An American influencer and her girlfriend are being deported from Bali, Indonesia, following widespread backlash to a viral Twitter thread that detailed their stay and encouraged others to follow. Among other grievances, critics have called out the tweets for spreading dangerous disinformation about the country’s attitude and policies toward LGBTQ+ people.
Kristen Gray and her girlfriend, Saundra, traveled to Bali in December 2019, just before COVID-19 was discovered in circulation and declared a pandemic. The couple had arrived with one-way tickets, planning a six-month trip, but decided to stay on as lockdowns first cascaded around the globe.
Gray, who works as a graphic designer, dubbed herself a “digital nomad” in the since-deleted thread, which began, “Moving out of America in my 20s has been a game changer.” Gray went on to describe a quality of life in Bali that would be enviable to nearly anyone, but perhaps especially during a global health crisis and historic economic crash.
Her extended stay in the Southeast Asian islands afforded Gray an “elevated” and even “luxury lifestyle,” in an Instagram-ready treehouse she rented for $400 per month compared to the $1300 studio she left behind in L.A. “2020 was the best year for me,” she wrote of being able to focus on her entrepreneurship without the “distraction of American news or political drama.”
At first blush, Gray’s story may bring to mind one of those tone-deaf features about vacationers trapped in luxury accommodations that characterized early pandemic lifestyle coverage. But the case of Gray and her girlfriend is far more complicated. They aren’t affluent CEOs who fled to their vacation homes; rather, young and queer Black women who chanced into their setup during a terrible time.
But it was Gray’s efforts to market their situation — publicizing it online, encouraging others to follow suit, and mischaracterizing the culture of Indonesia — that sparked outrage from locals and other Southeast Asian critics. Gray’s Twitter thread promoted the couple’s e-book, titled Our Bali Life Is Yours (list price $30), which offers practical guidance for travelers, including “direct links to our visa agents and how to get into Indonesia during COVID.”
Indonesia recently closed its borders due to a coronavirus surge, for which foreign travelers have largely been deemed responsible. So it’s easy to understand the outrage over Gray’s specific advice for how to vacation in an especially hard-hit country with a developing economy.
