Two men in Indonesia's Aceh province have been publicly caned dozens of times for consensual gay sex, a punishment that rights advocates denounced as "medieval torture" and that has escalated an anti-gay backlash

Hundreds packed the courtyard of a mosque to witness the caning of the men for homosexuality. The caning took place in Aceh, a province in Indonesia that practices Shariah law. The men, aged 20 and 23, were arrested in March 2017 after vigilantes broke into their rented room to catch them having sex. A Shariah court sentenced each man to 85 lashes. Indonesia's LGBT community has been under siege in the past year. Prejudice has been fanned by stridently anti-gay comments from politicians and Islamic hard-liners.