Waria outreach in Yogyakarta

Editor’s note: The name “People Like Us” or “PLU” originated (at least in Asia) with the group in SIngapore in 1993. As observed by veteran Indonesian gay rights activist Dede Oetomo, the term has since spread widely throughout Indonesia and Malaysia, used by all sorts of other groups, as well as LGBT individuals to refer to themselves. This news story in the Jakarta Post refers to one such group.

Source: The Jakarta Post
1 June 2008

Bags of friendship from people like us

Daniel Rose, Contributor, Yogyakarta

May 18, 2008. In the dark, hot kitchen of her house, just meters away from the beach, Surati, 45, and three other women are preparing dinner for 45 new arrivals from Yogyakarta city.

Some of the guests occupy the semi-open common room, sitting on a wooden platform or lying around on mattresses; others chat and sing in the bamboo house in front of the main abode. Almost everyone there is under the age of 30 and describes themselves as gay, lesbian or transgender.

Homosexuality in South Asia: Men and Masti

Source: Blogcritics magazine
16 Feb 2007

Homosexuality in South Asia: Men and Masti

By Amrita Rajan

“Yaargh!” said Cleopatra as she walked off stage. “She kissed me!”

As the despairing director of our terrible high-school production of Antony and Cleopatra, I’d perked up the instant Cleopatra’s faithful handmaiden had leaned over the prone body of her mistress after her famous meeting with an asp to sip the poison from her lips. That one (inadvertent) ‘smooch’ had single-handedly converted what could only be described as a stinker into a popular, if not critical, success.

That day I learned two things: 1) homoeroticism sells and 2) teachers don’t like it. During the next few weeks, over much banter, I also learnt that as long as women are the principal characters, it generates much hilarity and lewdness, but the moment it switches genders, it becomes unforgivable.