Equal ground for all

Monday, 13 December 2021 01:45 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Court of Appeal this week granted leave to proceed with rights group Equal Ground’s petition over the violation of rights and discriminations against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer/Questioning (LGBTIQ) community in Sri Lanka.

The petition, which is against Inspector General of Police C.D. Wickramaratane, Deputy Inspector General of Police of the Kandy range Chandana Alahakoon, and purported counsellor and trainer, Ama Dissanayake, is being seen as a landmark case.

Equal Ground, in a statement, said that it believes the hearing of petition sets a positive precedent in terms of ending discrimination and marginalisation as well as police harassment of minority groups in Sri Lanka – including the LGBTIQ community.

“Discriminatory laws and provisions in Sri Lanka have been keeping LGBTIQ persons in the shadows and causing irreparable harm to innocent persons who are not allowed to be their authentic selves, but what we saw in the Court of Appeal yesterday is definitely a step in the right direction,” noted Equal Ground Executive Director Rosanna Flamer-Caldera.

Indeed, this is long overdue in Sri Lanka, where the queer community has long been treated as second-class citizens by the Police. To recap, the video referenced in the petition shows a police seminar giving platform to a speaker, addressing a room full of Police personnel, who unequivocally states that homosexual behaviour is ‘unnatural,’ – a notion discredited by several scientific studies.

There is also the Vagrants Ordinance, an archaic piece of legislation that in the past has seen LGBTIQ community in Sri Lanka unfairly persecuted; even though Sri Lankan law does not specifically criminalise transgender or intersex people, sections 365 and 365A of the Sri Lankan Penal Code prohibit “carnal knowledge against the order of nature” and “gross indecency”, commonly understood in Sri Lanka to criminalise all same-sex relations between consenting adults.

Equal Ground’s petition brings discourse around matters such as this into the public light, and more importantly fosters a culture that includes wider discourse and understanding of queerness in general.

While it might be optimistic or naïve to consider that the ramifications of this petition would reach the masses, it is nevertheless a start. Even in the Colombo bubble that is seen as Sri Lanka’s socially liberal hub, there are extensions of various religious bodies that consider homosexuality and queerness immoral, and by extension, support laws banning it. This is of course the case the world over, but with more and more countries legalising gay marriage and taking softer stances on queerness, it’s high time the discussion at least began in earnest in Sri Lanka.

The fact is that no society should allow for discrimination, based on sexual orientation, gender, race or religion. These are non-negotiables, and any right that is deprived based on such grounds is unacceptable.

In terms of the Police, the hope is that this petition – however unlikely – forces the Police to look inwards, and maybe in the years to come, as new generations of policemen and women join the force, there will be more sensitivity afforded to all members of society in equal measure.