Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Since 2016, Indonesian police have shut down numerous gay saunas in Jakarta because they were considered to be places where gay sex parties occurred. However, closing down the saunas did not eliminate the sex parties. Rather, the parties evolved into different forms and different spaces (e.g., from public to private). In this paper, we explore the secrecy and risk environments that proliferate in private gay sex parties in Jakarta, Indonesia. In-depth interviews with twenty gay sex party participants were conducted during August-December 2018 in Jakarta. We used community gatekeepers and snowball sampling to recruit study participants. Content and thematic analyses were used to identify themes and patterns related to secrecy and risk environments. We found that the private gay sex parties were held in various spaces, such as star hotels, apartments and dormitories, boarding houses, and private homes. Secrecy in gay sex parties can be seen in how parties are advertised and organized and how gay men withhold information about their identity and their HIV status to others at the party. To maintain the secrecy to outsiders and minimize the risk of getting caught by police, party organizers have some strategies such as relocate the venue every month, hire guard, and ask all guests to turn off their mobile phone. Disclosure of HIV status was very limited between participants because they were afraid of rejection from other men at the party. In many cases, the secrecy in private parties made the party riskier in terms of participant’s health and well-being.