The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Ienes Angela remembered back to a long time ago when she sat in a church and felt uncomfortable. It was an unpleasant experience. She felt as though she didn't belong because people were staring at her.
"All I wanted to do was worship God, but they treated me like I didn't belong. So I gave up on going to church," said the slim, tall and tanned transvestite.
"I cannot understand why so many people view waria (transvestites) as not being human. We have basic rights just like them," Ienes, 34, told The Jakarta Post.
Ienes said it was hard to uphold her rights in most aspects of life, not just at church.
Seeking employment in the formal sector was a difficult task, she said.
Work opportunities in the formal sector for transvestites are limited, with most employers reluctant to have waria in their offices. With such restrictions, Ienes said many waria were forced to work as prostitutes or street singers to survive.
She said once she applied for a position as a telemarketer with a company in Jakarta. The job involved selling hotel memberships to people via the telephone.
"The manager told me the company would employ me only if I agreed to cut my long hair and dress in male clothing," she said.
"What do such jobs have to do with appearance? I didn't need to meet customers face-to-face."
It was a difficult choice, Ienes said. She needed the job but also wanted to be accepted the way she was, long hair and all.
"I'm more comfortable when my hair is long. Such discrimination really traumatizes me."
Later, Ienes, a winner of several waria beauty contests, found a job in a beauty parlor.
However, the small salary she was receiving forced her to hit the streets around Lawang Park in Central Jakarta to work as a prostitute.
In this line of work she made many friends, including some waria activists from the Srikandi Sejati Foundation, which is a non-governmental organization that provides transvestites with information on HIV/AIDS.
She was offered a position at Srikandi and took it.
"I thanked God I could finally stop being a prostitute," Ienes, who is now the foundation's finance administrator, said.
The government categorizes transvestites as being a group of people who are "mentally ill", while religious institutions accuse them of being sinners, a recent book published by non-governmental organization Arus Pelangi, Hak Kerja Waria: Tanggung Jawab Negara (Transvestites' Rights to Employment: The State's Responsibility), explains.
Arus Pelangi works to uphold the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and transsexual people in Indonesia.
Ienes is not the only waria who has had bitter experiences seeking work in the formal sector.
Several years ago Keke Amalia, or Budi Nugraha as he is otherwise known, worked in a department store as customer service officer. He said he was only given the job after he agreed to dress in men's clothing.
"Later on when they realized I had a feminine side, they told me to act more manly," the 30-year-old transvestite, who prefers to be identified as "he", said.
"They threatened to fire me within a month if I didn't change my feminine attitude. But it wasn't even a month before they fired me. They said they didn't need me anymore."
Keke said his manager always found faults in him, despite the fact he never received any complaints from customers. He said the store's customers liked his polite and friendly attitude.
"To my knowledge, there was no official store policy saying employees should act in accordance with their gender," he said.
Keke said the experience had made him pessimistic. He said he did not know whether the attitude of the government and members of the public in relation to waria could ever change.
Arus Pelangi's book, which was published in cooperation with Friedrich Eibert Stiftung, contains 20 testimonies from waria on difficulties they have experienced in the workplace, society and their families.
Emy Mades was forced to leave her job as bartender because her colleagues said bartending was a "macho" job. Emy was told to work in salon instead.
In another case, Lia Asma from Palembang was verbally abused by colleagues in the government office she worked in. Verbal abuse is a common theme in many of the testimonies featured in the book.
"Negative attitudes toward waria are sanctioned by the government and religious institutions," Ienes said.
"Religious institutions only ever reproach us. I don't see them ever attempting to embrace or change us.
Ienes said she still believed in "One Divine Source", but she decided to give up on religion a long time ago.
"I don't even remember the last time I celebrated Christmas," she said. (dia)
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