Boxing programme for lesbian women and publication of Kongkow Lez, projects of Institute Pelangi Perempuan (IPP), Indonesia

IPP focuses on the empowerment of young lesbians (18 – 30 years old) in Indonesia. IPP uses a strategy called EDUFUNTAINMENT (Education, Fun and Entertainment) and the promotion of cool politics.

Website: http://www.pelangiperempuan.or.id

Projects:  

1. Boxing program for lesbian women, which intends to strengthening the power of movements because it can help lesbian women get in touch with how strong lesbian women already are and contribute to building futures for lesbian women  that are free of violence.

2. Publication and Launch of the book:  KAMI TIDAK BISU (Kongkow Lez) (“We are not silent”:  Young LBT Women Speak “Out”)

 Main strategies:

• Providing sufficient information of sexuality rights among young LBT women is needed to build self-esteem and psychological support for young LBT women.
• Publications in popular media forms  - such as CD magazine, website and literature (collection and poetries and short stories of young lesbian in Indonesia and Yogyakarta Principles comic) Kongkow Lez is also going to be another book publication which using popular way as it is the characteristic of IPP activism.

Kongkow Lez (in Bahasa Indonesia slang word means Lesbian Hang out) is a ‘programme’ of regular meetings, consisting of  movie screening and group discussion.  This has been organised by IPP since 2006 as one of their effotrs to create a safe space for young LBT women to discuss any topics related to their sexuality rights such as coming out, healthy relationship, safe sex and hot sex, feminism, human rights, lesbian and moderate Islamic religion perspective etc,.  It has been  attended by 30-50 people on each meeting. For the Kongkow Lez discussions,  some resource persons such as feminists, progresive religious leader, academics, gay friendly psychologist, writer and also LGBT activists were invited.  

The results of the discussions have been well documented and are the main information resource of the book. The book is also the depiction of the experiences of the young lesbian community (IPP) on their journey  of personal, local community, national, international activism. 

Activities:

The book was published with 1000 hard copies and in a CD format. Publishing the book in a CD format is very crucial in terms of reaching the target groups as there are still many Indonesian young lesbians who feel uncomfortable to have a printed document because of the widespread majority of society is still homophobic.

-IPP launched the book on June 10, 2011 with some art and cultural performance, which was presented by young LGBT in Indonesia as the youth friendly strategy of using entertainment to promote the LGBT rights among the young LBT women community.

Results:

From the first project, awareness about the importance of self defense skills as the tools for building confidence and protecting themselves from violence or sexual harassment as well as rape.

15 young lesbians have been trained in self defense techniques and they can be  future ‘peer coaches’ for the other members. 

For the second project, IPP published a book titled : KAMI TIDAK BISU (Kongkow Lez) in Bahasa Indonesia, in English means WE ARE NOT SILENT (Kongkow Lez) which is a compilation of discussions of the young LBT women on the issues of sexuality and their personal experiences and also for providing an informative resource for young LBT women (18 – 30 years old) in Indonesia.   

Impact and Sustainability:

Kami Tidak Bisu (Kongkow) Lezis another book publication using the popular way characteristic of IPP activism. The concept of the writing was formulated in a very simple language and daily life conversation so that the communities could understand the message easily. We put some pictures and photos to make it more interesting and giving more comprehensive explanation of some topics, which was brought up on each chapter.

Within less than 1 week since the book was launched on June 10, 2011,  200 copies were already disseminated to the young LBT women community in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Cirebon, as well as to the national and international networks and media. We are receiving positive response by Facebook, email and telephone from young lesbian community in several provinces. The fact that they really want to have and read the book, is proof that they really need more information and literature of lesbian sexuality issues which is so limited in Indonesia. Networks at national and international level contacted us to get the book and expressed that they really want the English version as soon as possible. Media also contacted us to launch the book on their media. AWID is willing to support us for the book launch in English version on the next AWID forum 2012.

The long-term impact is that the book is the tool for the campaign of young LBT women sexual rights at national and international level. At the national level, we are planning to have book launch and discussion in several provinces Indonesia using the young feminist and human rights activists network.

We have planned to launch it in English version on AWID Forum 2012 with the screening of operetta performances of the young lesbian love story at Islamic Boarding School. The aim is to bring the discourse of how we challenge fundamentalism in Indonesia.