Waria (Transgender Indonesians)

Indonesia has a long, visible tradition of transgender women, known as waria, from wanita (woman) and pria (man). Many still use it; younger activists increasingly prefer transpuan. The older words banci and bencong are slurs; the courtesy that matters is to follow whatever term a person uses of themselves.

Gender-crossing is not new here. The Bugis of South Sulawesi recognise five genders, among them the bissu: gender-transcendent priests once seen as intermediaries between the human and spirit worlds. Persecuted under Suharto's New Order but not extinguished, fewer than forty remain, concentrated around Pangkep, surviving as guardians of Bugis ritual rather than the outlawed relic older accounts describe.

The climate has hardened. In 2005 the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) stormed the Miss Waria Indonesia pageant in Jakarta, and the contest has since retreated to secret venues. Banned in December 2020, the FPI quickly reconstituted as the Front Persaudaraan Islam, reusing the acronym and staying active. Being transgender is not a crime nationally; only Aceh, under its sharia bylaws, penalises same-sex conduct. The revised Criminal Code, in force since January 2026, criminalises sex and cohabitation outside marriage on the complaint of a spouse, parent or child; because same-sex couples cannot marry, they can be reached the same way. Those morality provisions are under challenge at the Constitutional Court at the time of writing.

Waria remain publicly visible, if largely confined to salons, entertainment and street performance. The claim that none reach positions of standing is wrong: the entertainer Dorce Gamalama, who died in 2022, was a household name, and in 2019 Hendrika Mayora Kelan won a village-council seat in East Nusa Tenggara, reportedly the first openly transgender person elected to office in Indonesia.

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