In a 2021 study SRI LANKA SOCIETY’S VIEWS ABOUT SEXUALITY AND LGBT PEOPLE’S EXPERIENCES IN SRI LANKA, conducted by the Social Scientists’ Association, 47.1% of respondents viewed being LGBT as an illness [Table 3.7].
In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality as a mental illness from the Diagnostic and Styatistical Manuel [DSM] of Mental Disorders. The British Psychiatric Association followed suit in 1974. But not until 1987 was homosexuality finally expunged from the DSM.
In 1992 the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its International Classification of Diseases [ICD]. In 2018 the Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists finally stated publically that homosexuality, and other non-heteronormative sexual orientations are not mental illnesses.
In 2021 the Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists went further and called for the decriminalization of same sex relationships between consenting adults by repealing archaic sections of the Sri Lanka Penal Code [sections 365 and 365A] that date from 1883.
In 2023 the College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka similarly called for the repealing of sections 365 and 365A of the Sri Lankan Penal Code, stating:
“Decriminalization will increase the access to health care, screening and treatment services and support the principles of equity and equality in the Sri Lankan health system.”
Despite the scientific evidence, however, heterosexuality is still widely conisdered “normal” in Sri Lanka while all other sexual orientations are perceived as “deviant” in general. The religious framing of non-heteronormative sexual orientations is a major contributing factor to this, with pray-the-gay-away conversion therapy efforts still practiced in Sri Lanka across different socio-religious groups. For example, there are some Buddhist clergy who suggest that meditation can cure homosexuality.
As far back as 2016, a UN Human Rights document released for the commemoration of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) discussed the need to stop the pathologization of human sexuality.
“Furthermore, on the basis of pathologizing classifications, LGBT people continue to be subjected to abusive, harmful and unethical forced treatments. These include so-called ‘conversion’ or ‘reparative’ ‘therapies’ based on their sexual orientation or gender identity with particularly harmful effect on children and adolescents. Forced, coercive and otherwise involuntary treatments and procedures can lead to severe and life-long physical and mental pain and suffering and can violate the right to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Pathologizing classifications are also used to justify other abuses against LGBT people – including the continued criminalization of transgender people and same-sex relations, denying or placing abusive conditions for the official recognition of the gender identity of trans people – and it contributes to the marginalization and exclusion of LGBT people in contexts of, among others, education, health, employment and housing.”