Test 2

Please select your preferred language.

請選擇你慣用的語言。

请选择你惯用的语言。

English
中文简体
台灣繁體
香港繁體

Login

Remember Me

New to Fridae?

Fridae Mobile

Advertisement
Highlights

More About Us

11 Nov 2010

Barack Obama had a "transvestite gay nanny" in his childhood in Indonesia

The New York Times article that mentioned Obama's gay nanny who joined a "transvestite" dance troupe, and which has spawned numerous reposts with headlines like "Obama's nanny was a gay transvestite" could have more accurately used "transgender" or "waria" – an indigenous Indonesian "transgender" person.

US President Barack Obama’s visit to Jakarta, Indonesia, where he had lived for four years between 1967 and 1971, inspired the New York Times to run a story about his life in Indonesia, where his family lived, what school he attended and that he had a gay nanny who later joined a transvestite group.

Over the last few days, many websites from the gay media to anti-Obama blogs have quoted the Times article that ran on Monday in advance of Obama’s visit to the most populous Southeast Asian country on Tuesday and Wednesday:

“Mr. Obama’s family rented the guest house inside a compound belonging to a prominent physician. There, according to the neighborhood’s longtime residents, the young Obama, who had already experienced differences in class and religion in his short stay in Indonesia, was exposed to another aspect of Jakarta’s diversity.

“His nanny was an openly gay man who, in keeping with Indonesia’s relaxed attitudes toward homosexuality, carried on an affair with a local butcher, longtime residents said. The nanny later joined a group of transvestites called Fantastic Dolls, who, like the many transvestites who remain fixtures of Jakarta’s streetscape, entertained people by dancing and playing volleyball.”

The word “transvestites” however is not the most accurate word to describe members of Indonesia’s indigenous waria culture. Waria – a contraction of Indonesian words 'wanita' meaning woman and 'pria' meaning man – is one of Asia’s many indigenous “transgender” identities alongside mak nyahs (Malaysia), baklas (Philippines), kathoeys (Thailand), kothis and hijras (India) and metis (Nepal). Also known as the “third gender”, warias are often male persons who have feminine mannerisms and dress in female clothing but may or may not solely identify as male or female, or neither.

According to Dédé Oetomo, founder of GAYa NUSANTARA, the longest-running Indonesian gay organisation, Fantastic Dolls was a famous waria dance group in the late 1960s and 1970s. The group’s leader, Myrna (a.k.a. Bambang) also founded Himpunan Wadam Djakarta in the late 1960s and is said to be Indonesia's first waria organisation that worked on social issues and usually with the help of municipal governments.

Inside Indonesia, a non-profit publication, said in a 2007 article: "Every few years the Malang city government has offered employment training programs in which waria participants are trained and financially assisted to establish beauty salons (part of an effort to dissuade them from engaging in prostitution). When I enquired in 2006, the Malang city government’s Social Affairs Division told me the last program was held in 2005 and had enrolled 25 participants."

To read more about Indonesia's waria culture, click on the links below.

Indonesia

Reader's Comments

1. 2010-11-12 01:59  
2. 2010-11-12 14:02  
This is really interesting.

South East Asia, you're the most gay-friendly region in the world.

I miss you!
3. 2010-11-12 14:31  
Screw them. what are they trying to prove? So far if he was indeed brought up by a gay dude....doesnt seem much of an impact on him. Look hes a freaking president.
4. 2010-11-12 16:32  
flik: lmao!
5. 2010-11-13 06:21  
@yourmonkey: Ummm... If South East Asia were the gay friendliest region in the world, it would've had at least one of its countries legalise same-sex marriage. Unfortunately, it's not the most.
Not the most friendly, not the most phobic either. Just somewhere in the middle. Hehehe...

@flik: I guess the book suggests two statements:
1. That Obama is okay with gays/transgenders
2. That transgenders/lgbt people do exist in Indonesia, and they live respectable lives and participate actively in community (through dance group or other cultural means).
3. That Indonesia's society actually was a quite tolerant society that allowed diversity in individual expression.

6. 2010-11-13 20:13  
@mmlover0123: Kinda nitpicking on the wrong issues at hand. Hes not freaking mess up as Bush and Bush Jnr.
7. 2010-11-13 21:20  
a good nanny is so hard to find these days, Ricky Martin is always trying to go behind my back to steal mine... wow, I would be happy to have a tranny nanny, best of both worlds and kids would be good sports and honored to have
8. 2010-11-13 23:12  
obama make historical movement for LGBT in usa....which hire more than 150 gays..transgenders...n lesbians working in white house.
1 of the highest record ever in usa history
9. 2010-11-14 01:46  
interesting...
10. 2010-11-15 02:37  
That's what I didn't like about politics. Just cos' there are people who are anti-obama, will try to dig up all sorts things about him to perceive him as undesirable. And the GLBT group just happened to be used as a political weapon.

Better time and effort could have been spent constructively on doing things that could benefit people and prove the oppositions are better.
Comment #11 was deleted by its author on 2010-11-15 02:37
12. 2011-02-06 05:39  
The question is: If it weren't for Barack Obama's status as the US president, would we have cared? Let's be honest here.
13. 2011-02-06 05:39  
The question is: If it weren't for Barack Obama's status as US president, would we have cared? Let's be honest.

Please log in to use this feature.

Select News Edition

Featured Profiles

Now ALL members can view unlimited profiles!

Languages

View this page in a different language:

Like Us on Facebook

Partners

 ILGA Asia - Fridae partner for LGBT rights in Asia IGLHRC - Fridae Partner for LGBT rights in Asia

Advertisement