TransAct Sri Lanka: Promoting Civic, Political and Social Participation of Transgender Advocates in Sri Lanka
Abstract
Transgender people in Sri Lanka are persistently and systemically excluded from legal recognition and public services and from civic, political and social participation. For rural, Tamil-speaking transgender people—particularly those who are caste-oppressed and economically marginalised—these exclusions are exacerbated by intersectional stigma related to language, ethnicity, geography, gender, and post-war trauma. Despite constitutional guarantees of equality, these populations are systemically suppressed, lacking access to educational institutions, identification documents, healthcare, housing, or democratic participation. These are more than just personal difficulties; they indicate deeper structural failures to uphold justice, dignity, and inclusive governance.
However, rural transgender individuals are not passive victims. They develop informal networks of care, engage in community-based activism, and face every day with resilience. However, their lived realities are often disregarded in national policy debates, academic research, and even major LGBTQ rights movements, which tend to focus on urban, Sinhala-speaking, cisnormative issues.
This project concept arose from a significant information gap: a near-complete lack of published research or disaggregated data that reflects the complicated, intersectional realities of rural transgender people in Sri Lanka. This study takes a qualitative, feminist, and intersectional approach. It is based on specific case studies and experiences shared with the author during community-based support work, particularly when transgender people sought assistance in accessing public services from which they had previously been excluded. These are not formal interviews, but rather genuine encounters based on trust and solidarity. All names have been changed to guarantee ethical integrity and participant safety.
TransAct Sri Lanka is presented as a transformative, community-led project that aims to provide 30 rural, Tamil-speaking transgender advocates with legal literacy, leadership skills, and rights-based advocacy tools. The initiative involves a participatory needs assessment, a collaborative development of a Tamil-language training manual, residential training on civic rights, GBV, SRHR, digital safety, and mental health, as well as fellowships to develop Advocacy Demand Letters and engage directly with decision-makers.
TransAct Sri Lanka is more than just a training project; it provides a political framework for trans-led civic development. The project expands beyond tokenism towards structural change by integrating community knowledge and strengthening grassroots leadership, and promoting sustained engagement with institutions of governance, redefining participation and justice for those most marginalised in Sri Lanka's democratic system.