Africa
Ugandan Police Arrest Four People for ‘Acts of Homosexuality’
The arrests come in a country with one of the harshest anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the world. In Uganda, which has one of the harshest anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the world, police arrested four people Sunday for “acts of homosexuality” at a massage parlor. The arrests occurred in Buikwe, a town about 35 miles east of the… Read more »
Uganda passed one of the world’s harshest anti-gay laws. LGBTQ people describe living there as ‘hell’
In between leading Sunday services at All Saints’ Cathedral in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, Rev. Canon John Awodi declares vehemently that “homosexuality is a sin that must be repented of,” adding that it is against the “order of God.” “Homosexuality is not natural, it is unnatural. That is the stand of the church here. It… Read more »
Ugandan President Signs Anti-Gay Law That Includes Death Penalty as a Punishment
The legislation is among the most restrictive of its kind in the world and was condemned by Western leaders and the United Nations human rights body. The president of Uganda signed a punitive anti-gay bill on Monday that includes the death penalty, enshrining into law an intensifying crackdown against L.G.B.T.Q. people in the conservative East… Read more »
Uganda waters down anti-gay law
Uganda’s parliament has watered down an anti-homosexuality bill that originally criminalised people for simply identifying as LGBTQ+. When it was first approved in March, the proposed legislation outraged human rights defenders. Members of the public were going to have to report individuals in same-sex relationships to the authorities. An activist told the BBC the debate… Read more »
Ugandan lawmakers pass new version of tough anti-gay bill
The new law prescribes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” which includes cases of sexual relations involving people living with HIV. Kampala, Uganda — Ugandan lawmakers on Tuesday passed a new version of an anti-gay bill that removes a clause which appeared to criminalize identifying as LGBTQ. President Yoweri Museveni last month returned the bill… Read more »
LGBTQ+ refugees face deportation from Kenya under cruel new anti-homosexuality bill
LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya face the threat of deportation if proposed anti-homosexuality laws are passed in parliament. Homosexuality is already illegal in Kenya, but the the Family Protection Bill 2023 would expand upon these laws, meaning LGBTQ+ people would face life sentences for simply identifying as themselves. If passed, the bill would… Read more »
Furious protesters beg ‘tyrant’ Uganda president not to kill LGBTQ+ people under cruel new law
South African opposition leader Julius Malema has led a protest against Uganda’s controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which criminalises people for being gay. On Tuesday (4 April), Malema and members of his party, the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), gathered outside the Ugandan Embassy in Pretoria to speak out against the bill that threatens the freedom and… Read more »
Kamala Harris Promotes LGBTQ+ Rights in Ghana as Homophobic Bill Considered
The vice president voiced support for “equality among all people.” Vice President Kamala Harris has spoken out for LGBTQ+ rights while visiting Ghana, where legislation that would impose harsh punishments for LGBTQ+ identity and advocacy is pending. “I feel very strongly about the importance of supporting the freedom and supporting the fighting for equality among… Read more »
LGBTQ+ Ugandans ‘shaken, worried and scared’ after government criminalises homosexuality
LGBTQ+ activists from Uganda have blasted a draconian new bill that criminalises LGBTQ+ life and could see gay people sentenced to death, saying queer people in the country are “shaken, worried and scared.” On Tuesday (21 March), Uganda’s parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, a strict piece of legislation that expands on the East African nation’s… Read more »
LGBTQ+ Ugandans ‘shaken, worried and scared’ after government criminalises homosexuality
LGBTQ+ activists from Uganda have blasted a draconian new bill that criminalises LGBTQ+ life and could see gay people sentenced to death, saying queer people in the country are “shaken, worried and scared.” On Tuesday (21 March), Uganda’s parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, a strict piece of legislation that expands on the East African nation’s… Read more »
Grindr sends every user in Egypt warning about police tricking and arresting queer men
LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr has urged all users in Egypt to be vigilant following reports that police are using the app to conduct sting operations and arrest queer men. Increasing numbers of LGBTQ+ are people being arrested, beaten and abused by police officers using dating apps and digital platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram.… Read more »
Grindr sends every user in Egypt warning about police tricking and arresting queer men
LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr has urged all users in Egypt to be vigilant following reports that police are using the app to conduct sting operations and arrest queer men. Increasing numbers of LGBTQ+ are people being arrested, beaten and abused by police officers using dating apps and digital platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram.… Read more »
Egyptian Police Said to Track LGBTQ+ On Dating Apps
Source – Peter Tatchell Foundation
LGBTQIA+ LIFE CHALLENGES IN Ivory Coast
Legal ChallengesSame-gender sexual activities for both men and women are legal in private and have never been criminalized in Ivory Coast. However, public same-gender sexual acts will be punished with imprisonment for 3 months to 2 years and a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 francs (75–450€). Same-gender couples are not legally recognized and are not… Read more »
Eswatini: murder of pro-democracy activist prompts outrage
Fears security agencies may have been involved in shooting of Thulani Maseko in his home on Saturday Authorities in Eswatini have promised a full investigation of the murder of a leading pro-democracy activist amid widespread fears that state security agencies may have been involved. Thulani Maseko, chairperson of a coalition of pro-democracy groups, was shot… Read more »
Edwin Chiloba: LGBTQ activist found dead in Kenya
Police in Kenya are investigating the death of young fashion designer and LGBTQ activist Edwin Chiloba after his body was found dumped in a metal box by the roadside near the town of Eldoret. A suspect believed to be a friend of the victim has been arrested but police have not spoken about a motive.… Read more »
Edwin Chiloba: LGBTQ activist found dead in Kenya
Police in Kenya are investigating the death of young fashion designer and LGBTQ activist Edwin Chiloba after his body was found dumped in a metal box by the roadside near the town of Eldoret. A suspect believed to be a friend of the victim has been arrested but police have not spoken about a motive.… Read more »
19 Arrested at Same-Sex Wedding in Nigeria
Marriage equality and same-sex sexual relations are illegal in the country. Members of Islamic police enforcing sharia law in the northern Nigerian state of Kano arrested 19 men and women yesterday, accusing them of attending a same-sex marriage. A spokesperson for the religious police, known locally at the hisbah, said they acted after receiving a… Read more »
Uganda Bans Prominent LGBTQ Rights Group
End Harassment, Allow Group to Operate Last week, Uganda’s National Bureau for Non-governmental Organizations banned Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a prominent lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights organization, for not having officially registered with it. Before being banned, SMUG had provided education on sexuality and advocated for health services for LGBTQ people since… Read more »
Ugandan LGBTQ+ Rights Organization Forced to Shut Down by Government
CNN — Uganda’s government shut down operations of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a non-governmental organization for LGBTQ rights, accusing it of operating illegally in the country, according to a statement from the government. Uganda’s National Bureau for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO Bureau) under the Ministry of Internal Affairs said Friday the group operated without being registered… Read more »
Will Ghana introduce some of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world?
West Africa correspondent Emmanuel Akinwotu describes how a backlash against the opening of an LGBTQ+ safe space in Ghana has fuelled homophobic legislation In February 2021, a community centre for LGBTQ+ people in Ghana was closed down weeks after it had opened, following a wave of protests. As our west Africa correspondent, Emmanuel Akinwotu, explains… Read more »
Police arrest leading gay activist in crackdown on Tunisia rally
Young people join anti-Saied demonstrations amid growing anger at president’s proposed new constitution. Tunis, Tunisia – Police have arrested a leading gay rights campaigner in a violent pushback against young people during a rally against the upcoming referendum on the Tunisian president’s newly proposed constitution. Police violently shoved protesters marching on Friday in a vocal… Read more »
Sudan woman faces death by stoning for adultery in first case for a decade
Campaigners say sentence amounts to torture amid fears that country’s new regime is rolling back women’s rights A woman in Sudan has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, the first known case in the country for almost a decade. Maryam Alsyed Tiyrab, 20, was arrested by police in Sudan’s White Nile state last… Read more »
Three men sentenced to death by stoning for being gay in Nigeria
An Islamic sharia court in Nigeria has sentenced three gay men to death by stoning – including a man who was 70 years old. A Ningi court in the northern state of Bauchi convicted the men of engaging in homosexuality, the state’s religious police force, the Hisbah Vanguard, said 1 July. According to Reuters, the… Read more »
Lesbian ‘stoned to death’ in South Africa after receiving ‘rape and death threats’
A 24-year-old Zimbabwean lesbian was found “stoned to death” in South Africa after allegedly receiving rape and death threats by local men in the area. Ruth “Nickki” Chigowe was found dead on 27 May in Katlehong, a large township in the country’s Gauteng Province, according to Mamba Online. She leaves behind a one-year-old daughter. Her… Read more »
Rwandan LGBTIQ people warn: It’s unsafe to send queer asylum seekers here
The UK intends to send asylum seekers to the east African country. Rights groups say LGBTIQ people will be particularly at risk Gerald* and his boyfriend fled Rwanda in February this year to escape persecution from their families and church. “They beat us, starved us and refused to give us shelter,” he told openDemocracy from… Read more »
Rwandan LGBTIQ people warn: It’s unsafe to send queer asylum seekers here
The UK intends to send asylum seekers to the east African country. Rights groups say LGBTIQ people will be particularly at risk Gerald* and his boyfriend fled Rwanda in February this year to escape persecution from their families and church. “They beat us, starved us and refused to give us shelter,” he told openDemocracy from… Read more »
Ghanaian chief threatens to storm parliament with 10,000 homophobes to force through anti-LGBT+ bill
A regional chief in Ghana has threatened to storm the country’s parliament with 10,000 people to force through a cruel anti-LGBT+ bill. The “Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021”, leaked in July this year, would criminalise everything from sex toys, to trans medical care, to simply being an LGBT+… Read more »
First-ever Malawi Pride sees brave activists deliver demands to the president
Braving the threat of persecution, dozens of queer people packed the streets of the capital of Malawi for the country’s first-ever Pride parade Saturday (26 June). Organised by the Nyasa Rainbow Alliance, some 50 LGBT+ people marched through the streets of Lilongwe in a show of defiance. After an hour-long march through winding but silent… Read more »
Namibia Considers Ending Its Ban On Gay Sex
A colonial-era law that criminalizes sex between men could be on the chopping block in Namibia. According to Reuters, a reform commission has advised the government to abolish the law. Justice Minister Yvonne Dausab told Reuters that the law is “outdated and discriminatory.” “The LGBTQI community are human beings and we must not allow them… Read more »
Namibia Considers Ending Its Ban On Gay Sex
A colonial-era law that criminalizes sex between men could be on the chopping block in Namibia. According to Reuters, a reform commission has advised the government to abolish the law. Justice Minister Yvonne Dausab told Reuters that the law is “outdated and discriminatory.” “The LGBTQI community are human beings and we must not allow them… Read more »
Nigerian police raid suspected ‘gay party’ and drag ‘scores’ of men to anti-cult office
Police have reportedly raided a hotel in Anambra, Nigeria, where a group of “suspected gays” were having a party, following an anonymous tip-off. According to a local source who spoke to Nigerian publisher Punch Newspapers: “The gays were holding a party at the facility when trouble ensued, leading to the invitation of policemen from the… Read more »
The “Deviant” African Genders That Colonialism Condemned
European travellers and anthropologists found that their gendered worldview didn’t easily map onto the societies they encountered. In “pre-colonial times,” wrote the late feminist scholar Niara Sudarkasa, women in West Africa were “conspicuous in high places.” They led armies, often played important consultative roles in politics, and in the case of the Lovedu people (present-day… Read more »
‘Nowhere to go’: the young LGBT+ Ugandans ‘outed’ during lockdown
Student tells how he and others were arrested on Covid-related charges, publicly humiliated and left without a place to stay When you ask Ronald Ssenyonga, a 21-year-old Ugandan, to tell you about his arrest, he asks: “Which one?” Like many gay people struggling to survive in a country that has used Covid-19 as an excuse… Read more »
Judge throws out case of 47 Nigerian men accused of gay sex after prosecutors fail to even show up
A Nigerian judge threw out a case against 47 men accused of gay sex after the prosecutors failed to show up in court or call any witnesses. he high-profile case was widely seen as a test of the country’s same-sex marriage prohibition act (SSMPA), which punishes homosexual relationships by up to 14 years in prison.… Read more »
Dozens of students handed prison sentences for the alleged ‘crime’ of attending a ‘gay wedding’
A court in Algeria, where same-sex relations are illegal, has sentenced more than 40 people to prison for attending a “gay wedding”. On September 3, a court in the North African country sent two men immediately to prison and sentenced 42 other people to suspended prison sentences for being at a “gay wedding”, according to… Read more »
Mauritius defiantly celebrates Pride with a kaleidoscopic march and calls for an end to its colonial-era gay sex ban
Mauritius hosted a rare, kaleidoscopic LGBT+ Pride parade amid the COVID-19 pandemic, calling on lawmakers to decriminalise same-sex relations. The LGBT+ Pride event, which took place on Saturday (October 10), was organised by the Collectif Arc-en-Cieland. It saw more than 500 people march the streets in hopes of being heard, recognised and seen. Mauritius is… Read more »
How young, queer Nigerians use Twitter to shape identity and fight homophobia
Nigeria continues to be largely homophobic, mainly as a result of cultural and religious conventions. Negative perceptions of homosexuality led to the criminalisation of same-sex relations in 2014. The Nigerian environment is therefore toxic for LGBTI people. They become easy prey to oppressive and exploitative state security apparatus. They are also vulnerable to public “moral… Read more »
‘Gay People Have Always Existed In Africa – It”s Time For Us To Start Telling Our Stories’
Former pastor Edafe Okporo sheds more light on the little-known history of African queer culture. Despite the recent decriminalisation of homosexuality in countries like Gabon and Angola, it remains a sad fact that same-sex sexual relations remain illegal across more than half of the continent. Many of these antiquated laws were imposed on African nation… Read more »
‘Don’t come back, they’ll kill you for being gay’
For years Mohamed’s family tried to make him more like other boys – tougher, more “masculine”. They even sent him to have a female spirit driven out with hallucinogenic drugs. Eventually, writes Layla Mahmood, they decided to kill him. The heat enveloped 20-year-old Mohamed, as he zig-zagged through the alleyways of Hargeisa. It was around… Read more »
ADS
