By Naveed Rozais
The Sri Lanka Students for Liberty chapter held the first in a series of LGBTQIA-focused webinars on 2 November, bringing together LGBTQIA advocates and allies to discuss some of the key issues Sri Lanka’s LGBTQIA community faces.
The webinar panel consisted of EQUAL GROUND Executive Director Rosanna Flamer-Caldera, Community Welfare and Development Fund Project Co-ordinator Prabhashana Hasthidhara, and advocate and brand purpose consultant Shanuki De Alwis.
Key issues facing SL’s LGBTQIA+ community
Flamer-Caldera shared that Sri Lanka has seen a great deal of upheaval over the last 20 years in the LGBTQIA space. Great positive strides have been made with open advocacy and discussion of LGBTQIA rights taking place and the Government having made certain concessions to change laws and pursue policies of non-discrimination. However, despite advances, consensual same-sex relations are still criminalised under Sections 365 and 265A of Sri Lanka’s Penal Code and the LGBTQIA community still faces a great deal of harassment and violations of their rights.
LGBTQIA people face many issues. They face antagonism from law enforcement and society as a whole, from healthcare personnel to the business community and employers. Many of them have families who don’t care about them and go so far as to disown them because of their sexuality.
“There’s a lot of hardship LGBTQIA people face and Covid-19 is exacerbating this because we’re in lockdown,” Flamer-Caldera said, adding: “Sometimes, we’re in lockdown with families who don’t like that we’re LGBTQIA.”
On top of the external conflict LGBTQIA people face, there is often a lot of internal confusion reinforced by negative stereotypes, the panel explained. “You realise you’re different, but you don’t know how. You are bullied, you fear that people are not going to love you, that they will shun you, that you will face violence or abuse,” Flamer-Caldera explained.
Hasthidhara shared that Sri Lanka’s school system fundamentally fails LGBTQIA people. “For queer children in a heteronormative society, it’s already quite hard and the school system fails queer people immensely. The extent of sexuality and sex education that is in schools is not applicable to queer people. It’s very heteronormative. Furthermore, the whole narrative of stigmatising sex and the sex-negative standpoint form which sex is taught makes queer people feel they’re doing something wrong.”
These attitudes add to the confusion felt by LGBTQIA people coming to terms with their sexuality. The panel urged those who are confused about their own sexuality to learn to accept themselves, stressing that there’s nothing wrong with being LGBTQIA and that the impression that it is wrong is something that society has created.
Media’s role in shaping positive narratives
De Alwis spoke from the perspective of some in media sharing that Sri Lankan media plays a huge role, next only to politics and the clergy, in influencing how society behaves. “It’s how we put things out and tell stories that shapes how people respond and react to these issues,” De Alwis said.
She also noted there was a lot about how journalism happens in Sri Lanka that needs to be changed and improved, especially when reporting stories that include people of various genders, sexual orientations, and even just women.
“Right now, how media reports on certain issues are in a way that they make it sensational, as in ‘oh look, a gay person, a trans person, a lesbian or gay couple’. But what does it matter? It’s not right for the media to be labelling them.”
De Alwis also shared that the media needs to step away from portraying LGBTQIA people in a negative or comedic light that perpetuates homophobic and negative narratives that belittle and laugh at other people’s sexualities.
“The media has a large role to play in how we plan, how stories are edited, and how TV programming is done. Do LGBTQIA people always have to be the comics or the victims? Why don’t we give them an equal space as we give straight people?”
Moving forward positively
The panel stressed that a large part of the stigma towards LGBTQIA people stems from ignorance and lack of awareness. Hasthidhara commented on this, saying: “When understanding identities and sexuality, we have tech accessible that we can use, at least a smartphone. But then we hardly think about the Sri Lankan context, language barriers, and knowing how to get that information. Localising the information is important and making content available in local languages. Queer content in the local language itself is what could drive every corner of this country to figure out who they are.”
Flamer-Caldera shared that EQUAL GROUND has developed a media guide and glossary that sensitises the way same-sex relations are described. “We love the same way straight people do. All of us matter; we want the love of our families, our friends, and a partner.”
Another vital step forward is revising the law to decriminalise homosexuality. “We feel it is definitely going to happen, otherwise we wouldn’t be advocating. It’s time to get rid of old colonial laws,” Flamer-Caldera said.
“It’s British people’s law that is here that Sri Lanka has embraced. Homosexuality is not a western import. We’ve been here for centuries. It’s possible, but we also have to get together as a nation and say to our politicians that enough is enough.”
The panel also stressed the importance of allies, queer or straight, coming together to fight for equality. “It shouldn’t be up to just the LGBTQIA community to fight for their rights. We are part and parcel of the community the LGBTQIA people belong to,” De Alwis said.
“If we’re being intolerant of one section of our community, then we’re being intolerant of ourselves in a way. We’re no longer archaic; we have access to education and information. We have a far greater understanding of human psychology. It’s a case of us having to monitor ourselves as a public community and be fair to one another.”
