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Letters | For gay men in Indonesia’s Aceh province, exile should be an option
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With regard to “Two Indonesian men publicly caned 80 times each in Aceh for gay sex” (January 28), people who are convicted of non-violent crimes which do not cause financial loss or other harm to third parties should generally be given the option to go into exile in another jurisdiction rather than suffer imprisonment or corporal punishment. Usually, this would mean moving to another country, but in the case of the two men caned in Aceh province, they could have simply moved to another part of Indonesia where gay sex is not criminalised.
Being allowed to go into exile is still a form of punishment as it often means severing ties with friends and family and even changing one’s occupation. No one gets to choose where they are born, and they should not be unduly punished for violating the social norms of their place of birth.
Gay sex was not decriminalised in Canada until about a hundred years after it became independent, so I recognise that change often takes time.
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Bruce Couchman, Ottawa, Canada
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