HIV/AIDS prevention tough in a secret gay city

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailcity.asp?fileid=20070418.D05&irec=4

City News - Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The grungy movie theater in Senen, East Jakarta, was full on the weekend, dark and hot from the lack of air-conditioning.

Some of the audience wandered between the seats as a Japanese teen movie played on the big screen. Those still seated seemed not to mind.

Two men in the corridor between the seats brushed arms, exchanged glances, and, without saying a word, moved to the corner for anonymous oral sex.

Inside the rundown auditoriums of the Grand Duta theater, such occurrences are regular.

Amidst Indonesia's conservative and religious society, Jakarta has a live but silent gay scene. The Senen area is one of the scene's main hubs.

"This area is like a gay boulevard," said Yakub Gunawan, a HIV/AIDS prevention activist.

The area, from the Mal Atrium Senen shopping mall to the sidewalks outside the theater, is a gathering place for Jakarta's gay men, he said.

He added that there were many other places in the underground gay scene, including upscale clubs and bars in South Jakarta.

Yakub, who is conducting self-funded research on gay awareness of HIV/AIDS, said few of the people he'd spoken to have a good knowledge of the disease, despite most having obtained higher education.

Yakub said that the fear of stigmatization has hampered HIV/AIDS prevention in the gay community. "They refuse to get themselves tested because they fear society's judgment."

"Most of them know they are in a high risk group prone to HIV infection.
However, there is a kind of denial on their part. They don't want to get tested for HIV because if they're HIV positive they would have to face a double stigma of being gay and having HIV,

"Rather than having to tell their families and facing the social stigma of being gay and having HIV, they choose to be oblivious and ignore the problem," Yakub said.

In Indonesia, to be out and gay remains a taboo. Gay community members are straightforward about their sexual orientation among themselves. However, facing the social pressure of Indonesia's heterosexist society, they hide their sexual orientation when returning to the mainstream. Most significantly, they also hide their sexual orientation from their families.

Yakub said most of the middle-aged men inside the movie theater lead double lives.

"Most of them hide their sexual orientation from their wives and children," he said.

He said he knew of a couple that had been together for 15 years, who both had wives and children of their own. "Their relationship is on-again-off-again, because one or the other of them always cheats with another guy. But it's never because of a woman," he said.

"Deni", in his 30s, said he faced family pressure to get married. He said he was tired of living as a gay man.

The youngest of seven children from a mixed Batak and Padang family, Deni said he was the only child in the family still single, and was frequently asked about his marriage plans. "I'm living with a partner, but it's going nowhere," he said.

Deni said that, despite his sexual orientation, he wanted to marry a woman and raise a family. "Of course I can like a woman, I just have to get used to it first."

Yakub said the phenomenon of gay sex within heterosexual marriages can increase the risk of HIV infection for wives, just as the wives of injecting drug users can be infected by their husbands.

Some 14 of Yakub's 25 research respondents agreed to be tested for HIV. Four of them tested positive.

"I believe that number is just the tip of the iceberg", he said.

"April", a hairdresser, who participated in Yakub's research, said he lacked knowledge about safe sex and how to protect himself from HIV infection. His test result showed he was HIV positive.

"I didn't know any better," he said.

April had an active sex life, having unprotected sex with up to 20 men in one year. "If I had known (about HIV prevention) I would have been more cautious about protecting myself," he said.

Yakub said gathering places such as the Grand Duta theater were good opportunities to reach out to gay men about HIV/AIDS prevention.

"If people know that Grand is a gay place, some members of society might want to close it down. But that wouldn't make gay people disappear, because they are part of (this) society. (Closing these places down) would rather make it more difficult to identify them, making HIV/AIDS prevention harder among this group," he said.