On Jan. 27, North Aceh police raided several beauty salons and some transgender women who work there were taken to the police station.
The raid was called “operasi penyakit Masyarakat,” or “community sickness operation.”
North Aceh Chief of Police, Untung Sangaji, told BBC Indonesia that the raid of the transgender women over the weekend is an action of “coaching” them to be “real men.”
The police officers also forcibly shaved their hair off and forced them to wear men’s clothing as a form of this “coaching.”
“In addition, the officers also nurtured them by way of having them run for some time and telling them to chant loudly until their male voices came out,” Untung Sangaji said in an interview to local media.
Previously, he was also being quoted by local media saying, “The LGBT community is a more dangerous threat than terrorism.”
Indonesia National Commision of Human Rights criticized the action of North Aceh police because not only they humiliated and degraded these trans women, they also shut down the beauty salon where they work at, even though those are their only economical sources.
This is not the first time the LGBT community in Aceh was targeted, as back in December, local authority arrested some transgender women in a hotel during a birthday celebration.
In May 2017, 2 gay men were caned for more than 80 times after being found guilty of having homosexual activity.
Aceh itself is a province in Indonesia that is known as the most religiously-strict province because they have their special authority given by the government. This special authority makes this the only province in Indonesia that uses Sharia Law as their main law.
