“It’s illegal but it’s not, like, really illegal”: Sri Lanka’s ‘sodomy laws’, the politics of equivocation, and queer men’s sexual citizenship in The One Who Loves You So

References

• Bakshi, Kaustav. “Funny Boy and the Pleasure of Breaking Rules: Bending Genre and Gender in ‘The Best School of All’.” Postcolonial Text 10.3 & 4 (2015): 1–18.
   Google Scholar
• Baudh, Sumit. “Decriminalisation of consensual same-sex sexual acts in the South Asian Commonwealth: struggles in context.” Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in The Commonwealth: Struggles for Decriminalisation and Change. Ed. Corinne Lennox and Matthew Waites. Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 2013. 287–311.
   Google Scholar
• Balachandran, P.K. “Sri Lankan Cabinet Decides Not to De-criminalize Homosexuality.” The New Indian Express 18 Jan. 2017. Web. 26 Oct. 2022. www.newindianexpress.com/world/2017/jan/18/sri-lankan-cabinet-decides-not-to-de-criminalize-homosexuality/1560925.html .
   Google Scholar
• Bhan, Gautam. “Challenging the Limits of Law : Queer Politics and Legal Reform in India.” Because I Have a Voice: Queer Politics in India. Ed. Arvind Narrain and Gautam Bhan. Yoda Press, 2015. 40–48.
   Google Scholar
• Chandrasekaram, Visakesa. “Constitutionally Recognised ‘Other’: The Fundamental Rights of LGBTI People in Sri Lanka.” Sri Lanka Journal of International Law 28 (2020): 117–36.
   Google Scholar
• “Colombo Chief Magistrate Dismisses Case Against Three Gay Men for Homosexuality.” Daily Mirror 10 Dec. 2021. Web. 4 April 2023. www.dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/Colombo-Chief-Magistrate-dismisses-case-against-three-gay-men-for-homosexuality/108-226559 .
   Google Scholar
• Coke, Edward. The Third Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England. W. Rawlins for T. Baset, 1797.
   Google Scholar
• Dasgupta, Rohit K. Digital Queer Cultures in India : Politics, Intimacies and Belonging. Routledge, 2017.
   Google Scholar
• de Sayrah, Amalini. “‘Culturally Inappropriate’ Love Stories and Identities.” Groundviews. 23 June 2019. Web. 4 Apr. 2023. https://groundviews.org/2019/06/23/culturally-inappropriate-love-stories-and-identities/.
   Google Scholar
• Duggan, Lisa. “The New Homonormativity: The Sexual Politics of Neoliberalism.” Materializing Democracy: Toward a Revitalized Cultural Politics. Ed. Russ Castronovo and Dana D. Nelson. Duke University Press, 2002. 175–194.
   Google Scholar
• Ellawela, Themal. “Legitimating Violences: The ‘Gay Rights’ NGO and the Disciplining of the Sri Lankan Queer Figure.” Journal of South Asian Development 14.1 (2019): 83–107. doi:10.1177/0973174119843454.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• EQUAL GROUND. “Historic Court Win for LGBTIQ Community.” Groundviews. 13 Dec. 2021. www.groundviews.org/2021/12/13/historic-court-win-for-lgbtiq-community .
   Google Scholar
• Fazal, Safrah. “Indo-SL Lesbian Couple Seeking Matrimony Released.” The Morning. Colombo, Sri Lanka. 28 June 2022. Web 2 April 2023. www.themorning.lk/indo-sl-lesbian-couple-seeking-matrimony-released.
   Google Scholar
• Ganeshananthan, V.V. Love Marriage. Random House, 2008.
   Google Scholar
• Goonesekere, Savithri and Camena Guneratne. Women, Sexual Violence and the Legal Process in Sri Lanka: A Study on Rape. Centre for Women’s Research, 1998.
   Google Scholar
• “Government Confirms It Won’t Decriminalise Homosexuality.” Tamil Guardian. 19 Jan. 2017. www.tamilguardian.com/content/government-confirms-it-wont-decriminalise-homosexuality .
   Google Scholar
• Gunesekera, Romesh. Reef. Granta, 1994.
   Google Scholar
• Gupta, Alok. This Alien Legacy: The Origins of “Sodomy” Laws in British Colonialism. Human Rights Watch, 2008.
   Google Scholar
• Halley, Janet E. “Reasoning About Sodomy: Act and Identity in and after Bowers V. Hardwick.” Virginia Law Review 79.7 (Oct. 1993): 1721–80. doi:10.2307/1073385.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Human Rights Committee. “List of issues in relation to the fifth periodic report of Sri Lanka: Addendum: Replies of Sri Lanka to the list of issues.” 17 Sep. 2014. CCPR/C/LKA/Q/5/Add.1, 43.
   Google Scholar
• Hussein, Ameena. Fifteen. International Centre for Ethnic Studies, 1999.
   Google Scholar
• Hussein, Ameena, editor. Blue: Stories for Adults. Perera Hussein Publishing House, 2010.
   Google Scholar
• Jayasinghe, Pasan. Contemporary Advocacy by and Research on the LGBTQI+ Community of Sri Lanka. Women and Media Collective & the Norwegian Embassy Colombo, 2021. www.womenandmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Output-2-LGBTQI-Advocacy-and-Research-Paper-final-English.pdf .
   Google Scholar
• Jayasuriya, Maryse. Terror and Reconciliation: Sri Lankan Anglophone Literature, 1983-2009. Lexington Books, 2012.
   Google Scholar
• Jayasuriya, Maryse. “Migration and Sexuality in S.J. Sindu’s Marriage of a Thousand Lies.” Diasporic Inquiries into South Asian Women’s Narratives: Alien Domiciles. Ed. Shilpa Daithota Bhat. Lexington Books, 2020. 95–105.
   Google Scholar
• Karunatilaka, Shehan. Chats with the Dead. Hamish Hamilton, 2020.
   Google Scholar
• Khanna, Akshay. “Beyond sexuality?” Because I Have a Voice: Queer Politics in India. Ed. Arvind Narrain and Gautam Bhan. Yoda Press, 2005. 89–103.
   Google Scholar
• Kirby, Michael. “The Sodomy Offence: England’s Least Lovely Criminal Law Export?.” Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Commonwealth: Struggles for Decriminalisation and Change. Ed. Corinne Lennox and Matthew Waites. Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 2013. 61–82.
   Google Scholar
• Mendis, Michael. “Liberty, Morality and Proportionality: Judicial Remedies Against Sections 365 and 365A of the Sri Lankan Penal Code.” 2015. Unpublished discussion paper. https://independent.academia.edu/MichaelMendis.
   Google Scholar
• Mendis, Michael and Paba Deshapriya. “Virtually Queer: Human Rights of LGBTIQ Sri Lankans in the Online Space.” Disrupting the Binary Code: Experiences of LGBT Sri Lankans Online. Women and Media Collective, 2017. www.womenandmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Disrupting-the-Binary-Code-_-for-web.pdf.
   Google Scholar
• Mohan, Anupama. “Giraya and the Gothic Space: Nationalism and the Novel in Sri Lanka.” University of Toronto Quarterly 84.4 (2015): 29–53. doi:10.3138/utq.84.4.04.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Mowlabocus, Sharif. Interrogating Homonormativity:Gay Men, Identity and Everyday Life. Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
   Google Scholar
• Mudannayake, Francesca. “‘The One Who Loves You So’: Setting a New Standard in Originality.” The Sunday Times. 26 Aug. 2018. Web. 4 Apr. 2023. https://www.sundaytimes.lk/180826/plus/the-one-who-loves-you-so-setting-a-new-standard-in-originality-307758.html.
   Google Scholar
• Narrain, Arvind. “No Shortcuts to Queer Utopia: Sodomy, Law and Social Change.” The Phobic and the Erotic: The Politics of Sexualities in Contemporary India. Ed. Brinda Bose and Subhabrata Bhattacharyya. Seagull books, 2007. 255–62.
   Google Scholar
• Perera, Walter. “Images of Sri Lanka Through Expatriate Eyes: Romesh Gunesekera’s Reef.” The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 30.1 (1995): 63–78. doi:10.1177/002198949503000107.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Priscilla, Dharini, Michael Mendis, and Pasan Jayasinghe. One Country, Many Arbitrary Laws: Rethinking Laws and Policies That Leave LGBTIQ+ Sri Lankans Behind. Westminster Foundation for Democracy, 2021.
   Google Scholar
• Rambukwella, Harshana. “Violent Places: The Politics of ‘Framing’ Violence in Postcolonial Sri Lanka.” Postcolonial Text 17.2 & 3 (2022): 1–20.
   Google Scholar
• Report of the Indian Law Commission on the Penal Code, October 14, 1837.
   Google Scholar
• Sindu, S.J. Marriage of a Thousand Lies. Soho Press, 2017.
   Google Scholar
• Sanders, Douglas. “377 and the Unnatural Afterlife of British Colonialism in Asia.” Asian Journal of Comparative Law 4 (2009): 1–49. doi:10.1017/S2194607800000417.
   Google Scholar
• Salgado, Minoli. “Writing Sri Lanka, Reading Resistance: Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy and A. Sivanandan’s When Memory Dies.” The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 39.1 (2004): 5–18. doi:10.1177/002198904043283.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Selvadurai, Shyam. Funny Boy. Penguin, 1994.
   Google Scholar
• Siriwardena, D. “Querying the Queer: A Study of the Queer Identity in the Sri Lankan English Novel.” Vidyodaya: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 4.1 2017: 59–78.
   Google Scholar
• Sittampalam, Janik. “The One Who Loves You So: A Queer Play with a Difference.” Roar Media. 14 Aug. 2018. Web. 4 Apr. 2023. https://roar.media/english/life/in-the-know/the-one-who-loves-you-so-a-queer-play-with-a-difference.
   Google Scholar
• Tambiah, Yasmin. “(Im)moral Citizens: Sexuality and the Penal Code in Sri Lanka.” Ethnicity, Pluralism and Human Rights: Neelan Tiruchelvam Commemoration Conference Papers. Ed. Alosious Jeyaraj Canagaratna. International Centre for Ethnic Studies, 2004. 107–41.
   Google Scholar
• Tenduf-La, Chhimi. Loyal Stalkers. Macmillan, 2017.
   Google Scholar
• “Wattala Court Dismisses Case Filed Against a Lesbian”. Newswire. 2 Aug. 2022. Web 2 April 2023. www.newswire.lk/2022/08/02/wattala-court-dismisses-case-filed-against-a-lesbian/#:~:text=The%20case%20was%20dismissed%20after,the%20mind%20nor%20an%20offence.&text=A%20case%20was%20filed%20at,%2Dyear%2Dold%20lesbian%20woman.
   Google Scholar
• Waradas, Thiyagaraja. “Paradox of ‘Radical’ and ‘Non-Radical’: Exploring the Origin and Evolution of LGBT NGOs in Sri Lanka.” Discourses on Youth Radicalisation in Sri Lanka. The Centre for Poverty Analysis, 2022. 21–48. www.cepa.lk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Youth-Radicalisation-in-Sri-Lanka_May_2022.pdf .
   Google Scholar
• Welandawe-Prematilleke, Arun. The One Who Loves You So. Softwave Printing and Packaging (Pvt) Ltd, 2019.
   Google Scholar
• Welandawe-Prematilleke, Arun. “Personal Interview.” 31 Jan. 2019 .
   Google Scholar
• Wijenaike, Punyakante. Giraya. Sri Lanka State Printing, 1971.
   Google Scholar
• Wijewardene, Shermal and Nehama Jayewardene. “Law and LGBTIQ People in Sri Lanka: Developments and Narrative Possibilities.” Australian Journal of Asian Law 20.2 (2020): 135–50. www.ssrn.com/abstract=3632859.
   Google Scholar
• Wijewardene, Shermal. “Jaded Jezebels, Chainsmokers, Gypsies, and Ninjas: Criminality and the Refurbishment of Lesbian Identity and Gender Non-Conforming Identities in Sri Lankan Newspaper Narratives.” Journal of Lesbian Studies 26.3 (2022): 235–52. doi:10.1080/10894160.2021.1987057.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Women and Media Collective. Discrimination of Lesbians, Bisexual Women and Transgender Persons in Sri Lanka. Shadow report presented to the 66th Session of the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Women and Media Collective, 2017. http://womenandmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/WMC-LBTSHADOW-REPORT-FINAL-20-JAN-2017.pdf.
   Google Scholar
• Women’s Support Group. Not Gonna Take It Lying Down: Experiences of Violence and Discrimination as Told by LBT Persons in Sri Lanka. Women and Media Collective, 2014. https://womenandmedia.org/not-gonna-take-it-lying-down/.
   Google Scholar
• Legislation
   Google Scholar
• Ordinance to Amend and Consolidate the Law Relating to Vagrants, 1842, Chapter 32. Web. 5 Sep. 2022. http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/research/srilanka/statutes/Vagrants_Ordinance.pdf.
   Google Scholar
• Penal Code for Ceylon. Web. 1 Oct. 2022. http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/research/srilanka/statutes/Penal_Code.pdf.
   Google Scholar
• The Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. Parliament of Sri Lanka. Web 4 Apr. 2023. http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/research/srilanka/statutes/Penal_Code.pdf .
   Google Scholar
• Cases
   Google Scholar
• Police Station, Maradana v Wimalasiri, SC Appeal No 32/11, SC SPL LA No 304/2009 Vs HCMCA No 595/04, Magistrate’s Court of Maligakanda, No 7923/C. Web. 21 Sep. 2022. www.supremecourt.lk/images/documents/sc_appeal_32_11.pdf.
   Google Scholar
• Rosanna Flamer-Caldera v. Sri Lanka (CEDAW Communication No. 134/2018). Web. 21 Sep. 2022. www.humandignitytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/resources/CEDAW-C-81-D-134-2018-English-clean-copy.pdf.
   Google Scholar