ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Sri Lanka's autonomous women's organizations understand the sexuality and gender politics of lesbians, bisexual women, and trans people (LBT) and construct the advocacy role that they think they should play therein. It analyzes the views of Sri Lankan women's activists, drawing upon semi-structured interviews with autonomous women's organizations. The chapter shows that most organizations would prefer to 'support' networks with LBT groups and other civil society actors, rather than take an individual or lead role. It highlights the belief that some women's organizations were more 'ideological' than others and had the capacity to defend a human rights approach to LBT issues from an ideological perspective. The chapter also highlights a perceived urban–rural discrepancy in the capacity for 'progressive' attitudes and activism among women's organizations. There was a certain process of norm creation among women's activists about what was 'progressive' or 'backward' with respect to feminist attitudes to and engagements with sexuality politics and LBT issues.
