It’s not clear which of the two acts described in a Tuesday AP article about the justice system in Indonesia’s semi-autonomous and Sharia Law-run Aceh province was gayer, the “crime” two men were convicted of, which was hugging and kissing in public, or the caning they were sentenced to.
On one hand yeah, it’s gay for two men to kiss. There’s nothing bigoted or juvenile to say “That’s so gay” when men show physical affection for each other. They’re gay and these two fellas in particular are braver than most straight guys for being open about who they are in their culture.
Then there’s their punishment for it: “The men, aged 20 and 21, were whipped across their backs with a rattan cane dozens of times by a group of people wearing robes and hoods,” the AP writes describing the scene. Now that’s gay as in the not at all latent homoerotic overtones of physical dominance and corporal punishment while wearing a costume. It’s at least as gay as kissing another man. And the wrong kind of gay. It’s not happy rainbow flag and doing molly while dancing all night in a Provincetown club kind of gay. It’s more like Peter Thiel/Ric Grenell kind of gay.