It is a bit annoying and frustrating reading people relegating homosexuality to eccentricity and, even though eccentricity is not a bad thing, it is a bad thing not acknowledging the diversity existant in any groups of human beings.

It is a good exercise to look around and realise that the vast majority of homosexual men and homosexual women don’t have any need nor interset in dressing extravagantly and stuff like that.

Don’t try to set rules as to how homosexual people mst behave and look because there aren’t such rules. Don’t picture drag queens as the face of homosexuality either, that’s far from what reality shows.

Stereotypes are most of the time inaccurate depictions of minority groups because, most of the time, stereotypes are base don’t pecualirity. Your average homsoexual guy is not a drag queen or effeminate, you actually see lots of homosexual guys as you walk down the streets but you don’t notice them because you are expecting them to be peculiar. Big mistake.

Sahan, perhaps the power here is held by the press? People are free to think the thoughts the press tell them they have.

The press sometimes likes to call paedophiles gay just to confuse everyone, but not all press action is bad, exposing paedophilia is a good thing, it might embarrass the Catholic Church in Ireland but recent press reportage has stopped kids from being raped, with priests locked behind bars. Positioning gay love between consenting thirty year old men with child rape is simply incorrect.

Freedom for gay people is important, as is freedom for married women to not be beaten by their husbands, or kids to have a childhood free from dirty uncles, or the freedom to chose your own future wife, or husband, partner job etc. All people need liberation and the laws to back that up.

On the subject of flamboyant over the top dress on parades, well coming out is stressful, it does not get easier with time or with repetition. Sometimes it’s easier to be very obvious, it saves stress and having to explain to yet another person that just getting married will not solve anything.

Also as someone mentioned earlier, the poster didn’t like transsexuals because he felt he was being deceived, that it was man pretending to be a woman, that’s not the point, to the transsexual the spirit is a woman, it’s her body that is wrong. Though I know you could say that a spirit has no gender. However deception is the point at which people get upset. People like flamboyant celebrities they understand they might be gay but when their macho hero turns out to be gay they get upset.

I understand it might be very liberating for the parader to pout and pose in a parade, but I agree that it’s hardly a positive image. I would prefer to see loving couples hand in hand than leather gear and nipple clamps.

Everyone knows gay people, they just don’t know it, because it’s against the law and against popular culture to mention it who is going to tell you?

I do have to agree that sex tourists paying a 12 year old for sex is paedophilia and not homosexuality. It’s also very very wrong, and very illegal in Western Europe too. A 12 year old is not a consenting adult, and nor would be a 30 year old pressurised by a manager.

No one believes that there are no homosexuals because the laws forbids it. If heterosexuality was made illegal would you leave your wife or husband? I hope not!

The Attitude of people !!

We are a nation to without conciouns or principals.. We go with what gives us most benefits , regardless of right or wrong. If the Man with the power in hand says Homo Sexuality is good , even the old hags in our villages will start saying it is ok , monks will take examples from lord Budhdhas preachings and say it is ok , etc…

Yes, but it may unleash a discoursive moment ranging from a tête-à-tête over tea at the Galle face to a lynch mob in Maradana, so your mileage may vary. Try this in the middle-east for the most explosive results.

Bottom-line: Rojr makes a good point. The intellectual state of the country needs to be taken into account when making a statement. I highly doubt that the majority of people will understand the nature of the statement that is being made – they will likely see this as some exercise in “western decadence and moral decay”, and not as an assertion of individuality and human rights.

Dear Rojr,

The oppressed group, by its performativity in public space does provoke a reaction, and this is what is positive since it opens a discoursive moment into bringing into the foreground what was once hushed and taboo.

What interpretation?

The data from both sources is that >80% of men sampled in both areas have had consensual gay sex.

If you’d read Miller’s paper you’d know that.

But by this time I suspect the argument that you ought to read something is not worth the candlelight by which its made.

The greater point I wish to make though is about the very lack of visibility of gay people in this country, although if you were gay, you would realize how very gay this country really is, invisible as it is from the casual straight eyes. (and I am not talking about beach boys here, but about the ordinary middle class) The point however is moot to have a highly academic discussion about what Sri Lankan gay pride marches should be, when they actually do NOT exist.(except, as far I know, one was held a few years ago, with no worthwhile news media coverage and with relatively few attendants)As for public expectations, what public expectations about a thing that seemingly does not exist?

There are a few local organizations attempting at improving things, but I fear that their hearts are not really in it. NGO money creeping in to it may have a thing or two to do with that (it is best for the defenders when the oppressed continue to stay oppressed), but it is not the only reason for their relative failure. The very lack of ‘visible’ persecution has made it a non-issue with the majority. (What individual gay, lesbian and transgendered people suffer in their own homes from their own families is of course invisible and unquantifiable. What the police does to gain bribes from ‘offending’ couples is not unheard of either)

In the end, while I disagree about your perception of the so called outre elements of our community (i.e. the drag queens. I do not know that we have anything akin to leather daddies, bears or other such sub-cultures here in SL)I still do agree on the fact that if people like myself (I am a young professional) were to come out tomorrow and say who we are, things will have to change. The question is a matter of courage; where I have next to none, that guy in drag, the one who dares, he has courage a million times greater than I ever will.

Published data belongs to miller. Interpretation is of yours.