Africa
Pride leader got hundreds of death threats in just one day in Mauritius
LGBTI advocates received threats of mutilation and execution The LGBTI community in Mauritius is in shock after organizers cancelled the annual Pride March cancelled because of threats of violence from ‘anti-LGBTQ’ protestors. Mauritius’s leading LGBTI organization, the Collectif Arc-en-Ciel (CAEC), plans the Pride March ever year. 2018 was supposed to be the 13th anniversary of… Read more »
Nigeria gets its first LGBT-focused talk show
Two Nigerians, Chijioke Okoli and Cisi Eze, popularly known as CJ and Cisi, have banded together to launch a radio show that will explore issues relating to homosexuality in Nigeria. Okoli is an experienced radio show host, public speaker and media personality who once worked at WE FM 106.3 Abuja as co-host on a sex… Read more »
Cameroon police arrest and torture 25 men for being gay
Police in Cameroon have arrested 25 men on suspicion of being gay. Homosexuality is illegal in Cameroon, with those convicted of homosexuality facing up to five years in prison. The arrests were made in the early hours of Saturday morning, as police raided institutions in the capital city of Yaoundé which are known to be… Read more »
Burundi: repressive constitutional reform to give the president full powers
Paris – 15 May 2018. At the end of a one-sided campaign, where voters were registered by force and where promoting a “no” or abstention was brutally repressed, on 17 May the Burundians will be invited to give their opinion on a proposed change to the Constitution. The paper published today by FIDH and the… Read more »
Director of Kenyan lesbian film says she’s been ‘threatened with arrest’
The director of a Kenyan lesbian film, which debuted at Cannes Film Festival this month, says her home country has warned her with the “threat of arrest.” Rafiki, which means friend in Swahili, is about two Kenyan girls who fall in love. It was banned in the African country after director Wanuri Kahiu reportedly refused… Read more »
A Unique Window on Being Queer in Nigeria
Abuja, Nigeria — “Whenever I was with her, I was open. I could talk … my sexuality does not define who I am.” These words are from a new book, “She Called Me Woman: Nigeria’s Queer Women Speak.” The new book, released this week, is a collection of interviews with two dozen women. It offers… Read more »
President Uhuru Kenyatta Says Gay Rights Are ‘Of No Importance’ In Kenya
Appearing this week on CNN, President Uhuru Kenyatta claimed that gay rights are not an issue of human rights in Kenya. Christiane Amanpour, host of CNN International’s Amanpour, asked Kenyatta whether equal rights for sexual minorities is something he “aspires to” for Kenya, where gay sex is a crime and violators face up to 14… Read more »
Gay rights ruling in Kenya could reverberate through Africa
Gay rights activists are celebrating after a Kenyan court ruled that subjecting suspected gay men to forced anal testing was illegal. The landmark case marked a significant shift in sexual minority rights in the country, which activists hope will eventually lead to decriminalizing homosexuality in Kenya and other countries in the region. This case surrounds… Read more »
Gay Kenyans sense they may be on the brink of a historic legal triumph
Nairobi — Faced with police shakedowns and abuse, rejection from religious conservatives and rampant discrimination, Kenyan LGBT rights activists are challenging provisions of this former British colony’s Victorian-era penal code that implicitly outlaw gay sex. In a move that could spawn copycat tactics across Africa and beyond, three Kenyan LGBT rights groups have petitioned a… Read more »
Gay Kenyans sense they may be on the brink of a historic legal triumph
Nairobi — Faced with police shakedowns and abuse, rejection from religious conservatives and rampant discrimination, Kenyan LGBT rights activists are challenging provisions of this former British colony’s Victorian-era penal code that implicitly outlaw gay sex. In a move that could spawn copycat tactics across Africa and beyond, three Kenyan LGBT rights groups have petitioned a… Read more »
Kenyan Court Bans Anal Exams For Suspected Gays
A Kenyan appeals court on Thursday banned the use of forced anal exams to test whether two men had gay sex. Gay sex is a crime in Kenya and violators face up to 14 years in prison. The case involves two men accused of being gay in 2015. The men were subjected to forced anal… Read more »
Kenya Awaits Ruling In Landmark Case To Legalize Gay Sex
At present, persecution of LGBTQ people in the country is rife. Nairobi (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When John Mathenge finished primary school in the early 1990s, he dreamed of becoming a lawyer. But his dreams were shattered when life showed him what being gay in Kenya meant. His sexual orientation was seen as sinful from… Read more »
The Issue of Homosexuality Is Changing Moroccan Society
Long considered a taboo in Morocco, homosexuality is increasingly being brought into the open. A number of activists and academics are addressing it from various perspectives, although not everyone is in favour of debating it publicly. Article 489 of the Moroccan Penal Code states that ‘unlawful or unnatural acts with an individual of the same… Read more »
LEGAL is a Rights Based Organization established to address issues affecting LGBTI groups in Liberia.
Dear All, With high esteem LEGAL extends its greetings to you all. LEGAL like to bring to your attention the ordeal of one of the members of the LGBTIQ Community within its sisterly Country, the Republic of Sierra Leone. Mary Conteh is an aspirant in the Sierra Leone General and Presidential Elections. She reported to… Read more »
Ugandan LGBTQ+ activists announce plans for Pride following crackdown
LGBTQ+ activists in Uganda have announced plans to run a Pride event this year after a violent crackdown in 2016 which saw police raids and arrests at the event. Ahead of the 2016 Pride, government officials warned that they would arrest anyone that took part. ? Simon Lokodo, the Minister of State for ‘Ethics &… Read more »
Tunisian government bans Call Me By Your Name
The Tunisian government has banned the screening and distribution of Oscar-nominated film Call Me By Your Name. A screening of the film, which tells the love story between a 17-year-old and his father’s tutee, was intended to be aired in a cinema in Tunis on Wednesday evening. ? After the Tunisian Ministry of Culture intervened,… Read more »
The American who fled ‘gay conversion’ in Africa
A midnight taxi to the US embassy; an emergency flight home; a new life in New York. An ex-Muslim tells his story. Mahad Olad was in a Nairobi hotel room, looking at his mother. She was holding two articles from a student newspaper in New York. In the first article, Mahad, then 19, said he… Read more »
Kenya Betrays Its Promise to LGBT?People
In 2010, after a long and tumultuous struggle, Kenya passed a constitution that guarantees broad rights and freedoms, and it captured the aspirations of its citizens. The constitutional draft was overwhelmingly accepted in a national referendum. The new constitution has been described as one of the most progressive in the world. However, when it comes… Read more »
A gay love story set in South Africa’s secretive male traditional initiation has sparked outrage
The creators of Inxeba/The Wound always knew the film would be controversial. A hidden gay romance set in the secretive world of a traditional initiation school for Xhosa boys, the film sparked outrage long before it was released. The film’s weekend release on Feb. 2 in cinemas around the country led to protests and some… Read more »
Being gay in Zim: A male sex worker opens up on choice
Takunda Munashe was only 13 years old when he started selling his body to other males while living in Mtapa, a high-density suburb in Gweru, the administrative capital of the Midlands province in Zimbabwe. For Munashe, now 29 years old, it was not because he was looking for a ticket to his next meal as… Read more »
‘One guy took a cutlass’: gay women at greater risk of violence in Ghana
Research shows Ghanaian women are likelier than men to be abused and cast out of homes and jobs because of their sexual preferences LGBT women interviewed by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said they had been beaten, evicted from their homes and ostracised by their communities. Many struggled to find accommodation and employment. Wendy Isaack, who… Read more »
Transgender people to be given a voice
Little is known about how many of South Africa’s transgender women have HIV‚ what experiences of stigmatisation they have and what their lives are like – and even how many there are. The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) on Wednesday launched its first study of transgender people to hear their stories. South Africa has the… Read more »
‘One guy took a cutlass’: gay women at greater risk of violence in Ghana
Research shows Ghanaian women are likelier than men to be abused and cast out of homes and jobs because of their sexual preferences LGBT women interviewed by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said they had been beaten, evicted from their homes and ostracised by their communities. Many struggled to find accommodation and employment. Wendy Isaack, who… Read more »
Witness: For Ghana’s Lesbians, Lives of Rejection and Fear
Shattered Dreams and Broken Homes in Kumasi “We can’t ever go home again,” said one of the three young women, barely in their 20s, as they told their story and struggled to fight back their tears. They looked to each other for support and protection as they sat in the small hotel outside the Ghanaian… Read more »
In South Africa, Queer Marriage Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Queer Equality
With homophobia and violence still all too common in the country, there’s a lot left to be done. Last year, the Other Foundation, a South African LGBTQ rights NGO, released a nationally comprehensive survey on LGBTQ issues there called “Progressive Prudes.” It was so named because of the conflicting nature of queer rights and attitudes… Read more »
Egypt launches bid to ban atheism over fears it turns people gay
Egypt has announced a bid to ban atheism in the hopes that it will stop people from “turning” gay. The parliamentary commission on religion has said that plans to make “promotion of atheism” illegal will be pushed. ? It comes as the commission ruled that atheism can cause “mental imbalances” which in turn leads to… Read more »
Ugandan police raid and shut down queer film festival
Ugandan police have raided and shut down a queer film festival that they were tipped off about in Kampala. A LGBT+ film festival in Kampala, Uganda, has been closed down by police after a sold-out first night. ? The second Queer Kampala International Film Festival had been set to run between 8 and 10 December.… Read more »
LGBT radio station launches in Tunisia despite fear of violence
An online LGBT radio station has launched in Tunisia, believed to be the first in the Arab world. The LGBT group Shams set up the radio station which hopes to deal with opposition to LGBT rights in the North African state. ? The Shams Rad station has the slogan “dignity, equality”, and prominent activist will… Read more »
President of Ghana: Legalising homosexuality is ‘bound to happen’ in time
The President of Ghana says that the country is bound to eventually decriminalise homosexuality – but only after popular support grows. Nana Akufo-Addo, who became the country’s President in January, was asked in an interview with Al Jazeera last month about whether he could see the country reform on LGBT issues. ? It is currently… Read more »
Gay Ugandan activists rebuilding lives in Utah after fleeing anti-LGBTQ repression in Africa
Utah, though, presents its challenges to Barnabas Wobiliya and Apollo Kimuli. The slurs came at the young boy like barbs. Sometimes the word hurled his way from other kids was “guera,” meaning “girl” in the dialect of his native Ugandan village. At other times, it was “mudiga,” a word used for gay people, he said.… Read more »
Homosexuality not on Ghana’s agenda – President Akufo-Addo
Ghana’s president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo has said the issue of same-sex relationships was not on the agenda of the West African country. He, however, believes that its snowball effect will soon reach Africa. Akufo-Addo was speaking in an interview with Gulf news channel, Al Jazeera, during which he addressed a series of national,… Read more »
Police move to protect gay rights stirs Christians to call on God
The move by Ugandan Police to endorse a workshop on gay rights caused uproar, with Christians and non Christians alike expressing their outrage at the security body for endorsing “what the constitution gravely condemns and points to as illegal” in the country. Police spokesman, Mr Emilian Kayima confirmed to Journalists that the workshop funded by… Read more »
SA’s public healthcare not designed for MSM people – study
Study reveals factors that drive MSM people to risky behaviour, writes Yolisa Tswanya. Men who have sex with men suffer from poor mental health, which can lead to them engaging in high-risk behaviour. So says a study by the Human Sciences Research Council. The study was conducted in South Africa and Namibia and reveals the… Read more »
The agony and joy of being gay in Africa
At an international conference on Black portraiture, imagery and depiction in Johannesburg, South Africa last November, I gave a presentation about the state of LGBT rights across the African continent. I told participants that I’d just come from New York, where, at the UN, the African bloc had spearheaded an effort to torpedo the work… Read more »
Kenya Bans ‘Andi Mack’ Over Gay Character, in Crackdown on LGBT Content
Kenyan authorities have banned the Disney Channel’s “Andi Mack” because of the program’s upcoming gay storyline, part of an ongoing crackdown in the African country on LGBT content. The decision by the Kenya Film Classification Board underscores the challenge for creators of LGBT content on a continent where local mores – and criminal codes –… Read more »
Attitudes to same-sex relationships around the world
Sub-Saharan Africa is more liberal than Asia In The West, few civil-rights movements have prevailed so quickly and comprehensively as the campaign for gay rights. In America, support for same-sex marriage has shot up from 27% to 64% since 1996—faster than the rise in acceptance of interracial marriage beginning in the late 1960s. Ireland has… Read more »
Egyptian police use Grindr to lure gay men to hotel rooms
Police in Egypt are using gay app Grindr to lure gay and bisexual men to hotel rooms to arrest them. Dalia Abdel-Hameed, a gender rights researcher with the Egyptian Initative for Personal Rights unearthed dozens of police reports. In the reports, a “cultivation” technique is set out which sees targets seduced using Grindr. They are… Read more »
Rainbow raids: Egypt launches its widest anti-gay crackdown yet
Cairo (Reuters) – Sarah Hegazy has been jailed, beaten by inmates, and could face a life sentence in an Egyptian prison if found guilty of “promoting sexual deviancy” and other charges tied to her alleged crime: waving a rainbow flag at a concert. The 28-year-old denies waving the flag but is one of 57 people… Read more »
Transgender man wins landmark 10-year-long legal battle for recognition from Botswana
A Botswanan man has won a momentous victory for transgender rights in the African country. The trans man has been legally recognised as male after a 10-year-long legal battle. Homosexuality is illegal in Botswana, with a maximum seven-year jail term for those convicted of so-called “unnatural offences”. The country was also one of 13 at… Read more »
Egypt Expands Crackdown on Gay and Transgender People
Cairo — At least 34 people have been arrested in Egypt as part of an expanding crackdown on the gay and transgender community following a rock concert last month when audience members waved a rainbow flag. The crackdown has been fueled by social media, where images of the flag-waving were widely shared, and by dating… Read more »
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