It started with a headline and a comment by an Indonesian minister.
What followed was an unprecedented attack on the rights of Indonesia's LGBT community, which grew into a "cascade of threats and vitriol", and has resulted in a court challenge that poses a long-term threat to people's rights.
So says Human Rights Watch (HRW), whose new report released on Thursday dissects the "outpouring of intolerance" that began on January 24 when the conservative tabloid Republika published a front page headline reading 'LGBT a serious threat'.
Minister for Higher Education Muhammad Nasir then forbade LGBT-oriented academic groups at universities, adding that while LGBT should receive the same treatment under law, the state shouldn't "necessarily legitimise" them.
Four days later groups of men affiliated with the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) raided boarding houses in Bandung, West Java, in search of suspected lesbians and hung banners across the city saying "Gays forbidden to enter".
Further attacks followed and gatherings of LGBT activists were shut down.
"The impact of the anti-LGBT rhetoric from government officials is enormous ... For those of us who have worked so hard and risked so much to come out, it is a major step backward," one unnamed activist told HRW.
Of ongoing concern is a current constitutional court challenge, spear-headed by professors, that is attempting to criminalise same-sex activities by enacting penalties of up to five years in prison, HRW said in a statement on Thursday.
Meanwhile in the semi-autonomous region of Banda Aceh, a by-law criminalises consensual same-sex sex with punishment of up to 100 lashes and up to 100 months in prison.
The report calls on President Joko Widodo to condemn violence against the LGBT community, take steps to end abuses and tell officials not to make discriminatory statements.
It also recommends a review of discriminatory provincial by-laws.
The report, `These Political Games Ruin Our Lives: Indonesia's LGBT Community Under Threat' is based on 70 interviews with sexual and gender minorities, civil rights groups and LGBT activists between January and June 2016.
It says the attacks on the LGBT community is part of a widespread trend in which close ties between Islamist groups like FPI and law enforcement continue to create an environment that sanctions attacks on minorities.
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