{"id":152404,"date":"2025-10-04T15:50:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T22:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=152404"},"modified":"2025-10-04T15:50:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T22:50:01","slug":"the-president-must-retract-sltda-chairmans-endorsement-of-lgbtqia-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/10\/04\/the-president-must-retract-sltda-chairmans-endorsement-of-lgbtqia-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"The President must Retract SLTDA Chairman\u2019s endorsement of LGBTQIA Tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>Public Statement<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>His Excellency the President has given solemn assurances to the Maha Nayaka Theros that Sri Lanka\u2019s national heritage, culture, and religious values will be protected and safeguarded in all state policy. He has also publicly praised our heritage as the foundation of tourism and development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The recent news item on tourism isn&#039;t a priority for the state\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TtDQBeEPUHo?start=196&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, in complete contradiction, the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) formally endorsed an NGO-led initiative to promote and develop LGBTQIA tourism in Sri Lanka. His letter dated&nbsp;9th September 2025&nbsp;grants authority to liaise with hotels, tour operators, training institutes, guides, and drivers to conduct DE&amp;I training and awareness programs, while positioning Sri Lanka as a safe and inclusive\u201d LGBTQIA destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This endorsement is not only&nbsp;outside SLTDA\u2019s mandate, but also&nbsp;directly contradicts the assurances made by the President&nbsp;to the Maha Nayaka Theros and is against the moral position taken by the Catholic Cardinal. Both the Sangha and the Church have clearly called on the government not to permit such cultural distortions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover, training tourism officials in DEI would force them to cater to LGBTQIA-specific demands \u2014 including gender-neutral toilets and facilities (at taxpayer expense), LGBTQIA-focused promotional campaigns, staff pronoun training, sensitivity workshops, certification of hotels as LGBTQIA-friendly, and even coordination of same-sex weddings \u2014 all entirely outside SLTDA\u2019s traditional mandate. This amounts to institutional capture of a state body by a private NGO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The President must therefore:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong>Instruct the SLTDA Chairman to immediately retract this endorsement<\/strong>&nbsp;issued to EQUAL GROUND on 9 September 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong>Instruct the SLTDA Chairman to re-issue formal letters to all stakeholders named in the letter, withdrawing the LGBTQIA tourism endorsement.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong>Reaffirm the government\u2019s commitment<\/strong>&nbsp;to protect Sri Lanka\u2019s heritage, culture, and religious values in tourism policy and ensure no Tourism official violate this in future and take necessary actions against officials who do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The people of Sri Lanka expect the President to follow through on the demand of the Maha Nayaka Theros and the Cardinal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The public will be alert on DEI training &amp; awareness taking place, LGBTQIA promotional material in brochures and inclusivity\u201d branding being pushed into Sri Lanka Tourism by some officials at the cost of eroding our cultural and spiritual foundation inspite of the public assurance given to the Maha Sangha by the President.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Failure to act will be interpreted as silent approval. It will not only erode public trust, but also violate the President\u2019s constitutional mandate to protect the heritage, culture, and values of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Public Statement His Excellency the President has given solemn assurances to the Maha Nayaka Theros that Sri Lanka\u2019s national heritage, culture, and religious values will be protected and safeguarded in all state policy. He has also publicly praised our heritage as the foundation of tourism and development. Yet, in complete contradiction, the Chairman of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152405,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152404\/revisions\/152405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}