When 20-year-old Maya went to what he thought was a meeting with a Facebook acquaintance two months ago, it turned out to be a trap.

Maya described how he was met by four men who assaulted him for being gay.

"They said 'How can you be like this? This isn't legal in Sri Lanka,' and beat me," Maya told DW.

"I didn't go to the police, because there's no law, and they won't take any action."

Sri Lanka has not yet repealed sections 365 and 365A of the penal code, colonial-era laws that criminalize "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" and "acts of gross indecency."

Although the law broadly applies to all kinds of sexual activity with no reproductive nature, it has "overwhelmingly been used against the LGBT community," rights lawyer Aritha Wickramasinghe told DW.

Wickramasinghe works with iProbono, a global group of organizations providing free legal service to help people access their rights.

Many of Maya's friends have cut him off for being gay, he said, adding that hateful comments directed toward him have deeply affected him.

"When other people go and tell my family members, 'How can a man behave like this?' I feel really upset. I've even attempted suicide, that's how disturbed I was," Maya said.

Sri Lanka's colonial-era laws echo those once seen across Asia. Many countries have repealed these laws — notably

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