Sri Lankan Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa stated that lesbianism “equals sadism” and advocated the rape of lesbians by convicted sexual offenders to “cure” them, reports Economy Next.
Referring to a landmark May 2000 ruling, when Mr Rajapaksa was head of the Press Council of Sri Lanka, the current justice minister stated that homophobic hate mail that had been published in The Island had been done so in “good faith”.
"Lesbianism is at least an act of gross indecency and unnatural,” he stated. “If people of this country have a right to publish that a conference of lesbians would be held in Colombo, the people have a right to express their opinion either for or against.”
Activist Sherman de Rose, the Executive Director of Companions on a Journey, filed a complaint with the press council against a particular article that advocating raping lesbians.
Mr Rajapaksa though dismissed the complaint and chose to fine Mr de Rose instead.
"The complainant, in any event, is not a female, who can participate in lesbian activities," ruled Mr Rajapaksa said. "He cannot be subject to any such rape as referred to in the (Island) article and therefore, he cannot be a victim of such violence."
See more from Economy Next here.
We need your support
Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.
Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view
We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.
For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.
