'Moral panic' targets Indonesia's LGBT community

Thousands of anti-LGBT demonstrators took to the streets earlier this month calling for action to prevent a lifestyle they see as immoral.

Jakarta (AFP) - Indonesian Budi Ahmad used to live openly as a gay man without fear of becoming a target for violence in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation. Not any more.

The country of 260 million is in the grip of a moral panic, with critics saying the vulnerable LGBT minority is being used as a political punching bag in the run-up to 2019 elections.