Nice to know you… from your blog, i can see the future bright…
My name is Imam, i’m come from Jakarta, Indonesia…
I will tell you about my story…

Being a gay isn’t an easy thing, especially for those who’s living in Indonesia. Most of people still have paradigm that being a gay is a sin and not right, so they made any kind of discriminations against gay people and most of gay people are being marginalized in Indonesia. Not only in Indonesia actually, but in every country, gay people always get discriminations.

I’m still remember, when I was 4 years old. I was playing with my friends, most of them are girls in the same age, and my brothers were very angry when they saw it. That’s make a question, what’s wrong? By consciously, I felt there was nothing wrong with that. Because I didn’t imitate anyone to do something wrong. In that time, I knew that was a big mistake if I played with the girls and act like a girl.
In that condition, eventually lead me to days full of any kind of bullying, discrimination and violence. Every day, I must escape from my friends who always want to open my cloth, hide from them to avoid being urinated, and if I got luck, I went home without any tears. If there’s only a scratch minimally, I could take a long breathe.

Since my childhood, I was trained to be a runner, being marginalized, being alone, have no friends or anyone who’s understand me. If I remembered that time, so sad..
Now, in my 30 years old, luckily I’m still alive… Thanks God for the life lessons that I have experienced in the past, made me being myself today. A strong Imam.. who’s trying to raise from his sorrows, being gay isn’t a bad thing, not a crime, not a disease, not a curse, not a scorn, not a monster, not a disaster, not a sadness, not a sorrow.. I’m a gay, gay is you, gay is us, gays are them, gay is you sibling, gay is your son, gay is your friend, and gay isn’t your enemy… Hopefully Indonesia could be better, could be a wonderful world…

Jakarta, Indonesia.