Sex & Gender Issues

Sex, marriage and gender in Indonesia are governed at once by national law, religion and local custom, and the ground has shifted. Since 2 January 2026 the revised Criminal Code (Law No. 1 of 2023) criminalises extramarital sex (Article 411, up to one year) and unmarried cohabitation (Article 412, up to six months), reaching foreign residents as much as Indonesians. The scope is narrower than the headlines suggested: both are complaint-only offences. For a married person only the spouse may complain; for an unmarried person only a parent or child — never police, neighbours or hotels.

Marriage to an Indonesian must be religious and registered; there is no civil or same-sex marriage. National law creates no same-sex offence, but because same-sex couples cannot marry, their relations fall within the same extramarital-sex provision. Aceh's sharia qanun goes further, caning offenders into 2026, though it binds only Muslims. Social attitudes have hardened, not eased. For local vocabulary we use waria and transgender, not the dated "transvestite". The mechanics of marrying and then securing residence as a foreign spouse are set out by Okusi Associates. The pages below take each topic in turn.

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