World News | Sri Lanka’s LGBTQ+ community marches in pride to demand end to discrimination

COLOMBO, June 4 (AP) – Hundreds of members of Sri Lanka’s LGBTQ+ community marched through the streets of the capital Colombo on Sunday to mark Pride Month and demand an end to discrimination.

Marchers carried rainbow flags and placards calling for a ban on so-called conversion therapy, an end to police harassment and equal treatment of the LGBTQ+ community.

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Sri Lanka is a country dominated by Buddhists with conservative values, and people with different sexual orientations rarely express their demands in public.

Organizers said that despite similar marches in previous years, last year’s anti-government protests amid an unprecedented economic crisis helped the LGBTQ+ community emerge stronger.

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Sri Lankan law still criminalizes homosexuality and a bill to decriminalize homosexuality is under consideration in parliament. (Associated Press)

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