(Boylove Documentary Sourcebook) - Hong: An Elderly Javanese Gay Man Talks about His Youthful Sexual Experiences

Batavia (Jakarta), Kali Besar. Java, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), ca. 1900–1940. Tropenmuseum–Collectie Stichting Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen, Amsterdam.

From Javanese Lives: Women and Men in Modern Indonesian Society by Walter L. Williams (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1991).

Note: The name of the interviewee (a former school principal of Chinese descent who remained anonymous in Williams' book) appears in the introduction to his case narrative on the Consenting Juveniles website.

I do not recall the Catholics ever mentioning homosexuality. They were very repressed about anything sexual. Yet, when I was twelve years old I realized that I was sexually attracted to boys. One day a friend of mine, he was a Chinese man about twenty years old, opened his trousers and let me enjoy myself. I felt this was very nice. He appreciated it, and it was enjoyable for me, so I visited him often.

One of my uncles, who was divorced from his wife, was attractive to me. I would visit him and cautiously began to touch his body. When he did not object I got bolder; though I was only fourteen, I was quite assertive. But later, he tried to have anal intercourse, and I did not like that, so I stopped visiting him. I wanted to be the active one.

Boy climbing a papaya tree at Tanah Baru in Bogor, West Java Province, Java, Indonesia.

External Links

• Case Narrative: Hong (Consenting Juveniles)