By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Dec 11 1999 (IPS)

Two conferences being organised in the Sri Lankan capital next year will seek to highlight the problems faced by gays and lesbians in this country and elsewhere in Asia, activists said here.

The lesbian Women’s Support Group is planning its first national meeting in March, which will be followed in June by a regional conference of the Asian partners of the Brussels-based International Lesbian and Gay Association.

Association partners include the local organisers, Companions on a Journey (COJ), Sri Lanka’s first homosexual group which is now its Asian Secretariat, and groups from Malaysia, China, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, India, Nepal and Pakistan.

The COJ’s founder-president Sherman De Rose who had to briefly go underground because of public hostility to his setting up a group to assert the rights of gays said, “we want to develop a regional plan for gays and lesbians in Asia.”

Asian gays and lesbian groups want governments in many of their countries to annul archaic laws which ban homosexual activity and treat people with same-sex sexual orientations as criminals.

For instance, Sri Lanka’s Penal Code, promulgated during British colonial rule, states that whoever voluntarily has “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal” could be jailed.

Laws in most former British colonies, like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, label homosexuality as an act of “gross indecency”.

The June meeting is expected to bring together activists from across Asia and the Pacific. “We are expecting about 60 people to participate but this would also depend on the kind of funding support we can get to hold the meeting,” De Rose confided.

On the agenda will be issues like identity and language. “We need to look at the way our people are identified in Asia and whether there is a need to change the traditional western labels and identities like gays, lesbians, transsexuals, etc and come out with our own identities that reflect Asian society and are acceptable to local cultural norms,” according to De Rose.

He said one of the reasons for hostility to gays and lesbians in South Asia is “their western-type” identity. “We need to come out with a common Asian plan with separate local segments and then push for its acceptance by our societies.”

According to De Rose, the COJ spends a lot of time bailing out gays arrested by the police on loitering charges, on an average some 10 people every week.

Many gays hang out on street corners and in residential areas in some parts of Colombo at night in the hope of picking up a partner. “They are not prostitutes but are merely looking for a partners,” he explained.

Apart from police harassment, there is a great deal of public intolerance of gays and lesbians. Homosexuals have been sometimes beaten up on the streets by people.

In August this year, newspapers were flooded with angry letters from readers who expressed outrage at the announcement by the Women’s Support Group to hold its first national conference in December, forcing its postponement to March 2000.

One letter published in ‘The Island’ newspaper urged the police to “let loose a group of rapists on these lesbians”, forcing activists to file a case against the paper in the Press Council of Sri Lanka, which is conducting an inquiry.

“We have a right to hold a meeting and there is no law against that,” De Rose said.

The Women’s Support Group is hoping to bring together some 75 local women and guest speakers from abroad for the March meeting. They include activists from TRIKON, a group of South Asian gay and bisexuals in the United States, and Indian lesbian groups.

Kumari, its chief spokesperson who uses an assumed name, said the meeting, would be limited to participants and will discuss the problems facing lesbians in Sri Lanka with the intention of formulating a future programme of work.

The Women’s Support Group was set up with the help of the COJ, and works out of its office. Among its members are some of Sri Lanka’s many creative artists, poets, playwrights and intellectuals.

The Colombo-based COJ has extensive contacts with the International Gay and Human Rights Commission (IGHRC) in New York and Amnesty International’s Asian office which set up a special

desk in 1992 to fight for the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals.

Rose said the New York-based Commission has helped the COJ to settle nine Sri Lankans, mostly women, in Canada, the Netherlands and the United States where political asylum is provided on the grounds of persecution due to sexual orientation.

“Presently there is a lesbian couple whom we want to send to Canada because of similar death threats,” he said.

The Women’s Support Group wants to encourage all lesbians in to enroll and share their problems. Says Kumari: “We are there to help anyone … To help them achieve fulfillment in their careers and also their lives.”

Excerpt:

By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Dec 8 1999 (IPS)

Two conferences being organised in the Sri Lankan capital next year will seek to highlight the problems faced by gays and lesbians in this country and elsewhere in Asia, activists said here.

The lesbian Women’s Support Group is planning its first national meeting in March, which will be followed in June by a regional conference of the Asian partners of the Brussels-based International Lesbian and Gay Association.

Association partners include the local organisers, Companions on a Journey (COJ), Sri Lanka’s first homosexual group which is now its Asian Secretariat, and groups from Malaysia, China, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, India, Nepal and Pakistan.

The COJ’s founder-president Sherman De Rose who had to briefly go underground because of public hostility to his setting up a group to assert the rights of gays said, “we want to develop a regional plan for gays and lesbians in Asia.”

Asian gays and lesbian groups want governments in many of their countries to annul archaic laws which ban homosexual activity and treat people with same-sex sexual orientations as criminals.

For instance, Sri Lanka’s Penal Code, promulgated during British colonial rule, states that whoever voluntarily has “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal” could be jailed.

Laws in most former British colonies, like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, label homosexuality as an act of “gross indecency”.

The June meeting is expected to bring together activists from across Asia and the Pacific. “We are expecting about 60 people to participate but this would also depend on the kind of funding support we can get to hold the meeting,” De Rose confided.

On the agenda will be issues like identity and language. “We need to look at the way our people are identified in Asia and whether there is a need to change the traditional western labels and identities like gays, lesbians, transsexuals, etc and come out with our own identities that reflect Asian society and are acceptable to local cultural norms,” according to De Rose.

He said one of the reasons for hostility to gays and lesbians in South Asia is “their western-type” identity. “We need to come out with a common Asian plan with separate local segments and then push for its acceptance by our societies.”

According to De Rose, the COJ spends a lot of time bailing out gays arrested by the police on loitering charges, on an average some 10 people every week.

Many gays hang out on street corners and in residential areas in some parts of Colombo at night in the hope of picking up a partner. “They are not prostitutes but are merely looking for a partners,” he explained.

Apart from police harassment, there is a great deal of public intolerance of gays and lesbians. Homosexuals have been sometimes beaten up on the streets by people.

In August this year, newspapers were flooded with angry letters from readers who expressed outrage at the announcement by the Women’s Support Group to hold its first national conference in December, forcing its postponement to March 2000.

One letter published in ‘The Island’ newspaper urged the police to “let loose a group of rapists on these lesbians”, forcing activists to file a case against the paper in the Press Council of Sri Lanka, which is conducting an inquiry.

“We have a right to hold a meeting and there is no law against that,” De Rose said.

The Women’s Support Group is hoping to bring together some 75 local women and guest speakers from abroad for the March meeting. They include activists from TRIKON, a group of South Asian gay and bisexuals in the United States, and Indian lesbian groups.

Kumari, its chief spokesperson who uses an assumed name, said the meeting, would be limited to participants and will discuss the problems facing lesbians in Sri Lanka with the intention of formulating a future programme of work.

The Women’s Support Group was set up with the help of the COJ, and works out of its office. Among its members are some of Sri Lanka’s many creative artists, poets, playwrights and intellectuals.

The Colombo-based COJ has extensive contacts with the International Gay and Human Rights Commission (IGHRC) in New York and Amnesty International’s Asian office which set up a special

desk in 1992 to fight for the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals.

Rose said the New York-based Commission has helped the COJ to settle nine Sri Lankans, mostly women, in Canada, the Netherlands and the United States where political asylum is provided on the grounds of persecution due to sexual orientation.

“Presently there is a lesbian couple whom we want to send to Canada because of similar death threats,” he said.

The Women’s Support Group wants to encourage all lesbians in to enroll and share their problems. Says Kumari: “We are there to help anyone … To help them achieve fulfillment in their careers and also their lives.”

Excerpt: