Hundreds march in Colombo to mark pride month

Описание: (4 Jun 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Colombo - 4 June 2023
1. Mid of person holding banners
2. Various of moving stage
3. Mid of people carrying placards
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Vihara Abegunawardana, Human rights activist:
“We are just here to celebrate us as human beings. We are just human beings. We are not different. We all want to love and marry and just be happy. That’s all we ask for. We are not asking for an extraordinary pass or something [like that]. We just want to be treated as human. We are working together to show that we are one community. If you can see that we are human, that’s all we ask for. We are here to ask for our rights as humans. Just give it to us."
5. Various of dance and music performances
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Benny Navoda, Fashion designer:
“I’m here celebrating pride month 2023 in Sri Lanka. We are here to talk about LGBTQ+ pride month. This is a celebration [happening] worldwide to memorialise what happened in the 70’s’ stonewall riots. We are just doing this to show that we exist in Sri Lanka. We deserve to live in peace and harmony like everyone else. We are just here to celebrate our pride month in peace and harmony."
7. People dancing
8. People walking in parade holding banners and signs
9. People dancing
10. People walking the parade with sign boards
11. People dancing

STORYLINE:
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Sri Lanka's capital to mark Pride month and demand an end to discrimination.

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

Sri Lanka is a predominantly Buddhist nation holding conservative values and it is rare for people with different sexual orientation to voice their demands in public.

Even though there have been similar parades in previous years, last year’s anti-government protests amid an unprecedented economic crisis have helped the LGBTQ+ communities to come out stronger, organizers said.

Sri Lanka’s laws still consider homosexuality a crime and a bill is pending before parliament to decriminalize homosexuality.

AP video shot by Jay Palipane.

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