Teenager married a transvestite

JAKARTA (JP): Shockwaves of disbelief are rippling through an East Kalimantan community after it emerged a local teenager's bride is in fact a transvestite, reports said yesterday.

The controversy burst only two days after their wedding was formalized last weekend by a Moslem cleric and celebrated at an extravagant party in the capital Samarinda.

Hundreds of people attending the party thrown by the 18-year- old bridegroom went home believing nothing was amiss. Then on Monday rumors started circulating that the 38-year-old bride was in fact a drag queen.

Moslem Ulemas Council officials were the first to condemn the union as illegal because Islam only recognizes marriages between a man and a woman.

"If this sort of marriage is allowed, it would mean we had set the clock back to the age of pagan ignorance," local ulemas council chief Sabranity was quoted by Antara as saying.

He said he would find out why the couple's relatives and the government allowed the bizarre marriage between the teenager and the transvestite, who runs a beauty parlor.

Protests also came from Ms. Komariah, who oversees cooperation among women's organization in Samarinda.

"The East Kalimantan public cannot accept the marriage because it wasn't compatible with the prevailing norms in society," she said. (pan)