TO SUPPORT ACTIVISM: BUILDING COMMUNICATION AMONG LESBIAN COMMUNITY IN SURABAYA

TO SUPPORT ACTIVISM: BUILDING COMMUNICATION AMONG LESBIAN COMMUNITY IN SURABAYA

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Summary
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Historicaly, lesbians have been involving in Indonesian lesbian, gay ,biseksual, transgender (lgbt) struggles since the very beginning of the activism raised up, and  Surabaya is an important city to the history lgbt activism in Indonesia. According to Agustine, a prominent Indonesia lesbian Activist (Journal Perempuan, 2008), in her article Rahasia Sunyi: Gerakan Lesbian Indonesia (Secret Silence: Indonesian Lesbian Activism), Lambda Indonesia, an organization of lesbian and gay Indonesia and Asia, was established in Pasuruan in 1982, moved to Surabaya. Several organizations from Jakarta and Surabaya were joined to this organization. However, due to the limited human and financial resources, lesbians withdrew their participation. In 1987, GAYa Nusantara (GN) was established in Surabaya, continuing the works of Lamda Indonesia. Officially, GN is intended to organize female and male homosexuals. In their activities, GN had been trying to reach the lesbian community in an attempt to organize, but they found several difficulties, including getting access to and going deeper inside this community. According to Khanis Suvianita, a former GN director for research and education, ―lesbian community is between there and not there.‖ Like other lesbians in other parts of the world, Indonesian lesbians bear a double burden, with stigma that prevents them from coming out and saw GN as a male homosexual organization than a fe/male homosexual organization.
Our study has identified that there are at least 14 lesbian groups (with both exclusively and non-exclusively lesbian membership) with 185 members who gather in Surabaya malls and public places regularly. Among those groups, only a few of them name their groups and organizations we identify conditions common to Surabayan lesbian groups related to lesbian activism. They are:
·         Most of them get together for fun activities and only a few of them are focused on lesbian activism. However, fun activities are less stimulating in creating a strong responsibility and do not provide a benefit to the group in terms of having a commitment to achieve certain goals for the sake of lesbian activism.
·         Motivation to join the organization is personal, often to find a romantic or sexual partner. Personal motivation as a reason to join the group is somewhat inevitable. Any time a partnership has personal problems, it affects the group at large.
·         There is no specific or long term agenda; instead, activities are arranged based on an impulsive idea. The absence of an agenda has caused difficulties in maintaining the cohesiveness and engagement of the group.
·         There is no established space for groups to meet, although each group usually has a meeting point in a public space, such as malls or cafes.
·         Members of the group have less time to remain active in group activities due to the need to secure a means to earn money for survival.
·         The most persistent groups are also the most exclusive, while the rest remain the least active.
All of these conditions will endanger the existence of the group which itself has the power to support lesbian activism in the future. However, current conditions show that the motivation to engage in activism is still there, despite inactivity. Several members of the community are ready to start working, though some are still sceptical of being engaged in activism. This condition is a potential for creating a more solid group among the community. In the mean time, a first step that must be taken is to rebuild or refresh the spirit of the group by creating a medium of communication among the community, to stimulate and maintain the sense of togetherness and regain trust from each other.
Although few lesbian groups are focused on the issue of activism, many show that they are a cohesive group. Members of one group are usually provided support for one another. The fact that they are groups of individuals with non-mainstream sexual orientations and experience . refusal and discrimination by society raised the feeling of senasib sepenanggungan, one fate one struggle. Other things that are not less important are social supports including media. Only can factors work altogeteher, hence the lesbians groups can face up chalenges from their social, political and religious environments. ....
For full article, please visit http://www.isiswomen.org/phocadownload/print/isispub/Women-Loving-Women.pdf#page=6
Penelitian ini adalah hasil kerjasama antara Riek Stientra Foundation, Transsign, Kartini Network serta komunitas lesbian di Surabaya.

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