Indonesia bill on family targets surrogacy, 'sexual deviations'

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Politicians from four Indonesian parties are backing a so-called “Family Resilience” bill that would outlaw surrogacy and require LGBT people to seek treatment at rehabilitation centers, prompting outrage on social media and criticism from activists.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, is seeing a shift towards greater conservativism including growing state and public hostility against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. One of the bill’s proponents, Ledia Hanifa of the opposition Prosperous Justice party, a conservative Islamic party, said in a statement posted on parliament’s website that the proposed bill was intended to foster “family-based development.”

According to a draft reviewed by Reuters, the family is defined as the smallest unit of society composed of married couples, married couples with children, and single parents. The bill states that wives must “take care of household-related matters” and “treat the husband and the child well.”

The bill is also seeking a maximum penalty of seven years in prison for surrogacy. Under the bill, homosexuality, incest and sadomasochism are defined as “sexual deviations” and it wants people to report themselves to government-sanctioned rehabilitation centers for treatment. Read more via Reuters