The Australian Volunteers Program strives to provide a safe, supportive and equitable environment for LGBTQIA+ volunteers, approved accompanying dependents, partner organisations and all program staff. The Australian Volunteers Program has supported queer volunteers in all program countries and has ongoing connections with community organisations in many countries and regions in which the program operates.
This guide introduces a snapshot of the local context for queer and gender diverse people. LGBTQIA+ program participants must be aware of the country context before undertaking an assignment. If you are an LGBTQIA+ volunteer, you will need to:
- do your own research and understand what the local law says you can and can't do when in-country
- follow the local laws, even if you disagree with them
- be aware of the legal protections for LGBTQIA+ people in your destinations
- consider if you’re comfortable living and working in a place where you may not be able to live as openly as you can in some parts of Australia.
Language
Terminology may differ across urban and rural contexts, provinces or ethnic and cultural groups. Information sourced online can be outdated or inaccurate. For current and accurate information, please confirm with an appropriate civil society organisation (CSO) or ask your in-country team.
Legal and policy context
Same-sex sexual acts have never been criminalised in Indonesian law, but some provinces, cities and districts do criminalise consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults. Provinces that criminalise or punish same-sex sexual acts include Aceh and South Sumatra, districts include Banjar (West Java), and cities include Padang Panjang (West Sumatra), Pariaman (West Sumatra) and Tasikmalava (West Java). Jakarta has also seen police raids, criminalisation and sentencing as recently as 2025.
'Obscene acts' in public have been deemed to be criminal offences, and the Indonesian Ulama Council released a fatwa (Islamic ruling) to condemn the promotion of 'LGBTIQ+ activities'. Psychiatrists in Indonesia have categorised 'homosexuality', 'bisexuality' and 'transsexualism' as curable mental disorders.
Discrimination
No legal protections exist for LGBTQIA+ people in Indonesia. This includes a lack of constitutional and national laws and laws that protect against hate crimes, incitement to hatred, violence or discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people. A large number of companies explicitly ban LGBTQIA+ individuals from applying for roles at their organisations or reject them during the interview process. In 2017, diverse SOGIESC populations were unemployed at a rate of 17% compared to the national rate of 5.33%.
Cultural and societal attitudes
Religion is used as a means of justifying discriminatory and violent behaviour toward queer communities in Indonesia.
'…Since we were young, before we embrace our LGBTIQ identity, we were taught with religious interpretations about how terrible LGBTIQ people are and that they will go to hell. Many of the LGBTIQ individuals have a hard time dealing with this religious interpretation. They have to go through phases of denial, anger, bargaining and depression. If they are lucky, they would finally reach the self-acceptance, or ‘coming in’.' - Research participant.
In a 2017 survey, 95.4% of Indonesians believed that homosexuality was “always wrong”. The majority of documented acts of violence against LGBTQIA+ people are perpetrated by religious fundamentalist groups who target gatherings of queer people and activists. Historically, these groups have not attacked individuals based on real or perceived gender or sexual identities.
Familial acceptance of LGBTQIA+ relatives varies. Some families enforce rukyah, or Islamic conversion therapy, stop paying their children’s school tuitions or force their children to leave home. Experiences of bullying in schools is high among LGBTQIA+ children and youth.
Health and wellbeing
Indonesians with a national identification card and health insurance can access basic health services. LGBTQIA+ youth who were forced to leave home before turning 17 may not hold their own identification card and can therefore struggle to access services. Even those who do have the appropriate coverage and identification may face discrimination by healthcare staff. Lesbian, bisexual and queer women who are not married to a cisgender man can find it difficult to access pap smear or HIV/AIDS services. However, men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women are not seen as part of the queer community, and can therefore access HIV/AIDS services
Queer communities may rely on CSOs to connect them to appropriate services, although these clinics are limited. Some health clinics provide hormone replacement therapy and gender-reaffirming surgery, however these services are not advertised and are often not covered by health insurance. Mental health services are limited to CSOs connecting with the appropriate private group.
Sexual and reproductive health education is not compulsory in Indonesian schools, although it is taught in some urban private schools as an extra-curricular, non-compulsory unit.
Media
The Law Against Pornography and Pornoaction (2006) prohibits '…any writing or audio-visual presentation – including songs, poetry, films, paintings, and photographs that show or suggest sexual relations between persons of the same sex.' Those in violation of the law could be fined or sentenced to prison for up to seven years. However, the media is now giving homosexuality more media coverage in Indonesia.
Indonesia recently banned many pornographic sites but also any site that has the word 'gay' or any word that related to LGBTQIA+ people. Indonesia also banned some applications like the gay dating service Grindr, though similar dating applications like Walla and Hornet are not banned. Blued, the international version of Walla, is not banned on iOS.
There are a growing number of online platforms that portray sexual and gender diversity as normal and highlight the human rights abuses experienced by LGBTQIA+ people.
CSOs use their social media channels and converse with mainstream online media organisations for their advocacy work. CSOs advocate and connect with their communities using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
The Pride Guides were developed in 2022 and updated in 2025 by consultants and experts based in countries in which the program operates.
