Protecting Our Children & Culture: How Mahanayakas & the Cardinal Saved Sri Lanka from Harmful LGBTQIA Policies

 

Over the past several years, there has been a string of attempts by successive governments in Sri Lanka to implement policies that mirror Western LGBTQIA ideologies at the national level, particularly targeting children. These included proposals to teach LGBTQIA content in schools, allow pride parades, provide sex clinics in government hospitals, promote sexual activity for children as young as 16, distribute condoms in schools, legalize abortion and prostitution, and more. If implemented, these measures could have led to alarming rises in AIDS, teen pregnancies, and the overall moral erosion of society. The dangerous consequences of these policies if implemented is not merely social but civilizational. A society unable to differentiate male from female, parent from child, right from wrong is a society headed toward collapse.

 

Fortunately, it was His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith who first raised the alarm publicly, drawing national attention to the grave risks of promoting LGBTQ tourism and sex-based ideology among children. Soon after, the Mahanayaka Theros of the four Nikayas issued a powerful collective letter to the President, condemning these Western-inspired agendas and urging the government to protect the country’s cultural and moral foundation.

 

Their united stand awakened the conscience of the nation — reminding all Sri Lankans that our children’s innocence, our moral integrity, and our cultural identity are not for sale.

 

Government Attempts

 

Despite the constitutional and Penal Code prohibitions — and in clear defiance of Sri Lanka’s deeply rooted cultural and religious values — successive governments have repeatedly attempted to introduce Western-inspired LGBTQIA policies into the national framework.

 

These attempts included efforts to:

 

• Introduce LGBTQIA education in schools, exposing children to premature and inappropriate sexualized content under the guise of “awareness.”

 

• Permit pride parades and public promotions of LGBTQIA lifestyles, many of which, disturbingly, received sponsorship from some of Sri Lanka’s most “reputable” corporations.

 

• Establish sex clinics in government hospitalsand lower the legal age of sexual activity to 16, violating the protective intent of the law and the spirit of child protection.

 

• Distribute condoms in schoolsand promote early sexual experimentation among youth under misleading “health education” programs.
• Advocate for the legalization of abortion and prostitution, normalizing high-risk behaviors that undermine the sanctity of life, family, and moral responsibility.

 

Clearly, these proposals were trial balloons — floated to test the waters — and often tied to foreign aid conditions, or even threats to withdraw international support if not implemented.

 

When examined together, these initiatives form part of a coordinated ideological campaign to reshape Sri Lankan society in line with imported moral frameworks. They disregard not only our Buddhist, Hindu, Catholic/Christian, and Islamic ethical foundations, but also the public health, child protection, and social stability of the nation.

 

The real danger lies in their ultimate objective — the gradual dismantling of Sri Lanka’s value system and cultural coherence. A society that loses its moral compass cannot sustain itself. No development plan, sustainability goal, or economic reform can succeed when the moral core of the nation is deliberately weakened and corrupted.

 

Most tragically, these efforts strike at the heart of our nation’s future — its children — attempting to distort their understanding of identity, morality, and responsibility.
A nation that destroys the innocence of its children, destroys its own tomorrow.

 

Role of Religious Leadership

 

It was His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith who first brought this issue publicly to the attention of the Sri Lankan people. In his outspoken statements, he questioned whether the Government was in its right mind to even propose policies promoting LGBTQIA ideology and tourism. The Cardinal warned of the grave dangers of importing Western-style LGBTQIA frameworks that would harm children, destabilize families, and corrode society’s moral foundations. He firmly declared that foreign aid must never be conditional to destroying the child, the family, or the nation’s moral values.

 

Building upon this bold stand by the Cardinal, the Maha Nayaka Theros of the four main Buddhist Chapters — the guardians of Sri Lanka’s civilizational Buddhist heritage — submitted a comprehensive letter to the President, warning against:

 

• The promotion of LGBTQIA tourismand associated agendas.
• The spread of unsafe sexual practicesamong youth.
• The erosion of Sri Lanka’s moral, religious, and cultural fabricthrough foreign ideological intrusion.

 

Their united and timely intervention effectively halted the government’s plans to institutionalize these harmful policies. Left unchecked, such measures would have exposed generations of children to sexual confusion, exploitation, and psychological harm — damage that could not be easily reversed without lasting consequences to individuals, families, and the nation as a whole.

 

Consequences Averted

 

Thanks to the foresight, moral clarity, and courage of the Maha Nayaka Theros and Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Sri Lanka was spared from what could have become a devastating wave of moral, social, and public health crises. Their timely intervention prevented policies that would have deeply harmed the nation’s children and corroded its civilizational foundation.

 

Had these policies been enacted, Sri Lanka would today be facing:

 

• Widespread sexual exploitation and abuse of children, which already persists in certain unregulated environments where state oversight is weak and foreign-funded NGOs operate unchecked. Meanwhile,DEI-based workplace policies are subtly coercing employees to conform to LGBTQIA expectations for career progression and job security — a form of moral and sexual coercion that must be called out for what it is and stopped.

 

• A surge in AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, and teenage pregnancies, trends that are already alarming in other countries that adopted such policies. Current local reports reveal a worrying rise even without official endorsement — underscoring how disastrous formal legalization would have been.

 

• Unmonitored foreign-funded NGOspenetrating deeply into schools, communities, and workplaces — using the language of “rights” and “inclusion” to erode moral boundaries and destabilize traditional family and religious structures. With lukewarm & vision-less response by the Govt & officials – the harm they are doing is immeasurable.

 

• Unregulated social media influence, which is rapidly detaching youth from education, respect for elders, and value-based living. Many Western countries that once promoted unfiltered online exposure are nowrestricting or banning social media and smartphones for under-16s, recognizing the long-term damage caused to mental health, morality, and learning.

 

• The normalization of prostitution and commercial sexual activity among minors, disguised under fashionable labels of “freedom” and “inclusivity,” erasing the protective distinctions between right and wrong, adult and child, moral and immoral.

 

• The erosion of Sri Lanka’s cultural and religious identity, which remains the moral anchor of our social fabric, ensuring stability, compassion, and respect for life.

 

It is significant that only after the bold, public interventions of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and the Maha Nayaka Theros did political leaders and parties begin to reconsider their stance and align with the conscience of the nation. Their leadership reawakened a moral awareness that transcended political divisions — reminding all that no government has the mandate to endanger the spiritual and moral wellbeing of its people.

 

A Call for Accountability and Reversal

 

Having been spared grave national harm through the foresight of our religious leadership, the time has now come for full accountability and decisive correction.

 

Sri Lanka must immediately revoke all policies, programs, and agreements through which the Government has directly or indirectly consented to LGBTQIA-linked or DEI-driven initiatives, including:

 

1. Training of Sri Lanka Policeby foreign missions or NGOs under the pretext of LGBTQIA awareness or DEI sensitization.

 

2. Participation of public sector agenciesin LGBTQIA-related programs, workshops, or advocacy conducted by international or local NGOs.

 

3. The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Chairman’s letter of consentgranting an NGO access to train Sri Lanka’s tourism stakeholders in LGBTQIA content — an act that contradicts the moral and cultural ethos of this nation and must be immediately withdrawn.

 

The Government cannot simply issue vague statements to the media — it must act. Upholding the Constitution, the Penal Code, and the moral guardianship role expected of a sovereign state requires clear and public corrective measures.

 

Sri Lanka’s religious leadership has already illuminated the path forward.

The Maha Nayaka Theros and the Cardinal have demonstrated what moral courage looks like in the face of international pressure and domestic complacency.

Our duty now is to follow that lead — to safeguard the spiritual, cultural, and moral integrity of this nation for generations to come.

 

It is equally critical that private sector organizations which have adopted LGBTQIA-linked DEI policies re-examine their commitments. These imported frameworks, which are now being rolled back even in the West, have failed to produce inclusion or equity — instead fueling confusion, division, and social instability.

Sri Lanka must not follow their mistakes.

 

The Government and corporate sector alike must now reaffirm their duty to protect children, families, and national values above all else. No amount of foreign funding or corporate branding can justify policies that compromise the innocence of our youth or the moral foundation of our society.

Tax payers money cannot be used by either Govt or Private Sector to destroy the Nation & its People.

 

The vigilance and leadership of Sri Lanka’s religious figures have once again preserved the nation’s moral compass.

 

Let us now ensure that the Government, Opposition/Political Parties & Private Sector immediately apply corrective actions to match the moral clarity with which they have spoken.

The West is now retreating from the very ideologies it once exported under the guise of “rights” and “progress.”

Sri Lanka must have the wisdom not to repeat their mistakes.

A nation that protects its children protects its future — one that imitates failed experiments, destroys it.

 

 

 

Shenali D Waduge