LGBTQ Rights in Bangladesh vs Conspiracy Theories

Riaz Osmani

1 March 2025

So many people in Bangladeesh seem to think that there is a global LGBTQ agenda/conspiracy funded by western countries to damage eastern cultures, Muslim cultures etc. Funds are supposedly being used to convert people and promote “LGBTism”. This is a preposterous allegation. It has been scientifically shown that you cannot change someone’s sexual orientation. One cannot change ones own. It is innate.

Same goes with someone’s gender identity if it deems itself to be different than that person’s biological sex due to a condition called gender dysphoria. So the idea of promoting or converting is utterly without any basis. There are only two things that are being promoted by the West and local activists: 1) create a safe place for the LGBTQ people in the country to discover and express themselves; 2) give necessary mental support for 1.

Nothing else is being promoted, not even subcultures as one can see in the West. In Bangladesh’s context, LGBTQ rights will not necessarily translate into hedonistic behaviour. It could, but that is not the goal (many urban heterosexual people engage in such anyway). The goal is to ensure that those who are LGBTQ in the country can live their lives honestly (to themselves) and without fear (from family, society and the state).

For that we need two things from the state:

a) removal of section 377 of Bangladesh’s penal code. It is widely misunderstood, pointless, never implemented yet hugely suffocating;

b) among all the criteria that are proposed to be in the new constitution to prevent discrimination against: sexual orientation and gender identity should be included.

This is NOT a big ask. Studies have established that 5-10 percent of the world’s population has always been what is classified today as LGBTQ. And it will always remain that way. There is no exception to this in Bangladesh. Mother nature has intended it that way. Same goes for the Creator if one believes in one.

Bangladesh 2.0 cannot sanction discrimination against this population out of religious views of the majority. Democracy and majoritarianism do not go hand in hand.