Words by Tan Arsa Sagara
Art by Postmodern Puke
TUTORIAL ON BEING GAY IN INDONESIA
VIRAL GAY COUPLE (SENSITIVE CONTENT)
87,000 comments
make a video on former gay people
to give a lesson on how to cure
the mindset or orientation
i would like to suggest straightness
is the true disease
the symptoms include speaking
too loud
i would like to suggest fighting
hate crime
with hate crime—punching back
murder
(they’d sensationalise that too i bet)
i identify as tired first, Indonesian second
you say my blood is red without knowing it’s blue
you ripped it off the coloniser flag and i ask
do you think that’s the only coloniser we had?
my father swallows propaganda every Friday
the five pillars of Indonesia known by sanskrit words
my name also in sanskrit though they’d hate
the reference to communism; forgive me
for i too will be killed by my fatherland
the goal of education is to soften a person
soften the edges of their heart (not soul)
literacy rates are falling not into love
i identify as tired first
never
my mother cheered at a lashing
tutorial on being gay in Indonesia:
save death for before marriage
