38 same sex, if committed with a person under the legal age.
59
In addition Johan explains that eventhough Indonesia applies the Napoleon code of law, which is
not against homosexuality, in practice the rights of homosexuals are not valued. It is not guaranteed or protected by law. Therefore, institutional discrimination
against lesbian and gay happens in Indonesia, such as individual civil right; marriage, inheritance and taxation.
60
b. Lesbian in the West
The history of lesbianism in West is narrated by Tamsin Wilton. Wilton was a school teacher, a book shop manager and arts administrator. And she was
involved in other arts work such as TV studio. And she was none as “emphisiatic” heterosexual. This is because she started falling in love with a woman in her late
thirties. And then since then she decides that a lesbian life suited her much better. She even engaged in Master of Science in Gender and Social Policy, and then
ultimately she became the first professor in human sexuality in UK, an honorary member of the gay and lesbian association of doctors and dentists.
61
Wilton was internationally known for her work on the political and personal aspects of lesbian identity and sexuality, the social and cultural issues
surroundings aids and complex relationship between sexual behaviors, identities, and wellbeing. On the issue of when the idea of the lesbians as a sexual identity
59
Pasal 292 Kitab Undang-Undang Hukum Pidana KUHP: mengatur bahwa orang dewasa yang melakukan perbuatan cabul dengan orang lain yang sama jenis kelaminnya
dengan dia yang diketahuinya atau sepatutnya harus di duganya belum dewasa, diancam dengan pidana penjara paling lama 5 tahun.
Article 292 The Book of the Law of Criminal Law Penal Code: the adults who commit obscene acts with another person of the same sex who is
suspected as minors are punished by a maximum imprisonment of 5 years.
60
Rizki Theodorus Johan, The Asian Conference on Literature Librarianship Official Conference Proceedings 2011, Osaka, Japan: LibrAsia, 2011
61
Steven Seidman, Nancy FischerChet Meeks, ed. Handbook of the New Sexuality Studies, London and New York: Routledge, 2006, p. 154.
39 emerged, Wilton wrote that the idea of “lesbianism” emerged as a part of what she
called “the sexological project” and that was in 19 century. According to the new science of sexology, homosexual people were said to be the members of third sex.
There followed a notion of homosexuality and lesbianism as conditions or as referring to distinct human types with the purpose of rescuing them from the
earlier idea that same-sex activities were immoral and should be criminal.
62
Wilton continues to narrate the life of lesbians in 1950s and early 1960s in Great Britain. She said lesbians’ life in the UK during those days was very risky
and underground affairs secretly. There were few places where women could meet and there were very few lesbians since most of them used to hide their
sexual orientation. Tamsin pointed out the fact that she was lucky to have lesbian couple neighbors; namely Eliza and Iris who met during the 2
nd
World War when Iris left her abusive husband. From the life of Eliza and Iris, Wilton was able to
become aware that most of women lived secret life full of stress and worries as lesbians.
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According to Wilton, women’s movement in the 1970s changed the meaning and social life of lesbian. In those days lesbian identity was politicized
and that resulted in the more powerful position of women and that marked the end of strong impact of patriarchy. Furthermore, women-only social events were held
in every town and city and there were far more places where it was safe for the lesbians to socialize. Therefore many women began to experiment with lesbian
relationship positive at this time. Nevertheless, as a result of Leeds
62
Seidman, FisherMeeks, Handbook of the New Sexuality Studies,ed., p. 154.
63
Seidman, FisherMeeks, Handbook of the New Sexuality Studies,ed., p. 155.
40 Revolutionary Feminists LRF, lesbian relationships began to suffer whereby
political lesbians was experienced as an insult taboo and an attack on lesbians sexuality by women whose lesbian identities and relationship pre-dated
feminism. “Everything from butchfemme to sm was labeled ‘male-identified’, and lesbians who took part in such activities were pushed out of feminist space”.
64
Wilton in that very same year attended Annual Lesbian Strength March in London and she said that she was surprised to find that “politically right-on”
lesbian feminists handing out leaflets demanding that women in sm gear or wearing leather were excluded from the march, and from the party at the Lesbian
and Gay Centre where they march was to end up. Furthermore, there were
HIVAIDS pandemic and some lesbians published some statements that IHVAIDS has nothing to do with lesbians. Some lesbians including Tamsin,
however made some academic researches about health risks involve in same-sex relationship and they also provide educational material for the couples about safer
ways of having sex and injecting street drugs. Wilton also gave description of lives of lesbians in the contemporary
world and that of in the 1970s and 1980s. She emphasizes that the meaning of sexual identity has changed. The author points out that even though there is still a
lot of homophobia, popular youth culture regards homophobia as silly and uncool. Furthermore there are images of girls snogging each other everywhere. But
according to Wilton this is not enough to say lesbians are free. This is because there are troubling ethnic and class issues whereby for example: the “urban”
64
Seidman, FisherMeeks, ed., Handbook of the New Sexuality Studies, p. 155.
41 music in corporate elements of serious homophobia especially “raga” music from
Jamaica. Therefore, Tamsin concludes that lesbian relationships from minority ethnic communities are not so easy.
Wilton goes on to content that in TV shows nowadays lesbians characters televised, for instance in soap opera Brookside and she observes that
it is obligatory for every soap opera to have at least one gay character and one or two
lesbian characters.
65
She said
that this
has broad
recognition and
acknowledgement of sexual diversity. She said the young lesbians she met in Britain are more relaxed and free and do not know how painful is it to hide one’s
sexual orientation in order to survive like lesbians in the past used to do. She goes further to point out that those girls do not feel that having had sex with men in the
past and even the present era disqualifies them from being a ‘real’ lesbian.
66
On the aspect of how today’s lesbians and those in the past years relate to their bodies, Wilton singled out some differences. She indicated that the first time
she saw eyebrow-full of steel rings at Gay Pride in 1989 and she felt a bit surprised. She observes that indeed nowadays piercings are routine on almost
everyone, how she pinpoints that she is one of the few exceptional. Wilton also gives out some differences on the politics of lesbianism in the
UK and in the US. She indicates that since Britain is a monarch, there is no written constitution and everything lies within Her Majesty’s discretion and not
people as citizens, therefore it is difficult to establish Lesbian and Gay rights. The author points out the fact that European Union has been their salvation since they
65
Seidman, FisherMeeks, ed., Handbook of the New Sexuality Studies, p. 156.
66
Seidman, FisherMeeks, ed., Handbook of the New Sexuality Studies, p. 156.
42 had come up with human rights legislation which prohibits discrimination on the
grounds of sexual orientation. Comparing US and UK on the representations on gays and lesbians,
Wilton says that the issue of lesbian visibility, it is the same in UK as in the US since almost all films shown in cinemas in Britain are from Hollywood. However
she indicated that there are some independent bodies producing gay and lesbian’s films in countries such as Australia, e.g. “Desperate Remedies” and “Priscilla”.
Other countries producing films include Europe, China, Iran and India.
67
She pointed out that major difference lies in television networks. For
example, since Channel Four and BBC are independent commercial channels, especially channel four, broadcast the first-ever weekly magazine program aimed
at lesbian and gay audience in 1989. In conclusion, on the differences between lesbian life in the US and UK,
Wilton says that indeed there are differences as well as similarities. She says that since Britain is geopolitically closer to countries like Sweden, Denmark, and
Holland, whose attitudes to sexuality are tolerant, cultured and sophisticated, the welfare state is beneficial to British lesbians. She also emphasizes the fact that
Britain is far much smaller than US gives rise to the aspect that lesbians’ demands for acceptance have to be based on philosophical and political arguments about
justice, fair play, and equality, rather than on economic power. Finally, she alluded to the fact that attitudes towards sexual orientation seemed to change for
67
Seidman, FisherMeeks, ed., Handbook of the New Sexuality Studies, p. 157.
43 the better quite dramatically with the demise of Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher’s Conservative administration.
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B. Review on Related Studies
