Turkish police have detained dozens of people after conducting nationwide raids targeting LGBTQ organisations.

Police swooped on gay bars, offices and homes of activists in major cities including Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Mersin on Sunday, escalating Turkiye’s decade-long hostility towards LGBTQ groups.

State news agency Anadolu quoted prosecutors in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir as saying that at least 63 people were detained, the AFP news agency reported.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said in a social media post on Sunday that prosecutors had launched an investigation into 162 suspects, nine associations and 13 businesses to “protect children, the institution of the family, and public order”.

Turkish authorities targeted current and former members of multiple LGBTQ rights and HIV awareness groups. The organisations’ websites were blocked days before the police raids.

Gurlek said the “My Family is Safe” operations on Sunday aligned with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 10-year “Decade of Family and Population” executive order, which aims to combat Turkiye’s falling birthrate.

“As per the duty to protect families and children given to the state by the constitution, no criminal organization, abuse network or illegal activity which targets children, youths or families will be tolerated!” Gurlek wrote on X.

LGBTQ rights organisation Kaos GL, whose offices were searched and activists taken into custody, said that “nearly 50 defenders of the rights of LGBTQ people … have been taken into custody or are subject to legal proceedings involving interrogations or detentions”.

Judicial authorities in Turkiye’s capital, Ankara, accused Kaos GL of publishing “posts containing obscenity” online and said that the content was accessible to children, according to the rights group. 

Rights activists accused the Turkish government of hardening its rhetoric and restrictions against Turkiye’s LGBTQ community in recent years.

“The real name of this operation is not ‘My Family is Safe’; it is state-led discrimination, politics of fear and the dismantling of civil society,” the Turkish Human Rights Association said on X.

The European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkiye, Nacho Sanchez Amor, condemned the detentions as “a shocking escalation in the repression” in the country.

The governing AK Party banned Istanbul Pride in 2015. Any attempted gatherings since then have been violently dispersed by authorities. (Al Jazeera)

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The Attorney General informed the Court of Appeal today (10 Feb) that the letter issued by the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) granting approval for a tourism promotion project targeting the LGBTQ community will be withdrawn.

This announcement was made during the hearing of a writ petition filed seeking an order to nullify the decision.

The court subsequently fixed the petition for further consideration on March 4. (Newswire)

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Sri Lankan LGBTQ rights activist Chanu Nimesha has filed a complaint with the Police Headquarters regarding hate speech against the LGBTQ community.

Speaking to the media, Chanu Nimesha said that severe hate speech has been made against the LGBTQ community through the media. 

“As they have nothing else to talk about, they are now hanging on to the LGBTQ community, carrying out mudslinging campaigns. We are all normal people, we don’t need to wear a badge saying LGBTQ,” Chanu Nimesha.

Chanu Nimesha further said that they do not need to engage in propaganda; let them live their usual lives. 

“We are against hate speech against the LGBTQ community. If they have a political issue, they should resolve it in another way,” Chanu Nimesha added. (Newswire)

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Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya has clarified that the government was not in support of any special tourism promotions for the LGBTQ community. 

PM Amarasuriya acknowledged that a letter had been issued by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Chairman, Buddhika Hewawasam, in this regard.

She further said that the tourism minister has briefed the SLTDA Chairman on the government’s stance on the matter and has provided the necessary advice in this regard.

“The letter itself states that any such event should be conducted after notifying the government and the relevant subject minister. This proves that the notice had been issued without being discussed with the government. Previously, the President and Tourism Minister had also publicly announced the government’s stance on the matter,” she said. 

Stating that the letter was issued by the SLTDA Chairman and not the government, PM Amarasuriya said there was no need to cause an issue using this matter. 

She added that if the SLTDA Chairman had violated any laws, then legal action would be initiated against him, pointing out that, however, the President and subject minister have addressed the matter, revealing the government’s stance and that there was nothing more to do. 

PM Harini Amarasuriya made the remarks while responding to a question raised by opposition MP Kavinda Jayawardena in Parliament today. (Newswire)

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A group identifying as the ‘Fathers’ Union’ has called on the government to refrain from supporting the private member’s bill, Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2023, which aims to repeal “provisions that make sexual orientation a punishable offence” in Sri Lanka.

Representing the group, former minister Mervyn Silva told the media that funds had been obtained by non-profit organizations from USAID to change the cultural values of Sri Lanka and destroy the nation.

“US President Donald Trump himself is against the LGBTQIA+ community. The former Ranil Wickremesinghe Government may have allowed the introduction of the Bill. We informed the previous government not to allow the introduction of the Bill. We must protect our children,” he said.

Mervyn Silva warned that if the government also approves the Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2023, then not only the Fathers’ Union but also the Mothers’ Union and other groups will commence a protest starting from the Maha Sanga in Kandy. 

In August 2022, Attorney at Law Premnath Dolawatte, a Member of Parliament representing the ruling party in Sri Lanka, handed over a private members bill to then President Ranil Wickremasinghe to amend the Penal Code provisions that criminalize consensual same-sex relations between adults. 

Then President Ranil Wickremesinghe, subsequently announced that the government would not take action to block the Bill.

A revised version of the Bill was gazetted on 23 March 2023. The Bill was presented to Parliament on 4 April 2023. With the determination by the Supreme Court regarding the Bill’s constitutionality, the Bill now requires a simple majority in Parliament to become law. (Newswire)

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The Mothers Movement of Sri Lanka has extended support to US President Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ policy.

The non-profit organization staged a show of support in front of the US Embassy in Sri Lanka, commending the US President’s pro-life campaign, adding that the decision defended nations from what they claimed were the destructive LGBTQ agenda. 

“We request from President Donald Trump to stop the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank from legalizing distorted same-sex marriage laws in Sri Lanka,” representatives of the Mothers Movement of Sri Lanka said. 

They handed over a petition to the US Embassy, addressed to US President Donald Trump, voicing their concerns against legalizing same-sex marriage laws in Sri Lanka, stating that it affects Sri Lanka’s religious and cultural values. (Newswire)

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The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) has condemned the practice of same-sex relationships, urging the government not to legalize homosexuality. 

Issuing a statement, the ACJU said the culture of homosexuality or attraction towards one’s own sex is detrimental to nature.

“Giving into the requests of a small community of homosexuals to legalize their cause against the natural conditions established by Allah (God Almighty) and one that is widely acknowledged by world societies as a phenomenon that is at the odds of human nature, could lead to many problems, including deadly diseases, and moral decline in societies and cultures.

“This homosexual culture where a male weds with a male or a female bonds with another female has been designated as an immoral practice by all religions and cultures,” the ACJU said.

The ACJU said as Muslims, they vehemently condemn the legalization of this cause which is detrimental to the cultural values of the country and urged the President to refrain from encouraging the legalization of such causes that could bring about a decline in religious, societal and cultural norms.

Full statement;

LGBTQ+ is a collective term used to denote a society that entertains gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender practices.

Allah (God Almighty) first created the male human, named Adam (PBUH), and then the female human, named Hawwa (PBUH), as his spouse. From them, He spread their offspring as males and females throughout the world.

Since the inception of the human race, it has been the norm and one that is favourable to human nature, where one who is born as a male, or one who is born as a female, lives and remains the same until their death.

Also, it has been the practice throughout history where the male and female are united through a virtuous exercise called marriage, and the formation of human societies through the means of it.

The culture of homosexuality or attraction towards one’s own sex which ranges from a male claiming himself as a female, and a female claiming herself as a male to a male seeking another male like himself, or a female seeking a female like herself to gratify their sexual desires is detrimental to nature.

This homosexual culture where a male weds with a male, or a female bonds with another female has been designated as an immoral practice by all religions and cultures.

5000 years ago, during the society of Prophet Lut (PBUH), where the dissolute practice of a male gratifying his sexual desires with another male was widely emerging, historical references of those who committed to it, those who approved it, and those who remained silent about it and how all of them together were destroyed have been mentioned in Holy Quran at many places.

The Holy Quran has referred to this practice as an immoral one that has never been committed by generations before, and those who indulged in this practice were transgressors, and they have transgressed the natural system established by Allah (God Almighty), and also warns that the town of those who committed this practice was capsized upside down, and rained down upon with heated bricks.

There is no history heard of, where all living beings including animals and birds have chosen their own sexes to gratify their sexual needs, and involved in reproduction.

Accordingly, giving into the requests of a small community of homosexuals to legalize their cause against the natural conditions established by Allah (God Almighty) and one that is widely acknowledged by world societies as a phenomenon that is at the odds of human nature, could lead to many problems, including deadly diseases, and moral decline in societies and cultures.

Hence, as Muslims, we vehemently condemn the legalization of this cause which is detrimental to the cultural values of our country, and kindly urge the Hon. President to refrain from encouraging the legalization of such causes that could bring about a decline in religious, societal and cultural norms. (Newswire)

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Members of the LGBTQ+ community celebrated Pride month marching through the streets of Colombo this evening.

The march also saw activists draw attention to several global and local issues, demanding an end to discrimination.

#SriLanka: Happening now – Pride March in Colombo pic.twitter.com/5SVLkt9lCO

— Meera Srinivasan (@Meerasrini) June 1, 2024

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In a landmark decision, India’s top court has ruled in favour of upholding the rights of the LGBTQ community but stopped short of legally recognizing same-sex unions.

The ruling is a partial victory for LGBTQ Indians who have long campaigned to be recognized as equal citizens in the world’s largest democracy.

A five-judge constitution bench led by India’s chief justice delivered the much-anticipated verdict on Tuesday, an event that was streamed live by the Supreme Court as crowds gathered outside.

More than a dozen petitioners from the LGBTQ community had challenged the law that doesn’t allow them to legally marry.

The ruling is the culmination of a hard-fought legal battle for equality in a country where homosexuality remains taboo. (CNN)

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Minister of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development, Jeevan Thondaman has appealed to his political colleagues to pursue inclusive and secular policies that placed human dignity and inclusion before division. 

Speaking as the Chief Guest at a reception hosted by the Friedrich Nauman Foundation on “Deepening Friendships and Cultural Exchange” between Europe and Asia, Minister Thondaman spoke elaborately on the importance of cultural exchange between communities and its impact on broadening minds and increasing understanding. 

“When cultural exchanges take place you tend to develop empathy, you tend to understand another community’s aspirations…their goals and their difficulties and without any of that, progress is not possible,” he said.   

The Minister acknowledged the various challenges faced by marginalised and ostracised communities in Sri Lanka including the LGBTQ community, Estate Workers and several segments of Sri Lankan society. 

Wishing everyone a Happy Pride Month, Minister Thondaman regretted the discrimination faced by the LGBTQ community and applauded MP Premnath Dolawatte for his Private Member’s Bill to decriminalise same-sex consensual relations. 

He said that Sri Lanka needs to “move forward” with social progress for all her communities. 

Speaking about the 200th year anniversary of the arrival of Hill Country Tamils to Sri Lanka, he spoke of their status as “indentured labour” and that despite decades of progress, there was still a long way to go for the community to equitably enjoy their citizenship. 

Minister Thondaman highlighted the importance of allyship when addressing marginalisation and discrimination. “You don’t have to be gay to speak about the LGBTQ community. You don’t have to be an estate worker to speak about the exploitation of labour” he said. “Regardless of your background, where you come from, how you’re born or where you are born…everyone deserves the right to be advocates for change”. 

Minister Thondaman, at 28 years, is the youngest Cabinet Minister in Sri Lankan history. He is the Minister for Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development and has been a strong advocate for the rights of marginalised communities, especially plantation workers and the LGBTQ community. Currently, he is pursuing the widest-ever reforms to the water sector to increase access to safe drinking water and to become more resilient to climate change.  The reform programme is supported by a US$ 200 million ADB budget support loan. (NewsWire)

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The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has requested the Sri Lankan Government to repeal laws that criminalise homosexuality and LGBT people. 

The UN Child Rights Committee, responsible for ensuring that Sri Lanka abides by its commitments under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, has called on the Government to repeal laws that criminalise same-sex relationships. 

The Committee, in paragraph 16 of its 5th and 6th Periodic Report on Sri Lanka, also requested the Sri Lankan Government to combat discrimination against LGBT people, prohibit harassment against LGBT people, and bring perpetrators of violence against LGBT people to justice. 

Sri Lanka has accepted the recommendations of the Committee and promised Penal Code reform “to bring them into line with international human rights standards”.  

The Committee also highlighted that under the existing sections 365 and 365A of the Penal Code, children “were perceived as perpetrators”.  The Sri Lankan Government clarified that “the law was inherited from colonial times and that under the current State practice, children were not considered as perpetrators.”

The strong statement from the UN Child Rights Committee directly challenges the false narrative being spread by organisations such as Urban Citizens, led by SLPP Organiser Sharmila Gonawala, that the proposed Penal Code (Amendment) Bill, amending section 365 and repealing section 365A, will be harming children and violate Sri Lanka’s UN Commitments to children.

Over 100 child rights, women rights and human rights activists and lawyers, including Child Protection Force and Stop Child Cruelty Trust and other professionals, recently wrote to the President expressing their support for the Penal Code (Amendment) Bill. They advised him to not believe “lies” being spread by those with vested interests that passing this law will expose children to abuse and that other provisions in the Penal Code better protect children. 

UN Child Rights Committee Report : UN Child Rights Committee report (NewsWire)

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Several intervening petitions have been filed at the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka supporting Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP Premnath Dolawatte’s Private Members Bill that decriminalises same sex consensual relationships. 

The intervening petitioners have submitted that if the proposed Bill is enacted by Parliament that it will remedy a long-standing injustice against the LGBT community in Sri Lanka.

The intervening petitions have been filed by former Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo, Prof. Savithri Gunasekara; former Human Rights Commissioner, Ramani Muttetuwegama; former Chairperson of the National Child Protection Authority, Natasha Balendra; former Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and former UN Undersecretary General for Children Radhika Coomaraswamy; Child Rights Activist Dr. Tushara Wickremanayaka; Executive Director of the Family Planning Association (“FPA”), Thushara Ranasinghe; Director of Advocacy of the FPA and former Child Protection Advisor at Save the Children and Coordinator for the National Partnership to End Violence Against Children, Sonali Peiris; Programme Officer for HIV Services in South East Asia, Jake Oorloff; Equality Director of iProbono, Aritha Wickramasinghe; Executive Director of the National Transgender Network, Bhoomi Harendran and LGBT Human Rights organisation Equal Ground.

President’s Counsels Sanjeewa Jayawardena and Dilrukshi Wickremasinghe and Attorneys-At-Law Thishya Weragoda and N.K. Ashokbaran are among the senior lawyers representing the intervening-petitioners. 

Furthermore, the intervening-petitions all dismiss the submissions made by Political activist Jehan Hameed, journalist Shenali Waduge and former Brigadier Athula De Silva, that the Penal Code amendment bill will expose children to child abuse. 

The petitioners point out that there are sufficient provisions in the Penal Code to protect children from abuse, including the following sections, none of which are being amended or repealed:

1. 286A “Obscene Publication exhibition relating children”;
2. 288A “Hiring or employing children to act as procurers”;
3. 288B “Hiring or employing children to traffic in restricted articles”;
4. 360B “Sexual Exploitation of Children”;
5. 360E “Soliciting of a child”;
6. 363 “Rape”; and
7. 365B “Grave Sexual Abuse”.

The petitioners have also argued that Section 365B of the Penal Code defines “Grave sexual abuse” as “any act” done for sexual gratification “by the use of [his] genitals or any other part of the human body or any Instrument on any orifice or part of the body of any other person”, clearly demonstrating that the laws are sufficient to cover all aspects of sexual abuse done by a person to a child. Section 365B includes any form of touch, including touch with hands, of any part of the victim’s body; oral rape; anal rape, etc. These provisions cover all forms of sexual abuse and exploitation of children irrespective of gender or sexual orientation.

The petitioners argue that, therefore, the allegations that decriminalisation of LGBT people will expose children to abuse with no legal recourse is malicious, unfounded and a lie. It recycles the unfounded myth that LGBT people are child predators, despite statistics showing that the overwhelming majority of child sexual abuse is committed by heterosexual men. 

Meanwhile, the Family Planning Association has argued that Jehan Hameed and Shenali Waduge’s attempt to create a “nexus between decriminalization of homosexuality, and HIV/STI is unscientific, baseless, false, and fictitious.”

The Intervening-Petitioners state that, “using HIV/AIDS to fearmonger people against homosexuality is an old, and outdated propaganda technique”.

Several of the intervening-petitioners, including the Family Planning Association have argued that “punitive laws have been shown to block HIV service access and increase HIV risk. Countries such as Sri Lanka, that criminalize key populations saw less progress towards HIV testing and treatment targets.” They further argued that “decriminalization is a critical element to end AIDS by 2030.”

The intervening-petitioners also informed the Court that the National HIV/STI Strategic Plan for Sri Lanka as prepared by the Ministry of Health’s STD/AIDS Control Programme support decriminalisation of homosexuality and LGBT people by stating that “…the two Penal codes criminalize same sex relations and create a barrier to MSM  [men who have sex with men] and TG [transgender persons] accessing HIV/STI services. In order to prevent HIV among these groups it will be important to advocate for revisiting laws that impede service uptake…”

The intervening petitions also highlight that several Buddhist and Christian leaders have expressed their support for the LGBT community and their rights. Recently, Pope Francis made a statement that laws that criminalise LGBT people are a sin and that countries must repeal laws that criminalise LGBT people. 

Political activists Jehan Hameed, journalist Shenali Waduge and former Brigadier Athula De Silva, filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Constitutionality of the Penal Code (Amendment) Bill. 

The Bill, proposed by MP Premnath Dolawatte, aims to amend and repeal parts of Sections 365 and 365A of the Penal Code. These laws have been overwhelmingly used to criminalise the lives of LGBT people, including subjecting them to forced anal and vaginal examinations by the State. (NewsWire) 

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Aditi Anand and Susan Dias want to get married in India, and they’re willing to fight for it. For more than a decade, the couple put in the hard work of building a life together. 

They bought a house, adopted a child and cofounded companies. They came out to their families and marched in pride parades.

This year, Anand and Dias became part of the first group of Indians to petition the Supreme Court for the legal right to marry. In doing so, they’ve come to symbolize a remarkable wave of change in India, where grassroots lobbying and aggressive litigation have converged in recent years to shape one of the world’s most effective movements for the rights of LGBTQ people.

In quick succession, India’s Supreme Court has affirmed a constitutional right to privacy, toppled a colonial-era law criminalizing sex between men and expanded legal protections for “atypical” families, a category that includes same-sex couples as well as blended and intergenerational households. Companies run advertisements with same-sex couples to sell everything from jewelry to spirits to insurance. And India’s massive film industry, where onscreen kisses were once rare, regularly features lesbian and gay characters.

Read more at:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/an-lgbtq-revolution-in-india-sets-the-pace-for-global-change/articleshow/98531459.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

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Pope calls anti-LGBT laws a “sin” 

Pope Francis and the leaders of Anglican churches have denounced the criminalisation of homosexuality, in a historic joint press conference. 

Speaking to reporters yesterday, 5 February 2023, after visiting South Sudan, the Pope said such laws were a sin and “an injustice”.

LGBT people are children of God

The Pope added people with “homosexual tendencies” are children of God and should be welcomed by their churches.

His comments were backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the global Anglican Church and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland.

The two leaders of the Anglican Churches travelled with the Pope to South Sudan where they jointly called for peace in the war-torn country.

It is the first time the leaders of the three traditions have come together for such a journey in 500 years.

Expressing his own support, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland referred to the Bible, saying: “There is nowhere in the four Gospels that I see anything other than Jesus expressing love to whoever he meets, and as Christians that is the only expression that we can give to any human being in any circumstance”.

Pope supports civil union laws for same-sex couples

During the news conference, Pope Francis repeated his view that although the Catholic Church cannot have a sacramental religious marriage of same-sex couples inside Churches he supported civil union laws that provided equal protection for same-sex couples.

The Pope stressed that laws banning homosexuality were “a problem that cannot be ignored”.

He suggested that 50 countries criminalise LGBT people “in one way or another”, and about 10 have laws carrying the death penalty. Currently, 66 UN member states criminalise consensual same-sex relations.

Current status in Sri Lanka

Sections 365 and 365A of Sri Lanka’s Penal Code are also used to persecute and prosecute LGBT people, despite neither law referring to “homosexuality”. 

Several activists, lawyers and Members of Parliament have called to repeal or amend Sri Lanka’s Penal Code to end the continued persecution of LGBT people.

Last year SLPP MP Premnath Dolawatte submitted a Private Member’s Bill amending the Penal Code but the Justice Ministry has been silent on these efforts. 

Sri Lanka Justice Minister once ruled in favour of an article calling to rape lesbian women

Justice Minister, Wijeyadasa Rajapaksha, during his time as head of the Press Council, ruled that “lesbianism” equals sadism and did not think there was anything wrong in calling convicted sexual offenders to “cure” lesbians of their “illness” by raping them.  

In 2017, the Justice Minister called homosexuality a “mental illness”. The World Health Organisation and the Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists have both confirmed that being LGBT is not a mental illness.

Condemning LGBT people a sin – Pope

“This is not right. Persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God,” said the Pope.

“God loves them. God accompanies them… condemning a person like this is a sin.” (NewsWire)

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