Sri Lankan group appreciates Trump withdrawing support

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Former SLPP MP Premnath C. Dolawatte yesterday (23) claimed that a bill he presented to the last parliament was not meant to promote LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) rights. Attorney-at-law Dolawatte stressed that he sought to amend Sections 365 and 365A in the Penal Code which criminalised same-sex sexual activity, though it is hardly enforced.

The ex-MP Dolawatte said so responding to a query from The Island whether US President Donald Trump’s declaration that his administration would accept only two genders-male and female thereby ceasing US backing for various projects promoting LGBTQ rights would undermine the Sri Lankan campaign supportive of LGBTQ rights.

When pressed for a further explanation, the former MP insisted that his effort wasn’t intended to promote LGBTQ rights.

The then MP Dolawatte presented his bill to parliament in August 2022 just weeks after UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected to complete the remainder of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s five-year term.

Responding to another query, the former MP said that the dissolution of parliament immediately after the presidential election in Sept., last year brought the process to an end.

 Dolawatte is on record as having said that the proposed amendments to Sections 365 and 365A in the Penal Code would receive the backing of MPs with a progressive mindset. Section 365 of the Penal Code terms “voluntary carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman, or animal” as an “unnatural offence”, while Section 365A penalises “acts of gross indecency between persons”.

Having gathered outside the US embassy in Colombo on Tuesday (21), Mothers’ Movement of Sri Lanka urged President Trump’s intervention to stop LGBTQ agenda being forced on Sri Lanka as a pre-condition for US, IMF and World Bank assistance.

Alleging that the US, IMF and World Bank Exploited Sri Lanka’s bankruptcy to advance their despicable agenda, the group said children, teens, journalists, lawyers, medical professionals, law enforcement authorities, educationists and academia were targeted.

According to the group the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, USAID and Global Equality Fund provided substantial funds to promote LGBTQ rights here.

The group alleged that the European Union via European Instrument for Democracy & Human Rights, Netherlands via Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Human Rights Fund, Canada via Feminist International Assistance Policy, UK via Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Sweden via Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), Norway, Germany via Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development (BMZ), wholeheartedly backed the US project.

The UN threw its weight behind the high profile LGBTQ project with some Colombo based diplomatic missions openly intervening on their behalf, the group said.

Former MP Dolawatte claimed that the National People’s Power (NPP) government, too, had made various pledges to the international community.

A spokeswoman for the Mothers’ Movement of Sri Lanka told The Island that the new government should take a strong stand on this matter. The UN backed Western project was meant to weaken the traditional family thereby undermine the whole society. Interested parties even targeted parliamentarians as LGBTQ project had been one of the major objectives of the Biden administration that lavishly provided required funds, she said.