On Colombo Queer Parties

A rash of dead grandmothers is going around; many people's relatives are passing away. So plans changed last night and I agreed to go to a Colombo queer party, thinking my last name would win my credibility for why I would attend when I'm straight. Homosexuality, transgendered and other expressions of sexuality are not acceptable in most of the world, with stigmas still present in Colombo. Several people I work with must repress their sexuality because open expression of non-heterosexuality remains unacceptable, and subject to jokes, harassment, threats and looming possibilities of getting fired. One young colleague cannot officially come out to his family or he would be ex-communicated from his well-connected, senior UN family. So he has to frustratingly 'hide' his true nature, most likely never partnering with another man for life. All the while everyone in his family basically knows but chooses not to accept it. In fact, in this international organisation's discourse they consider people who are gay as "men sleeping with men", like gay men (with no recognition for lesbians) just happen to wake up to a man in their beds! C'mon, get with it! It really is no one's business what people do in private lives unless they are abusing, maiming, raping, trafficking, paedophiling...

While the party was lively and energetic, there was an undertone of corruption, drug use and gang presence at this discoteque. I don;t usually like to go out as I am a huge magnet for freaks and skeezies. I certainly stand out with the blue hair and blond eyes. Still, it is fantastic seeing Sri Lankan men in sarongs dancing wildy to Westernized Hindi electronica and hip hop. If only gay people could be this open outside dark, seedy nightclubs. My attempts to have a good time were ruined when corrupt police chiefs and deputy sheriffs, in tow with half of Colombo's business investors, introduced themselves to me. They look the other way at drag queens dirty dancing with their police officers and at open drug sales/use, but they are fixated on me, the nosy foreigner. Apparently, I should try not to remember (implicated by strong, menacing words from the pigs) that police are in cahoots with drug dealers, facilitating the imports of these narcotics to Colombo. Or that they encourage prostitution in the casinos, ensuring that Russian and Chinese women cater to jetsetting gamblers. Many East Asian women face discrimination from local Sri Lankans because it is presumed that they are all strumpets. So this network of criminals and victims of crime is legitimised by tools of the state, and I;m sure you can find similar examples of institutionalised acceptance of drug and human trafficking. I imagine the World Economic Forum to be a similar ambience, with not as many out-of-the-closet queers. I imagine Davos to start their session of eating small children, after their workshop of fornicating Microsoft celebrities, to be commences soon. I truly hope the next theme for the Asia-Pacific Regional Human Development Report is on corruption and corporate accountability!