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Lankan LGBTI activist welcomes move by Commonwealth
View(s):British Prime Minister Theresa May’s public expression of regret for her country’s role in criminalising same-sex relations under colonial rule will pave the way for making some positive change for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and inter-sex (LGBTI) communities of the Commonwealth, says Sri Lankan LGBTI activist Rosanna Flamer-Caldera.
Sri Lanka has upheld such laws for the past 135 years under Section 365 and 365A of the Penal Code. At present, 36 of the 53 Commonwealth nations criminalise consensual same-sex intimacy between men. These laws also apply to women in 16 Commonwealth countries. Many of these countries, including Mauritius, Bangladesh and Jamaica, criminalise homosexuality under the exact laws that were imposed by Britain during the colonial era.
In a speech at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Ms May expressed “deep regret” over Britain’s history of exporting homophobic laws across the world during the colonial era. “Across the world discriminatory laws made many years ago continue to affect the lives of many people,” she said. “I am all too aware that these laws were often put in place by my own country. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.”
Nobody, she stressed, should face persecution or discrimination because of who they are or who they love and the UK stands ready to support any Commonwealth member wanting to reform outdated legislation that makes such discrimination possible, because the world has changed.
“It is important that the LGBTI movement is not just driven by a few people in the global north,” said Ms. Caldera, Executive Director of Equal Ground and Co-Founder and Chair of The Commonwealth Equality Network (TCEN). “We now have opportunities to try and lobby for change within the Commonwealth.”
TCEN comprises 44 organisations from across the Commonwealth and brought LGBTI rights to the table at the 2018 CHOGM in London.