{"id":44592,"date":"2015-06-10T01:39:09","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T08:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=44592"},"modified":"2015-06-10T01:39:09","modified_gmt":"2015-06-10T08:39:09","slug":"sri-lankas-foreign-minister-threatened-with-arrest-after-voting-for-gay-rights-at-un-minister-is-accused-of-violating-the-countrys-ban-on-homosexuality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/06\/10\/sri-lankas-foreign-minister-threatened-with-arrest-after-voting-for-gay-rights-at-un-minister-is-accused-of-violating-the-countrys-ban-on-homosexuality\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka’s foreign minister threatened with arrest after voting for gay rights at UN-Minister is accused of violating the country’s ban on homosexuality"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY DARREN WEE<\/a>\u00a0 Courtesy gaystarnews.com\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\n

Sri Linka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera should be arrested for voting in favor of gay rights at the UN, an MP has said.<\/p>\n

Wimal Weerawansa, leader of the National Freedom Front, said the minister had violated the country’s penal code by voting against a Russia resolution calling for the withdrawal of partner benefits to gay and lesbian UN employees.<\/p>\n

‘Being gay and lesbian-friendly has become our foreign policy today. This will result in negative consequences in the long run for Sri Lanka,’ he told reporters on Tuesday (9 June).<\/p>\n

\"Mangala<\/p>\n

Photo via Facebook<\/span><\/div>\n

‘It will affect our culture. Therefore, the minister should be arrested for violating the penal code.’<\/p>\n

Gay sex and romance are banned in Sri Lanka under a broad ‘gross indecency’ law.<\/p>\n

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon extended marital benefits to lesbian and gay employees last year, without consulting member states.<\/p>\n

Russia then brought its resolution, which was defeated by a majority vote \u2013 including that of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Ajith P Perera categorically denied that Sri Lanka had voted to promote gay rights and said the circular was an administrative matter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

– See more at: http:\/\/www.gaystarnews.com\/article\/sri-lankas-foreign-minister-threatened-arrest-after-voting-gay-rights-un100615#sthash.wzHbBc8A.dpuf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY DARREN WEE\u00a0 Courtesy gaystarnews.com\u00a0 Sri Linka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera should be arrested for voting in favor of gay rights at the UN, an MP has said. Wimal Weerawansa, leader of the National Freedom Front, said the minister had violated the country’s penal code by voting against a Russia resolution calling for the withdrawal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44592","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=44592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}