Dolawatta’s attempts to protect LGBTQ+ community challenged in SC

• Petition filed by Brigadier (Rtd) Athula De Silva, journalist Shenali Waduge and businesswoman Jehan Hameed claims Dolawatta’s Bill is unconstitutional 
• Claims it removes safeguards placed by legislature to protect children
• Petitioners fear if law is amended LGBT groups will promote programs in schools, worsen HIV epidemic
• MP tabled Bill last year to counter backward notion of Sri Lankan society regarding the LGBTQ+ community, to protect them from discrimination and violence

A private members Bill presented by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP Premanath C. Dolawatta in a bid to amend the penal code to offer better protection to the LGBTQI community has been challenged before the Supreme Court in a petition filed by Brigadier (Rtd) Athula De Silva, freelance writer Shenali Waduge and businesswoman Jehan Hameed. 

In a petition filed before the Supreme Court naming Dolawatta and the Attorney General as respondents, the trio are challenging the constitutionality of the Bill. They claim section 365 of the Penal Code (as amended) proposed to be amended by clause 2(i) of the Bill will remove safeguards placed by the legislature by Section 17 of the Amending Act No. 22 of 1995, to protect children below 16 years of age from sexual exploitation. Accordingly, the petitioners state that the said clause seriously violates the preamble, Articles 01, 03, 04(d), 12(1), 14(1)(f), 27(1), 27(2)(a), 27(2)(g), 27(3), 27(10), 27(11), 27(12) and 27(13) of the constitution and duly require the approval of the people at a referendum by virtue of the provisions of Article 83 of the constitution. 

In the petition filed before the court, the trio also expressed their fears that the LGBT movement may attempt to promote their programs in schools thus impacting the children’s ability to make decisions freely and create transgender children. 

They also claimed that decriminalising same-sex activities can exacerbate the current situation of the Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic. They further alleged that there is clear medical evidence locally and globally to suggest that the majority of men or People Living with HIV (PLHIV) have a history of gay or bisexual exposure. 

“Such a situation endangers the national security of the republic since it has the potential to destroy the very fabric of what constitutes a state, that is the individuals, families, communities, economic and socio-political institutions, and the military and police forces which guarantee the protection of state institutions”, the petitioners added.

In August 2022 Dolawatta said the Bill was submitted after considering the various forms of violence, oppression and harassment faced by the LGBTQI community in the country as a result of the extremely backward notion regarding them in Sri Lankan society. 

“Punishment of individuals based on sexual orientation and sexual identification was spread throughout the world by colonial legal systems in the Victorian era. But in modern psychiatry, this is not considered a crime or a perversion. Also, developed countries have worked to amend the laws that penalise this community and limit their rights,” a statement issued by the President’s Media Division at the time read.