The Gay Archipelago BLANK PAGE The Gay Archipelago SEXUALITY AND NATION IN INDONESIA Tom Boellstorff PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD Copyright © 2005 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, NewJersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 ISY All Rights Reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Boellstorff, Tom, 1969- The gay archipelago : sexuality and nation in Indonesia /Tom Boellstorff. p. cm . Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-691-12333-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)- ISBN 0-691-12334-9 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1 Gay men-Indonesia-Identity. 2. Lesbians-Indonesia-Identity. . 3 Gay men-Indonesia-Social conditions. 4. Lesbians-Indonesia- . Social conditions. 5. Gender identity-Indonesia. 6. Homosexuality- Political aspects-Indonesia. I. Title. HQ76.3.I5B64 2005 306.76,6/09598-dc22 200500187 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available. This book has been composed in Sabon Printed on acid-free paper. °o pup.princeton.edu Printed in the United States ofAmerica 10 98765432 ISBN-13: 978-0-691-12333-2 (cloth) ISBN-10: 0-691-12333-0 (cloth) ISBN-13: 978-0-691-12334-9 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 0-691-12334-9 (pbk.) FOR BILL AND DEDE BLANK PAGE Contents List ofIllustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Note on Indonesian Terms and Italicization xv Part One The Indonesian Subject 1 Chapter One Introduction 3 Chapter Two Historical Temptations 35 Chapter Three Dubbing Culture 58 Part Two Opening to Gay and Lesbi Worlds 89 Chapter Four Islands of Desire 91 Chapter Five Geographies of Belonging 126 Chapter Six Practices of Self, Tests of Faith 157 Part Three Sexuality and Nation 185 Chapter Seven The Postcolonial State and Gay and Lesbi Subjectivities 187 Chapter Eight The Gay Archipelago 216 Notes 233 Works Cited 243 Index 267 BLANK PAGE Illustrations Figures Figure 1-1. An Independence Day performance. 15 Figure 1-2. Map of Indonesia (before East Timor's independence). 16 Figure 3-1. "First in Indonesia: Lesbian Wedding, Attended by 120 Guests." 63 Figure 3-2. Ways in which one sample of 35 gay Indonesians first learned of the term. 69 Figure 3-3. Gay men portrayed as possessed by animal lust. 73 Figure 4-1. The fatherly modern male. 96 Figure 4-2. Image accompanying article on "Lesbians and Lifestyle." 98 Figure 4-3. Love should make gay and lesbi Indonesians equal to normal ones. 106 Figure 4-4. "A poor hetero family that does not follow Family Planning." 120 Figure 4-5. "A lesbi couple who are professionals." 121 Figure 4-6. "A young gay couple who, besides being happy, also can enjoy life optimally." 122 Figure 5-1. Sexuality and nation intersecting. 142 Figure 5-2. "Kalifornia," a bridge in downtown Surabaya. 154 Figure 5-3. Intersecting global, national, and local discourses. 155 Figure 7-1. Indonesia's borders before the invention of the archipelago concept, as inherited from a 1939 colonial law. 192 Figure 7-2. Indonesia's borders after the invention of the archipelago concept in December 1957. 192 Figure 7-3. The nation subsumes the ethnolocal. 194 Figure 7-4. The "traditional" family. 199 Figure 7-5. The "modern" family. 199 Figure 7-6. Heterosexual and ethnolocalized couples constituting the nation. 200 Figure 7-7. Confessional self, archipelagic self. 206 Figure 8-1. Outside Ngurah Rai airport, Bali. 229