Pope Francis inspires South Jakarta’s trans community amid ongoing challenges

At the shelter where many of them live, the group of 10 trans women squeezed into two rental cars and drove to the Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, where the pope was going to hold a mass on Thursday. They did not have tickets to enter, but hoped they could at least get a glimpse of the pope outside.

Their excitement, and the years-long closeness between the trans community and the Catholic Church in Jakarta, is a stark contrast with less-favourable attitudes from the church in other countries, and with positions some church officials have expressed. But it also showed how Francis’ message of tolerance has echoed in some corners of the Catholic world thousands of miles from the Vatican.

“Pope Francis has called for us several times not to judge them,” said the Rev Agustinus Kelik Pribadi, the priest of the St Stephen Catholic Church in South Jakarta. He was referring to the pope’s famous “Who am I to judge?” question about gay priests that many felt reflected his general attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community. “We must listen.”

Catholics make up a small minority in Muslim-predominant Indonesia. Still, dozens of trans women not born into the church have been baptised in Jakarta in recent years. They came from nearly every corner of the country, said the Rev Adrianus Suyadi, a Jesuit priest at Jakarta’s cathedral.

The ties between the church and the Jakarta trans women community were a result of the work of the city’s archbishop, Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo, the priests said. The cardinal instructed priests to welcome trans people into their parishes as part of a push to respect human dignity. Mami Yuli also lobbied the church.

The result was a rare and fond bond.

“I often went to the salon and have my hair cut with their group,” Pribadi said.

But overall, the trans community still faces rejection and discrimination in Indonesia. Many were still homeless, and others did sex work to survive, community members said.

Once a month, more than 50 trans women attended a prayer meeting at the cathedral, Suyadi said. Many frequent cooking classes organised by the church, and two have become instructors.

“When I go to the church nobody judges me,” said Gondhoadjmodjo, 40, who got baptised in 2022, and said she had started volunteering as a teacher thanks to the church. “That makes me more sure I want to be a Catholic.”

Mika Horulean, 26, another trans woman, attends Catholic trans counselling meetings in which participants discuss their experiences on Zoom every Friday. “Romo is amazing,” she said, addressing Suyadi with a word that means father in Javanese.

Church teachings oppose gender transition, but Francis has long urged clerics to welcome LGBTQ+ Catholics. He hosted a group of trans women at the Vatican for lunch. He approved a Vatican document that made clear trans people can be baptised and declared laws that criminalise being gay to be “unjust”.

But Francis has also walked a tightrope between his personal urging for more openness by the church and upholding church doctrine.

Recently, the Vatican issued a document approved by Francis stating the church believes transition surgery is an affront to human dignity. The pope also recently used a slur word to refer to gay people, an episode that highlighted the church’s complicated relationship with gender and sexuality.

Even so, South Jakarta’s trans community has focused instead on Francis’ positive messaging and openness.

“For us, LGBT people in Indonesia, there is never someone as high profile who sends a message of inclusiveness,” Mami Yuli said.

“He is much braver than the other popes before him,” she said, as she stood by her small shrine in the shelter, with a statuette of Mary and a picture of Jesus. “His message is a message of love and to pay attention to the little people.”

Some resistance remains among Catholic bishops in Indonesia. Suyadi said his proposal to the local bishops conference to let Mami Yuli meet the pope was rebuffed.

Bunda Mayora, 37, a trans woman in Maumere, a city in Flores, eastern Indonesia, is also involved with the local church. She was watching on live TV as the pope met with Indonesian bishops on Thursday.

She was disappointed because LGBTQ+ Catholics had not been invited to the mass led by the pope.

The disappointment extended to the stadium on Thursday. A few hours after the group of trans women rallied in front of the stadium, police prevented them from standing at the stadium’s entrance with their banner of Francis and colourful clothes. The group headed home even before the pope arrived.

“They cannot receive us here,” said Devine Selviana Siahaan, one of the trans women who was at the stadium. “But I still can talk to Francis in my dreams.”

This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

Written by: Emma Bubola

Photographs by: Ulet Ifansasti

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