Sri Lankan LGBT under media assault

Image via WikipediaSource: Queeried

By Michelle Penny 

Living in a country that not only disagrees with homosexuality, but deems it so wrong that it is illegal is hard enough, but the levels of negativity and misunderstanding about the community taken to a whole new level with Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror acting to suggest that the homosexual community is actively recruiting heterosexuals to the dark side.

Featured as an editorial, the writer suggests the country’s capital, Colombo is seeing increased number of diplomats and leading civil society members acting to convert others to homosexuality by constructing heterosexuality as “an outdated, obsolete disposition“.

And don’t think that these groups are being subtle about it either. Apparently if you talk to members of these social groups they won’t be telling you that you should come out as gay because it’s an important step in accepting who you truly are. Instead they will tell you that:

“…all politicians in the country should turn gay so that they can avoid the burden of a family – wife and children and better concentrate on work”

Saying that the behaviour  of this groups acts to make Sri Lanka more like Las Vegas, especially with their “extensive use of drugs and aggressive promotion of their ideology“, you’d  think that the author of this article might have felt they’d surpassed themselves on talking complete rubbish, but there’s plenty more to come as the editorial looks to now also blame women for these dastardly gays popping up everywhere.


Writing about a leading women’s NGO in Colombo the leader now goes onto imply that they by trying to protect women who have been in abusive relationships is actually just an undercover way for them to turn women gay, describing their work as being:

“male-bashers who would go to any extend to explain that males are a dangerous species and they should be done away with. Most of the members of this group are women who were once into unhappy relationships and want to believe that the entire women population in the country has been victimized by the male population. Their wrath against men sees no bounds. The members of this group go out of the way to launch venomous attacks against the Sri Lankan male population by way of publications, exhibitions and many other means. Marriage for them is an opportunity for men to exploit women physically and psychologically as the male is always looked at with an enemy perception. Women who rally around this group are bent on spreading their pessimistic message on men among the entire women population in the country”.

And if that wasn’t enough to make your blood boil the editorial is finished off in style with the author, who entitled the piece “A Tide Against The Natural…” (in other words being gay is a choice…), states that there is much to be done in the country concerning humans rights, something that undoubtedly refers to the Civil War between the Tamil Tigers that ended last year), but that they believe “the country can do well without these undesirable elements” and that “Sri Lanka has successfully weathered many a cultural tides thanks to the strength of its strong social foundations. One hopes that this too will pass.”

And this from the newspaper that as Groundviews says was the exclusive print media partner of Pride Week events in Sri Lanka…. Hate to see what a truly homophobic paper would write!

Michelle Penny is the lead writer and owner of Queeried US and Queeried UK.