At a training session for police officers in July 2021, a counsellor was recorded making homophobic remarks, including alleging that homosexuals prey on youth to lure them into the LGBT community. She was also recorded encouraging participants to proclaim that they are against same-sex relationships. The counsellor has a well-known track record of malicious statements against the LGBT community. Sri Lankan LGBTI rights group Equal Ground filed the petition seeking to bar the police and the counsellor from repeating such homophobic training, alleging that the training violated the rights of the LGBTI community in contravention of the constitution’s promise of equal protection by the law. In a press statement, Equal Ground says this is the first time a case has been brought against law enforcement in Sri Lanka alleging discrimination against the LGBTI community Under sections 365 and 365A the Sri Lankan Penal Code, acts of same-sex intimacy can be punished with up to ten years in prison. The Supreme Court in 2017 ruled that it was improper to sentence people to jail for consensual homosexual intimacy, but because the Sri Lankan judicial system does not give courts the power to strike unconstitutional laws, the law remains in the books. Police continue to routinely use these sections to harass and imprison LGBTI people. Last year, Human Rights Watch released a report documenting systemic police harassment of LGBT people in Sri Lanka, including arbitrary arrests, torture, and forced “anal examinations” — a discredited practice used to “prove” the victim’s participation in receptive anal intercourse. And on 12 December 2021, the Colombo Chief Magistrate dismissed a case against three men charged with homosexuality who alleged that they were beaten, arbitrarily detained, and forced to undergo anal examinations. The Attorney General had announced that the state would not be pursuing the case. The Sri Lankan government has for many years insisted that discrimination against LGBTI people is prohibited by the constitution, and the Sri Lankan president has called for an end to sexuality and gender-based discrimination. But the government has not taken any steps to repeal anti-LGBTI sections of its criminal code.