Sri Lankan activist Rosanna Flamer-Caldera on 2024 TIME100 list

Sri Lakan LGBTQI activist Rosanna Flamer-Caldera is in TIME magazines 100 most influential people in the world for 2024.

TIME revealed the 2024 TIME100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

The issue has 4 worldwide covers, each highlighting a member of the TIME100: singer-songwriter?Dua Lipa, football quarterback?Patrick Mahomes, actor?Taraji P. Henson,?and?Yulia Navalnaya, a leader of?Russia’s?opposition movement.

Rosanna Flamer-Caldera has spent more than two decades advocating for LGBTQ rights in Sri Lanka, and her relentless advocacy led to a major victory for queer women globally.

In a landmark decision in 2022, the U.N. sided with Flamer-?Caldera in her case against Sri Lanka?s ban on same-sex intimacy between women, declaring it a human-?rights violation.

The case brought LGBTQ rights to the fore in Sri Lankan politics, and soon after the decision, a lawmaker introduced a bill to decriminalize homosexuality in the country.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said he won?t oppose the amendment, but the proposed law?s constitutionality was challenged before the Supreme Court.

Flamer-Caldera?s LGBTQ-?rights group, Equal Ground, was among those that petitioned to support the bill.

The court ruled in their favor last year, clearing the path for the law to progress in Parliament, where Equal Ground is now working to help ensure it passes.

The TIME100 list includes surprising pairings of the list members and the guest contributors TIME selects to write about them. The twenty-first annual list features:?Alex Rodriguez?on?Patrick Mahomes,?Burna Boy?on?21 Savage,?Maren Morris?on?Jack Antonoff,?Blake Lively?on?America Ferrera,?Kate Hudson?on?Leslie Odom Jr.,?Michelle Obama?on?Thelma Golden,?Jon Huntsman?on?William Lai,?Naomi Watts?on?Tory Burch,?Tom Brady?on?A’ja Wilson,?Mark Zuckerberg?on?Jensen Huang,?Ryan Reynolds?on?Michael J. Fox,?Richard Branson?on?Jigar Shah,?Joe Biden?on?Shawn Fain, and more.

TIME Chief Executive Officer?Jessica Sibley?said: “The influence recognized on this year’s TIME100 list of the world’s most influential people spans industries and continents. With our TIME100 partners, we are proud to convene the newest members of the TIME100 community for a day of conversation at the TIME100 Summit and for our annual TIME100 Gala, which we will once again bring viewers inside with a primetime special on ABC.” (Colombo Gazette / Time)