The discourse of human sexual rights has been dominant in recent sexuality studies, declarations, and activisms. It has become one of the most powerful rhetoric in international discussions, so that both proponents and opponents of LGBTI movement unreservedly employed human rights arguments. In these debates, human rights is taken for granted as one of the strongest authorities to appeal to. It becomes the norm everyone is assumed to unequivocally agree. Inspired by the radical anti-normativity approach of queer theory, in this presentation I seek to deconstruct the discourse of human sexual rights – which could potentially be the new oppressive regime in the LGBTI movement. I unpack several assumptions behind the discourse of human sexual rights, namely: (1) the assumption of fixed and stable “identity,” (2) the assumption of autonomous and self-determining subject, (3) the assumption of a universal vision of humanity, and (4) the assumption that human rights movement is apolitical. I use the narratives of Indonesian youth I interviewed to show how youth’s sexual subjectivities have been regulated by and transgressed these assumptions. I discuss the broader impact of my critique with regard to alternative LGBTI activisms in Indonesia and elsewhere, such as creative and unusual activism strategies which can potentially rework and disrupt the dominant heteronormative culture
