34 men arrested for gay sex & then paraded through the street in Indonesian raid

Indonesian police parade a group of some 34 men arrested early on October 19 for allegedly holding a "gay sex party" at a hotel in Surabaya, the country's second largest city, on October 22, 2025 | JUNI KRISWANTO/AFP via Getty Images Nearly three dozen men were arrested in Indonesia this week for allegedly organizing and attending a gay sex party. Police in Surabaya reportedly raided a private gathering at the Midtown Hotel in the city’s Wonokromo district sometime between 11 p.m. local time on October 18 and the early hours of October 19. According to both the Daily Mail and News Ghana, police were responding to reports of unusual activity on one of the hotel’s floors. Police arrested 34 men and collected evidence from the scene, including contraceptives, cell phones, and other electronic devices. The men were taken to Surabaya Police Headquarters for questioning, and on Tuesday afternoon, AKBP Edy Herwiyanto, head of the Surabaya Police Criminal Investigation Unit, identified all 34 men as suspects, with some accused of organizing and financing the alleged sex party. Photos show the suspects barefoot and bound together at the wrists by zip ties being paraded in front of a press scrum on October 22. The hotel’s management reportedly told local media that they were unaware of the alleged event at the time, describing the hotel’s rooms as private areas, according to the Daily Mail. While formal charges have not been announced yet, News Ghana notes that the case is similar to several others in which suspects have been prosecuted under Indonesia’s controversial anti-pornography law. The 2008 law defines pornography broadly as encompassing material that contravenes “norms of community morality.” The law bans activities as well as explicit material, specifically “deviant sexual intercourse,” which includes, News Ghana notes, consensual same-sex activity between adults. In 2022, Indonesia’s government also revised its criminal code to ban sex outside of marriage. Unmarried couples caught having sex can be jailed for up to a year. While same-sex relationships are not explicitly criminalized under Indonesia’s national criminal code, same-sex marriage is illegal in the country, meaning that all same-sex sexual acts fall outside the law. As News Ghana notes, Indonesian police have increasingly used the country’s anti-pornography law as a pretext for raids on LGBTQ+ gatherings. In June, police arrested 74 men and one woman in Jakarta who they accused of attending a “gay party.” Police detained nine people following a raid on a “gay sex party” at a hotel in South Jakarta in late May, and in February, 56 individuals were detained for participating in “a gay party” at a different hotel in South Jakarta. Following the June raid in Jakarta, Amnesty International called on Indonesian authorities to end “these hate-based and humiliating raids” and to release those who have been arrested. Human Rights Watch senior LGBT rights researcher Kyle Knight said Indonesia’s pornography law has been used as “a weapon to target LGBT people,” according to News Ghana.