Èquité brings LGBTIQ+ people together in Sri Lanka

What is it like to advance LGBTIQ+ rights in a country that is still recovering from political turmoil and civil war? This is a situation where KIOS grantee Èquité is working on building up the LGBTIQ+ movement and trying to build bridges rather than walls between the nation. Èquité started working as an informal group, that wanted to expand the focus of LGBTIQ+ work in Sri Lanka to include also the minority groups and rural areas. Èquité has grown to one of the leading LGBTIQ+ organizations in Sri Lanka and is now focusing on building up the movement by working closely with the LGBTIQ+ youth in Sri Lanka. We talked with Èquité’s Chairperson and human rights activist Thushara Manoj about Èquité’s journey and take on LGBTIQ+ rights in Sri Lanka.

The want for change

Manoj tells us that Èquité started as an informal group between friends and LGBTIQ+ activist that wanted to expand the reach of LGBTIQ+ movement is Sri Lanka to be more inclusive and focus also on rural areas and produce material also in the local languages. KIOS was one of the funders of Èquité, when  the informal group started transform into a more formal organization.

“Organizations seemed to focus on the Colombo-based and English-speaking LGBTIQ+ persons, and there was some criticism about the intersectionality within the community. There are also Sinhalese-speaking, Tamil-speaking, and Muslim LGBTIQ+ persons who live outside Colombo,” Manoj says.

“Even if you live in rural areas or come from a poor background, you can still have knowledge and be an LGBTIQ+ activist. I myself am also from this background, from a rural area. So we wanted to start something of our own. This was the mentality we started with.”

With receiving funding Èquité has been able to grow. Something that started as an informal group implementing social media campaigns with activists’ own money has become one of the leading LGBTIQ+ organizations in Sri Lanka, with a main office in Colombo and a regional office in Central Province, supported by regional lobbyists in rural areas. Èquité also manages the only LBT-women specific safe house in Sri Lanka, where women can seek assistance if they face violence or discrimination.

Focus on advocacy

From early on Èquité decided to focus on advocacy and research work as there were already plenty of organizations providing sexual and reproductive health services, also for LGBTIQ+ community. Manoj raises up the issue of there not being any official statistics on the size of the LGBTIQ+ community in Sri Lanka:

“We don’t know the size of the LGBTIQ+ community in Sri Lanka, and by going to rural areas, we can see that there are also LGBTIQ+ persons there who face many challenges and discrimination. They do not know their rights or their identity. Because of stigma, they think of themselves as sick, and in Sri Lanka, conversion therapy is a big issue. By targeting these LGBTIQ+ youth, we have been able to educate them on their rights and identity,” Manoj explains.

Èquité has also worked with the police and education policy to be more inclusive of LGBTIQ+ rights. Èquité has been able to educate different stakeholders on these rights, which has also helped LGBTIQ+ people access services and justice:

“I can see a lot of development from the rights perspective. With our trainings, we have been able to make different stakeholders aware of LGBTIQ+ rights and how to handle rights violations.”

The advocacy work also involves efforts to change the attitudes and misconceptions related to LGBTIQ+ persons. Manoj gives an example of working with psychologists:

“LGBTIQ+ issues are seen in Sri Lanka as a psychological issue, and there are many practices that claim they can fix this issue. Through working with the Sri Lankan College of Psychiatrists, they have now taken a stand that if these harmful practices are used, there can be legal action taken against you. So this is a change for the better that benefits the LGBTIQ+ community.”

Political turmoil

Talk turns to the political situation in Sri Lanka, the country is still recovering from civil war and financial crisis. The country has been waiting for example elections to take place for years. The situation for LGBTIQ+ rights looked promising for a while and there were also talks about overturning the same colonial era laws, that are also used in East-Africa at the moment to repress LGBTIQ+ community. But it looks that also Sri Lankan LGBTIQ+community is not safe and are used as tools for political battle now that the elections seem to be closing in.

“We have seen hate speech and counterprotests increase, for example, during the Sri Lankan Pride there were people opposing us. These come from religious organizations. We also see that while the Supreme Court states that decriminalization is constitutional, this was challenged by some parliamentarians. The law could have been overturned by the decision of Parliament, but now we do not know what will happen. This is really unfortunate.”

Manoj also tells that public opinion is starting to change:

“Certain politicians are trying to destroy everything by changing the attitudes of the general public, by saying that by voting for this party, this person, you are supporting homosexuality. Also, the LGBTIQ+ activists have been targeted and named, including myself.”

What is worrying is also the impact this has on the young people starting to be part of the LGBTIQ+ community in Sri Lanka:

“We have some fear that attacks towards the LGBTIQ+ community and events can be impactful to the newly coming LGBTIQ+ community, individuals, and young people. They could be discouraged. They could be upset about this situation because they don’t yet have much experience of being attacked.”

Focusing on unity, not the divides

The divides in country is also visible within the LGBTIQ+ community, but Èquité aims to rather focus on the unity not the divides. By working in rural areas and with LGBTIQ+ persons from different backgrounds and ethnicities Equite has wanted to address this issue:

“There was this misconception that there are no LGBTIQ+ communities in rural areas and we wanted to break that by going there,” Manoj tells.

And there have been some positive changes:

“We hired a Tamil-speaking program officer and managed to get many more Tamil-speaking volunteers to be part of Pride celebrations. For example, for the first time in Sri Lankan history, the Tamil-speaking LGBTIQ+ community will be visibly present in one of our biggest Pride events, called Rainbow Bazaar, this year.”

According to Manoj, this can also be used to change the whole narrative on the ethnicity issue:

“I think we can use the LGBTIQ+ perspective to address the ethnicity issue. Politicians are trying to divide the country. But we are saying we are one LGBTIQ+ community. We are breaking that barrier. We are all Sri Lankan and one LGBTIQ+ community. United as one family, not divided based on ethnicities or language. This is the message we are promoting.”

Youth as future changemakers

Èquité focuses on youth from 2 perspectives. Firstly trying to advocate for comprehensive sexual education to Sri Lanka. This would provide the youth knowledge about different sexual orientations and gender identities:

“This work is much protested and is seen as something promoting sexual behavior. But the youth are already requesting this information and knowledge about their sexuality, about human sexuality. We are also trying to convey this message to the youth, that this is their right to get this kind of knowledge,” Manoj tells. Èquité is lobbying different government stakeholders to be able to include at least something about these issues in the education curriculum.

The second perspective Èquité works from is creating youth changemaker groups and empowering youth to talk about sexual and reproductive rights and how to ask for and promote them.

“We try to gather youth leaders together and provide them with accurate knowledge not only about LGBTIQ+ rights but also about sexual and reproductive health rights more broadly. Also on how to support people who face emergency situations such as human rights violations. Basically, we are building the capacity of the LGBTIQ+ youth about their rights,” Manoj explains.

“We are thinking about how to create LGBTIQ+ youth changemakers, not only on LGBTIQ+ rights, but also on how to be intersectional. How to talk about environmental issues, economic issues, and human rights? This is something that the general public does not expect from LGBTIQ+ youth. We encourage them to raise these issues alongside LGBTIQ+ rights.”

This is also something that motivates Manoj:

“I have personally grown by being an LGBTIQ+ activist, and I came from a non-privileged background. This is something I always tell the LGBTIQ+ youth. With our interventions, I think LGBTIQ+ youth in the future will be impactful.”

Global South looks to Finland as an example

Manoj seems to be positive despite the challenges there are to the LGBTIQ+ community in Sri Lanka that the future will be bright. The developments gained with advocacy will hopefully help overcome setbacks.

For the Finnish people Manoj want to share a message of unity:

“We look to you because we can see how LGBTIQ+ people are treated and how proud you are. I know there are also challenges, but as a country, LGBTIQ+ rights are accepted. So we look to you as an example and for support. At the end of the day, it is not about Finland or Sri Lanka, we are all part of the same LGBTIQ+ community. I want to wish you a good future and a happy Pride!”