Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in Indonesia face significant challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents. Although same-sex sexual activity is legal in most parts of the country, homosexuality remains disapproved of and stigmatized in Indonesian society. Households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples. Indonesia provides no anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people, nor does it prohibit hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In Aceh, homosexuality is illegal under Sharia law and it is punishable by flogging or imprisonment.
According to a 2025 data from the Pew Research Center, opposition to homosexuality in Indonesia remains high, with 93% of respondents labeling it "morally unacceptable," a figure comparable to Nigeria (96%).
Various forms of conversion therapy are widely practiced and openly advertised in Indonesia including treatment in rehabilitation centres and corrective rape from family members against lesbian women.
In 2016, 2022 and 2025, Indonesia voted against the United Nations independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
In 2022, the Indonesian government amended its penal code to prohibit sexual activity outside of marriage, a provision set to take in force on 2 January 2026. Unmarried partners who engage in sex can face up to one year in prison. Although the national penal code does not explicitly criminalize same-sex relationships, same-sex marriage is not legally recognized, effectively placing all sexual activity between same-sex partners outside legal recognition.
Raids on private "gay parties" by police have occurred a number of times in the 2010s and 2020s.
Legality of same-sex sexual activity
In December 2022, the Indonesian Parliament has passed a bill of Penal code that in part criminalize sex outside of marriage for patner if lodged by a complaint by immediate family. The spokesperson for the draft bill stated that, the draft bill will not criminalize private sexual orientation, included of LGBTQ persons. Then Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs of Indonesia, Mahfud MD said the new penal code did not criminalize an LGBTQ person when the new penal code was passed. It only targets at adults who does “sexual violence” or rape of underage children of the same-sex and committing immoral acts in public.
Currently, unlike its neighbouring Commonwealth country, Malaysia, Indonesia does not explicitly have a sodomy law. The national Penal Code does not prohibit non-commercial, private and consensual sexual activity between two consenting adults of the same-sex. A national bill seeking to criminalize same-sex sexual activity, along with cohabitation, adultery and the practice of witchcraft, failed to be enacted in 2003 and no subsequent bill has been reintroduced.Indonesia Seeks to Imprison Gays , 365Gay.com, 30 September 2003
Indonesia allows one of its provincial government to establish specific sharia-based laws, such as criminal sanctions for homosexuality. These local penalties exist in the province of Aceh, which has special autonomous status under Indonesian law and implements Islamic Sharia-based criminal law (). Under the 2014 , consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults are punishable by up to 100 lashes or up to 100 months (8 years) imprisonment. In several high-profile cases, men have been publicly caned after being found guilty of having same-sex relations. In 2015 two Muslim women were rehabilitated for hugging in public in Banda Aceh, with a police official telling reporters that they "suspected the women were lesbians."
Indonesia itself has allowed private and consensual sexual activity between members of the same sex since 1993, at an 18 years of age.
The Constitution does not explicitly address sexual orientation or gender identity. It does guarantee all citizens various legal rights, including equality before the law, equal opportunity, humane treatment in the workplace, religious freedom, freedom of opinion, peaceful assembly, and association.
The government also has taken specific steps to censor films and other media content that is deemed to be "promoting" homosexuality. In 2016, the government announced plans to ban several websites and computer applications that promotes homosexuality. A survey conducted by Pew Research Center in 2023 estimated that 95% of Indonesians oppose same-sex marriage.
Calls for discrimination and criminalization The most active opposition against the recognition of LGBTQ rights in Indonesia has come from religious authorities and pressure-groups, especially Islamic organisations. Indonesian Ulema Council (Majelis Ulama Indonesia or MUI) has made a statement, which stigmatised the LGBTQ population by declaring them "deviant" and an affront to the "dignity of Indonesia".
In 2005, the Indonesian government gave Aceh Province the right to introduce Sharia Law, albeit only to Muslim residents. The northernmost province of Aceh proceeded to enact a sharia-based anti-homosexuality law that punishes anyone caught having gay sex with 100 lashes. The law was set for enforcement by the end of 2015. Another example is the city of Palembang which introduced jail and fines for homosexual sex (though the laws are disbanded as of 2020.) Under the law, homosexuality is defined as an act of "prostitution that violates the norms of common decency, religion, and legal norms as they apply to societal rule." The following acts are defined as acts of prostitution: homosexual sex, lesbian sex, sodomy, sexual harassment and other pornographic acts.
In March 2015, Indonesian Ulema Council (Majelis Ulama Indonesia or MUI) issued a fatwa, or religious edict, called for same-sex acts to be punished by caning, and in some instances, the death penalty. The fatwa considers homosexuality a curable disease and says homosexual acts "must be heavily punished."
Indonesian People's Representative Council (DPR) has dismissed the suggestion that the death penalty would be introduced for same-sex acts, citing that it is quite impossible to implement that policy in Indonesia. The DPR said that the MUI fatwa only serves as moral guidance to adherents, not as positive law, since legal power is only possessed by the state.
In March 2016, amid a surge in anti-LGBTQ sentiments that began earlier in the year, parties like the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP) proposed an anti-LGBTQ bill aimed at banning LGBTQ rights activism and criminalizing LGBTQ behavior. Various politicians made statements against the LGBTQ community in following months that year.
In 2017, two young gay men (aged 20 and 23) were sentenced to being caned in front of the public in the Aceh province.
On 14 December 2017, the Constitutional Court of Indonesia issued a 5–4 ruling rejecting a petition by the conservative Family Love Alliance which sought to amend the Indonesian Penal Code to make gay sex and sex outside of marriage illegal. There were three articles of the Indonesian Penal Code (KUHP) petitioned for review, namely article 248 on adultery, article 285 on rape, and article 292 on child abuse. Under article 292 of the Penal Code, child sexual abuse is a crime, both heterosexual or homosexual conducts. The petitioner sought to erase the term "underage" in article 292, in order to persecute all same-sex sexual conducts of all ages, including among consenting adults. Which meant the petitioner sought to criminalise homosexuality. The court rejected to amend the law and held that the issue was a matter of the Indonesian legislature.
Since January 2018, as part of revising the penal code, lawmakers have been working on a penal code draft. Despite the international criticism and the human rights organisations fears, if passed, the law would criminalise consensual sex between two unmarried people, cohabitation, adultery and rape. It will also enable lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people to be taken to court for their sexual orientation.
In late September 2019, the outgoing People's Representative Council's plan to pass the revised penal code (RKUHP) was met with widespread student demonstrations on 23, 24 and 25 September 2019. The revision of the Penal Code (RKUHP) is increasingly discriminating against LGBTQ people. Article 421 (1) concerning obscenity explicitly mentions the same-sex acts: "Everyone who commits obscene acts against other people of the same sex in public is convicted with a maximum imprisonment of 1 year and six months or a maximum fine of category III." The explicit mention of "same sex" obscenity is feared triggering discriminatory treatment and will generate bylaws that particularly targeting LGBTQ people. As the response on this widespread opposition, the government have either postponed or intercepted this controversial revised penal code.
Arrests and detention by police In late November 2016, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) tipped off police in Jakarta that there was a "sex party". The police then raided the gay gathering, charging the men with violating the national law against pornography.
In 2017, police launched multiple raids on gay saunas under the pretext of pornography-related offences. In May 2017, 141 men were arrested for a "gay sex party" in the capital Jakarta; ten were charged. On 21 May 2017, police detained 144 people in a raid on a gay sauna, Atlantis Gym Jakarta. The Indonesian Ulema Council made a statement that such activity is blasphemy against religion and an insult against Indonesian culture. The Head of Law Department of MUI stated that "What kind of logic that able to accept this kind of sexual deviation" and incorrectly stated that "even animals are not gay". Earlier in the same month, 14 men were arrested at a "gay party" in Surabaya. Another raid took place in October 2017, when Indonesian police raided a sauna in Central Jakarta popular with gay men, arresting 51 people, although only six were charged, including the spa owner.
On 11 August 2022, Rodrigo Ventocilla, a 32-year old Peruvian economist and homosexual activist, died at the Sanglah General Hospital in Denpasar, Indonesia. He died in police custody after being arrested five days earlier by the Indonesian National Police after being accused of drug trafficking. Ventocilla had arrived in Indonesia for celebrating his honeymoon after his marriage with Sebastian Marallano. As per the police, he was arrested for carrying illegal drugs, and later ingested some concealed drugs during police custody, which led to his death later. However, the family of Ventocilla and LGBTQ activists argued that it was a case of racial discrimination and transphobia.
On 22 June 2025, police had conducted a raid on a gathering at a private villa, described as a "gay party," and arrested 75 people near the capital city of Jakarta. Police detained nine people following a raid on a "gay party" at a private hotel in South Jakarta on 24 May, while 56 individuals were detained for participating in "a gay party" in a raid on a different private hotel in South Jakarta on 1 February.
On 11 August 2025, two men, aged 20 and 21, were sentenced to public caning for kissing. They were arrested in April after police broke into the toilet.
In August 2025, three men suspected of creating a LGBTQ community page on Facebook have been arrested by police. If convicted, they could face up to 12 years in prisons and fines of up to 6 billion rupiah.
On 22 May 2026 judge sentenced 25 people to prison for violating anti pornographic law.
Recognition of same-sex relationships
Indonesian law does not recognise same-sex marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships.
Military service