Mataram City Government Insists There Is No Room to Normalise LGBT

The Mataram City Government (Pemkot) has sounded a loud alarm regarding the surge of LGBT community conversations on social media. Mataram Mayor Mohan Roliskana stressed that there is no room for the normalisation of such deviant behaviour, amid concerns it could become infectious within society. The statement was made following uproar over alleged same-sex sexual conversations in an LGBT community group on Facebook, which has been widely discussed by Mataram residents in recent days. One message read, ‘TOP Mataram, if you want to play, just chat. Info on B who can be invited this afternoon.’ Another account wrote indecent words such as, ‘Looking for someone who likes playing with eggplants. Looking for TOP aged 23 to 40 years, inbox if available. Is there a TOP around Cakra?’ Mohan admitted he was concerned by the phenomenon. He feared the behaviour could spread widely and have a negative impact on the community’s social life. ‘We are worried that this will become a sort of contagious behaviour, spreading rapidly everywhere. Then it will have an unfavourable impact on our community’s life,’ Mohan said. According to Mohan, all elements of society must be involved in stemming the potential development of such deviant behaviour. ‘This condition is also our concern; I think all of us must pay special attention to the potential development of deviant behaviour like this. In essence, there is no room to normalise it. We hope for cooperation from all parties,’ Mohan asserted. Although the group has been widely discussed on social media, the Mataram City Government admitted it had not yet received reports of the community’s open activities in public spaces. However, Mohan stressed that this did not mean the activities did not exist. ‘The information we have received is not yet so vulgar that they are showing their activities. But we are not saying it does not exist, that it might exist,’ he revealed. Mohan also urged schools and teachers to strengthen supervision of students by providing understanding and awareness within the educational environment. ‘Later in schools, of course, they must also be involved in raising awareness so that our children do not consider this (LGBT) as something normal, something ordinary, in the midst of their social interactions, among their friends,’ Mohan stressed. He assessed that supervision from parents, the environment, and schools needs to be tightened so that the behaviour does not develop further. ‘So there must be reprimands, there must be warnings, so they feel watched and then the condition does not make them comfortable. Parents, the environment, teachers, all of us must act,’ he concluded.