by the Bandung DPRD Speaker Tedy Rusmawan.

“It is still a submission. Now we will discuss it with the Regional Regulation Formulation Body (Bapamperda). We have not received enough data,” Tedy said on January 25, Antaranews reported.

Meanwhile, as reported by bandung.go.id, the mayor of Bandung Yana Mulyana has also shown support for this plan and said that LGBT violates religious values. But he acknowledged that the regional regulation approval process is the authority of the DPRD.

“I will surely agree to this as it violated religious norms and legal norms,” said Yana on January 24. Slanted as Discriminatory Regulation

Rumors of the drafting of an ‘anti-LGBT‘ law in this region are also subject to rejection, one of which, came from the Inter-Religious Working Network (Jakatarub) which argued that the regulation against LGBT is blatant discrimination.

“If this truly comes to light, surely the Jakatarub will find it regrettable. It will only add to the list of discriminatory regional regulations in West Java,” said Jakatarub coordinator Arfi on January 25.

Afri acknowledged that the Bandung City government is trying to achieve its vision as a religious and humane city. However, he argued that to achieve this vision, the municipal government should actually avoid issuing regulations that could harm any humanitarian group. He insisted that instead of issuing a regional regulation on the LGBT ban, there are still many other problems in Bandung that need to be legally protected. “There are still plenty of other social issues that need to be noticed by the City Administration,” said Arfi.

Meanwhile, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) also spoke out against a number of regions that had again voiced anti-LGBT regulations. The human rights watchdog reminded people that the country’s Constitution guarantees equal rights to every citizen before the law. This regulation was reinforced by Law No.39/1999 concerning Human Rights. “The Constitution and the law on human rights stipulate that all citizens are equal before the law”, declared Sunday January 22 the commissioner of Komnas HAM, Anis Hidayah.

This Commissioner stressed that respect for human rights is based on the principle of non-discrimination in the country and that this principle also applies to all groups of citizens without exception, including LGBT. He asserted the importance of policies that should not discriminate against groups, gender, religion, political beliefs, ethnicity, and race. “So there should be no discrimination based on anything,” said Anis again.