Alongside communism, ‘LGBT’ had become a bogeyman to mobilise people for political purposes. In 2016, along with other transwomen, Dorce was banned from appearing on TV due to restrictions imposed by the KPI (Komisi Penyiaran Indonesia: National Broadcasting Company) on male-bodied performers dressing or acting in feminine ways. Dorce's extremely popular music is widely available via online streaming platforms like Spotify / Supplied Websites were shut down, activists were intimidated, gay parties were raided, and lesbian couples evicted from their rental homes. By the end of 2015 a state-sponsored hate campaign against the LGBT community erupted. In this period, however, the first signs of a backlash against the growing visibility of the LGBT movement were becoming apparent and Dorce’s show was stopped. Her popularity was at its height between 20. This was eventually where the burial rituals proper for a man were performed for her. She established Islamic boarding schools and the Al Hayyu mosque in East Jakarta. In 1990 she went on the hajj, proudly calling herself a hajjah (woman who has performed the hajj) from then on. Not having children of her own, she adopted three children and supported hundreds of orphans. Glamorous as Bunda Dorce was, she was also known for her piety and charity. She was an important role model for the LGBT community, though Dorce herself was more active in Muslim circles, even declaring that Bali bomber Imam Samudra was going to ‘heaven as a martyr’, after visiting him in prison. In 2005 Dorce released her autobiography, entitled Aku Perempuan: Jalan Berliku Seorang Dorce Gamalama (I am a Woman, the Complex Road of Dorce Gamalama). Her ‘Dorce Show’ on Trans TV was aired between 20. Dorce Gamalama shared her public and private life with her tens of thousands of followers on social media / Instagram appeared in various movies, soap operas and TV serials. After undergoing sex affirmation surgery in Surabaya in 1983, her change of sex was officially recognised in 1986. At that time, she assumed the stage name Dorce Ashadi and added Gamalama after a mountain she had visited in Ternate. As a teenager she started singing in the transwomen-led band Fantastic Dolls, dressed as a woman. Around the age of seven, Dorce realised she felt imprisoned in her body. Orphaned as a baby, Dorce was raised by her grandmother and aunt. Why was her wish not respected? A life in technicolourĭorce was born as Dedi Yuliardi Ashadim in West Sumatera in 1963. Yet ultimately her own family decided she had to be buried as a man. Former president and prominent NU leader Abdurrachman Wahid (Gus Dur) had once said that Dorce should be happy with the gifts of Allah she had received. The influential conservative MUI (Indonesian Ulama Council) insisted that Dorce be buried as a man, while the Muslim mass organisation NU (Nahdlatul Ulama) proclaimed that her personal choice had to be respected. ‘I have become a woman since the surgery, so I should be bathed as a woman,’ she had declared just a few weeks before her death, in a decision that sparked enormous controversy. The gifted performer had expressed her wish to be bathed and buried according to the procedures for women. She was, in life, respected in the highest national circles. She had actively campaigned for Joko Widodo (Jokowi) in the 2014 presidential campaign and was invited for dinner at the presidential palace in December 2015. Bunda (Mother) Dorce, as she was affectionately called, by her many admirers, had undergone gender affirmation surgery in 1983 and was one of the most famous trans women in Indonesia. She had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and already suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes. On 16 February 2022 the beloved singer, TV presenter, comedian and talk show host, Dorce Gamalama, passed away in a hospital in Jakarta at the age of 58. In contrast to the national motto ‘Unity in Diversity’ and its history of tolerance, Indonesian sexual minorities are not respected Saskia Wieringa
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