A 21-year-old gay man from Indonesia has penned a moving post on Reddit, revealing the strength he gains from watching RuPaul's Drag Race.
“I’ve been knowing [RuPaul's Drag Race] since season 8, then I [watched] the previous seasons and All Stars,” the Jakarta local wrote, adding that the reality show “is one of [the] things that keeps me alive”.
“I found out about this show when I was [at the] lowest point of my life and this show has been helping me through all that,” he said.
The second-year computer science student explained that he suffers from severe anxiety and is nervous about the challenges he'll face in the future as a gay man in a less-progressive country, saying that "things are getting harder".
"Indonesia isn't a progressive country who can accept the LGBTQ+ community," he wrote, adding that he'd need to work his way into "the middle class" if he hoped to find a place in society.
"I just [wanted] to share with you guys how it feels like being [Drag Race] fan in Indonesia, [I'm] always jealous of people [on] Twitter or Tumblr when they share their inner-queer and have people [in real life] who support them."
"I don't really make friends IRL because I just want to be friends with open minded [people] who can accept my sexuality and I have none so far," he wrote, saying that he'd tried using Grindr with little success.
Despite a growing LGBTIQ+ population, same-sex attracted Indonesians face an uncertain future as law-makers look to criminalise homosexuality as part of an overhaul of the country's criminal code.
