Two male college students publicly flogged for having consensual gay sex in Indonesia

Two men in Indonesia’s Aceh province were publicly caned on Thursday after an Islamic Shariah court convicted them for having consensual gay sex. The men, aged 24 and 18, were whipped across the back dozens of times by a team of five enforcers wearing robes and hoods. One of the men had to be carried because he was too weak to move after the last lash. They were given a break to drink after 20 strokes and their wounds were treated. The men were arrested in November after residents suspected them of being gay, broke into their rented room, where they were caught naked and hugging each other, and took them to Sharia police. Head of Aceh Islamic Sharia Agency, who only gave his name as Ridwan said the public caning was to help prevent “violations of Islamic sharia.”