I am hoping against hope that the issue of LGBT rights in Bangladesh can be viewed by most people in the country through the lenses of anti-discrimination and not through that of any special rights, and certainly not through any notions of promotion. There is nothing to promote here.
It is very true that the religious right in Bangladesh have found a new voice that had been brutally suppressed by Sheikh Hasina all these years, and that the group has now taken the opportunity to abuse this new-found freedom.
A person’s sexual orientation is an innate characteristic of that person and must not be a basis for discrimination.
Left out of consciousness was a group of people who possibly constitute up to 5-10% of the country’s population. This group is none other than the LGBTQIA+ people who have always been part of the society, but lived clandestine lives of lies until only a decade or so ago.