Queer Mobilities in Indonesia

Ebook available to libraries exclusively as part of the JSTOR Path to Open intiative.

In recent decades, queer individuals and groups in Indonesia have reached unprecedented levels of visibility. Since the colonial era, conceptualizations of gender and sexual diversity have shifted drastically, mediated through regional dynamics, the globalization of particular forms of queer discourse through transnational activism, and the proliferation of social media in everyday life. These developments have gone hand in hand with increased opposition towards queer Indonesians on a societal, legal, and religious level. Queer Mobilities builds on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in urban centres in Bali and Java among different queer communities, activists, and religious scholars to explore the lifeworlds of queer Indonesians in globalizing urban contexts. The book captures a moment in time when a range of queer Indonesian experiences have become possible: from the emerging queer-of-faith activism in Muslim, Hindu, and Christian circles to the glamour of Bali’s gay scene and from the circulation of death threats on social media to the mushrooming of online fundraisers and queer education. Queer Mobilities analyzes how power and solidarity are reconfigured when differently positioned queer individuals become visible in (trans)national contexts.