Sri Lanka cannot be a testing ground for failed Western social experiments

D r. Geewananda Gunawardana's recent article in The Isand, "Religious barriers to information," attempts to portray Sri Lankan religious leaders, parents, teachers, and childprotection advocates as "ignorant" impediments to progress.

- SHENALI D. WADUGE

This accusation is both inaccurate and deeply unfair. The question is not whether children should receive age-appropriate education. The question is what kind of education, created by whom, and in whose interests. Religion is not a barrier. The majority of Sri Lankans refuse to accept Western social experiments especially on children now collapsing in the very countries that created them - now being rebranded as "sexuality education" and quietly exported into our classrooms.

Misrepresentation of CSE/SOGI as "Basic Sex Education"

Sri Lanka already provides traditional, age-appropriate sex education rooted in biology and safety. Why should sex education be changed to sexuality education?

What Dr. Gunawardana defends is not this.

What is being pushed into teacher-training manuals and external workshops - often without parental knowledge - is Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) and SOGI ideology, which include:

teaching sexual pleasure to minors

normalising concepts of fluid gender identity

· undermining the role of parents

discouraging marriage and family formation

presenting "multiple gender identities" as unquestionable truths

positioning children as autonomous decision-makers on sexuality

These are ideological imports, not neutral lessons. And crucially - they do not align with Sri Lanka's Constitution, Penal Code, culture, religions, or child-protection framework.

The West has already rejected the same policies being imposed on Sri Lanka

The countries that pioneered gender-affirming care for minors are now reversing their decisions:

· The UK: Tavistock gender clinic shut down; puberty blockers banned; Cass Review exposed unethical experimentation on children.

· Sweden: Gender-affirming treatments for minors halted and labelled as "unsafe."