Sonya Aresta: The Struggling Identity

                Society may find it hard to accept them, but they exist, and they live.

Honestly speaking, I’m new to this topic related to LGBT (acronym of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender).  When I first heard the term, I asked my friend “What is that?”, and she answered “It’s acronym of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender”.  I asked her once more “What is that?”, and she replied “A community”. Hearing her answer, I was like ‘wow! Is there really something like that?’. I have been staying in the safe zone all of my life, and I know how people around me usually underestimate them due to social norms and religion reasons. When mbak Abmi invited mbak Sonya to our class last Monday, I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to see them from different perspective.

Her name is Olivia Sonya Aresta, an initially man who turned into a woman because she found it more comfortable. She is long-haired, pretty, and quite humorous during the interview that made us often burst into laughter. When she is asked about her childhood, she said “HAPPY”. She was a him back then, she played with a lot of boys in her school, but than she found that playing with boys are too rough and dirty. She did not like it. That’s why she loved to play with girls and collecting a lot of Barbie stuffs. The part that interested me most is about how she struggles with her identity as a woman. She was insulted and rejected by her schoolmates. She was ignored by her parents, eventually did not communicate with them for nearly 3 years. And moreover, the society does not accept her. She was rejected when asking for a ‘waria’ identity card. She was catched by the police in some social operations, and got to face sharp questions by the judge in the court. However, in spite of those difficulties of life, she still fights for her identity as a woman. She does not give up to attain the justice she should get by showing her skill and intelligence in social organizations and volunteering. She proved that even a ‘banci’ whom people usually look down can be more useful than the average people and that they deserve the same treatment as everyone else.

In the end of the interview, mbak Sonya said that the society should accept LGBT, and mbak Abmi said that gender is not important. What important is how we can be useful for people around us. This is quite complicated actually. Reality says that we Indonesian are not open-minded to this matter, thus make it more difficult for them to get social acceptance. On the other hand, they are humans, social beings that unable to break the links from other humans. Discrimination will make their lives much harder than everyone else. One important point I got from this interview is that whoever they are, we must not underestimate them.