Dede Oetomo

Dede Oetomo (born 1953) is a campaigner for LGBT rights in Indonesia and an expert on gender issues in East Java.[1][2] He pursued postgraduate studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Whilst there, he founded Lambda Indonesia, a gay support group and later set up Gaya Nusantara.[3]

Dede Oetomo
Born1953 (age 69–70)
Pasuruan, East Java, Indonesia
OccupationLGBT rights activist

Oetomo is a member of the People's Democratic Party (known as PRD) and has stood in elections. As a student and teacher of linguistics, Dede Oetomo is the author of Beginning Indonesian Through Self-Instruction. He is currently national coordinator of Gaya Nusantara and is an active member of the Asia-Pacific Council of AIDS Service Organisations. He is an Ashoka Fellow and was a recipient of the Felipa de Souza Award in 1998.

Early life

Dede Oetomo was born into a Chinese-Indonesian family in 1953 in Pasuruan, East Java.[4] He describes his family as Westernized;[5] his parents spoke Dutch, and Oetomo speaks Indonesian and Javanese.[5] He attended a Catholic school, but was not raised in a religious family. He learned to speak English in high school using a book entitled English for the SLTP which was developed for Indonesian students with funding from the Ford Foundation.[6] He came out to his parents as gay at the age of 20.[6]

In 1978, he completed a TESOL (Teaching English to speakers of other languages) course and was awarded a grant by the Ford Foundation to study linguistics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.[7] He received a second grant in 1984 to work with the Modern Indonesia Project at Cornell. The project, established in the early 1950s by Professor George McTurnan Kahin and Professor John M. Echols, engages in Indonesian area studies.[6] In 1987, Oetomo published a sociolinguistic study on the Chinese-Indonesian communities in Pasuruan.

Career

Dede Oetomo received a scholarship from the Social Science Research Council to assist with his dissertation studies during 1983 and 1984. He then moved into the study of sexuality, gender and the HIV/AIDS issues in Indonesia. Between 1984 and 2003, Oetomo lectured in political science at Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java.[8] Oetomo has had a large impact on the LGBT movement in Indonesia.[9] His work has helped to produce specifically Indonesian gay and lesbian identities in Indonesia, which he defines as "more or less as they are in the contemporary West".[10]

Lambda Indonesia was started by Oetomo in 1982, whilst he was still at Cornell, as a newsletter providing a forum where people could write letters to receive advice about gay issues. It was one of the first gay organisations in Asia.[1][11] Lambda was discontinued in 1986 and Oetomo founded Gaya Nusantara.[12] As of 2016, there were over 100 LGBT organisations in Indonesia.[13] However, there was also increasing repression and Oetomo criticised funding groups such as the Ford Foundation, UNDP and USAID for not doing more to help LGBT rights in Indonesia.[13] As of 2019, Oetomo admitted that hard-fought for freedoms were being eroded as part of a broader shift towards conservatism.[14]

The post-Suharto era in Indonesia began in 1998 and Oetomo stood for election several times representing the People's Democratic Party (known as PRD). He also unsuccessfully applied to run the National Commission on Human Rights.[4] In 2010, Oetomo and the feminist activist Soe Tjen Marching established the first journal on sexuality in Indonesia, Gandrung.

Oetomo is an Ashoka Fellow and received the 1998 Felipa de Souza award from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (now OutRight Action International).[15][16]

Gaya Nusantara

Gaya Nusantara is an LGBT rights organisation set up by Oetomo, which focuses upon human rights education, sexual health including HIV/AIDS awareness and fighting sexual discrimination.[6] From 1987 onwards it has brought out a nationally published newsletter.[12] It highlighted the invisibility of lesbians in Indonesia with articles such as "Indonesian lesbians: Where are you?" (written by Oetomo in 1989) and "Where are the Indonesian lesbians" (Rosawita, 1992).[17] In 1998, the group pressured for LGBT rights alongside other organisations such as Arus Pelangi.[12]

References
  1. Suryakusuma, Julia (June 25, 2014). "View Point: Leaders come and go; gays are here to stay". The Jakarta Post. Archived from the original on December 14, 2014.
  2. "Leading a double life in Indonesia". June 28, 2013. Archived from the original on July 2, 2014.
  3. Graham, Duncan (19 November 2006). "Dede Oetomo: Welcome to the gay archipelago". The Jakarta Post. Archived from the original on 16 May 2009. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  4. Emont, Jon (19 August 2016). "A Happy Warrior in a Faltering Battle for Indonesian Gay Rights". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 17 March 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  5. Mulyanto, Randy. "Chinese Indonesians reflect on life 25 years from Soeharto's fall". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  6. Webb, Cynthia (April 18, 2012). "Dede Oetomo: Starting something". The Jakarta Post. Archived from the original on December 14, 2014.
  7. "Celebrating Indonesia" (PDF). The Ford Foundation. 2003. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-09-24.
  8. "Dede Oetomo". Center for Minority, Gender and Human Rights. Archived from the original on 9 January 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
  9. Prasetyo, Stanley Adi; Priyono, A. E. (2003). Indonesia's post-Soeharto democracy movement (1st ed.). Demos. p. 482. ISBN 9789799802903.
  10. Robertson, Jennifer (2008). Same-Sex Cultures and Sexualities: An Anthropological Reader. John Wiley & Sons. p. 247. ISBN 978-0-470-77676-6. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  11. "Gay identities". Inside Indonesia. Archived from the original on 2014-12-11.
  12. Dibley, Thushara; Ford, Michele (2019). Activists in Transition: Progressive Politics in Democratic Indonesia. Cornell University Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-1-5017-4249-1. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  13. "Q&A: Dede Oetomo on the LGBT panic". Indonesia at Melbourne. 16 March 2016. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  14. "Reformasi's broken promises". Inside Indonesia. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  15. Budianta, Eka (2006). Mekar di Bumi: Visiografi 50 Tahun Eka Budianta (in Indonesian). Pustaka Alvabet. p. 398. ISBN 978-979-3064-23-9. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  16. "Awards 2019". OutRight Action International. 15 January 2019. Archived from the original on 24 October 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  17. Sullivan, Gerard; JACKSON, PETER A. (2013). Gay and Lesbian Asia: Culture, Identity, Community. Routledge. p. 171. ISBN 978-1-317-99282-0. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
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