Africa
Forbidden Love: a student’s struggle for LGBT rights in Tunisia
Tunisia is supposedly the success story of the Arab Spring, but LGBT people still face violent oppression. One Tunisian LGBT activist speaks about his personal and political struggles. Comment “I had to leave my family for I couldn’t face the harassment, the threats any longer.” Ramy Ayari is a 22 year-old computer science student from… Read more »
11 Arrested for Being Gay in Senegal—Is President Obama to Blame?
Is a recent mass arrest evidence for a continent-wide backlash against American policies? Not so fast. Reports from the West African nation of Senegal say that the government has arrested 11 people accused of homosexual acts. If convicted, those accused—who were rounded up at a “celebration of a gay marriage”—face up to five years in… Read more »
Senegalese Police Arrest 11 Accused of Homosexual Acts
Residents in the Senegalese town of Kaolack say police have arrested 11 people accused of homosexual acts. Boukhari Ndiaye said the arrested were among 20 people attending a celebration of a gay marriage at a school in the town about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of the capital, Dakar, on Friday. He said the 11… Read more »
U.S. Support of Gay Rights in Africa May Have Done More Harm Than Good
Lagos, Nigeria — Suspicious neighbors and landlords pry into their private lives. Blackmailers hunt for victims on the social media sites they use to meet others of the same sex. Police officers routinely stop them to search for incriminating images and chats on their cellphones. Since an anti-gay law went into effect last year, many… Read more »
Malawi drops gay sex charges against men after international outcry
Malawi has dropped charges against two men who were arrested under gay sex laws, after pressure from the US and UK. The country’s government, which is heavily reliant on support from NGOs and Western aid money, had confirmed last year that it would no longer arrest people for same-sex sexual acts – an agreement first… Read more »
Born This Way
About The Film Synopsis There are more arrests for homosexuality in Cameroon than any other country in the world. With intimate access to the lives of four young gay Cameroonians, Born This Way steps outside the genre of activist filmmaking and offers a vivid and poetic portrait of day-to-day life in modern Africa. Lyrical imagery,… Read more »
Six men sent to jail for three years for gay sex acts
The group of men were also banned from returning home for five years. Six young men have been sentenced to three years in prison for gay sex acts, according to an LGBT group in Tunisia. The court also ruled that the men would be banished from their native city for a further five years –… Read more »
Gambia declared Islamic republic by President Yahya Jammeh
Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has declared his Muslim-majority country an Islamic republic, saying the move marks a break with the colonial past. Mr Jammeh told state TV the proclamation was in line with Gambia’s “religious identity and values”. He added that no dress code would be imposed and citizens of other faiths would be allowed… Read more »
Gay Nigerians face beatings, harsh prison sentences, even death
Nigeria made same-sex marriage and gay rights activism illegal last January. Since then, gay Nigerians say abuse and extortion have become commonplace by state-sponsored vigilantes, police and public mobs. As part of a week-long series “Nigeria: Pain and Promise,” special correspondent Nick Schifrin reports on the threats and violence that LGBT citizens face in that… Read more »
Govt clamps down on gays
Government has reportedly clamped down on foreign gays and lesbians attending the International Conference on Aids and STI’s in Africa (ICASA) in Harare and seized their workshop material at Harare International Airport, NewsDay has learnt. This came as suspected State security agents yesterday pulled down an exhibition stand mounted by the group to display and… Read more »
Pope Francis passes up chance to condemn Uganda’s anti-gays
Anglican and Roman Catholic 19th-century missionary martyrs honoured, but LGBT rights activists are left disappointed Pope Francis has preached a message of reconciliation on a visit to Uganda, calling on people to reach out to “those who might be unfriendly, even hostile, to us” within local communities and in the conflict-ridden region. On the fourth… Read more »
Uganda’s Gay Community Has High Hopes For Pope Francis’s Visit
Church leaders, however, are praying the pontiff will avoid LGBT issues. Kampala, Uganda (AP) — Gay activists are hoping Pope Francis will preach tolerance toward homosexuals, and even go so far as to condemn violent attacks against gays during his upcoming visit to Uganda. Church leaders, however, are praying he’ll avoid the issue altogether. The… Read more »
Liberia: Gay Practice On the Rise Here
A Montserrado County Senator has alarmed that the practice of homosexuality is on an unprecedented rise here, especially among young men. Sen. Doe Sherif indicated that some influential and economically powerful men and women in the Liberian society were using cash to induce young men to the practice gay and lesbianism. Speaking in Monrovia on… Read more »
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta Says Gay Rights Are Not A ‘Pressing Issue’ For Kenyans
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday told CNN that Africans have more pressing issues to deal with than LGBT rights. On his recent trip to Kenya, President Barack Obama talked about such rights in a joint press conference with Kenyatta. “As an African-American in the United States, I am painfully aware of the history of… Read more »
South Africa’s Safe House Offers Gay Community Refuge And Hope
“I decided to come here so I would be free. No one is going to threaten me because I’m gay.” Cape Town, South Africa (RNS) Sipping ginger beer at an outdoor restaurant in Gugulethu, one of South Africa’s murder hubs, Prince January said he feels safe. Across the train tracks at their shared home in… Read more »
Stop to the humiliation and the violation of privacy of the citizns
We, members of civil society and LGBTQI activists, you are sharing our news, legal advice, psychological expertise as well as the release of the National Council of the Medical Association of Tunisia in connection with the case Marwan young man who was arrested and convicted for homosexuality. The signatory organizations: – Tunisian ssociation defense of… Read more »
Scientific facts about homosexuality
Source – YouTube
GALZ says 50 percent of gays HIV positive, pushes for action
AT least 50% of the country’s gay and lesbian community is HIV positive, a recent study conducted by the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) has revealed. The results of the study confirm that this situation, if ignored, could erode the government’s achievements in HIV management over the past one and a half decades. “In… Read more »
Uganda’s President says new anti-gay laws ‘not necessary
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said he will not pursue further anti-gay legislation in the country. The long-standing leader has declared that he will not pursue further anti-gay legislation, after previous attempts to strengthen the country’s anti LGBT legislation were defeated. President Museveni signed the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill last February. The law called for repeat… Read more »
Tunisia’s lesbian community mobilises against deep-rooted prejudice
Stigmatised and even criminalised by draconian laws for more than a century, the Tunisian lesbian and transgender community is battling back Nawel was in Tunis’s city centre when it happened. “This guy came up to me from nowhere. He was dressed really religiously and, without any warning, he just slapped me across the face –… Read more »
Calls made for Senegal to release men convicted of homosexual acts
Calls have been made to release seven men arrested in July and sentenced to six months in prison for ‘homosexual acts’. A gay rights activist Djamil Bangoura, the president of Prudence, gay rights group, on Friday said Senegal must release the men arrested in July in Dakar. He said laws must be changed and that… Read more »
LGBT Rights Organizing in Liberia Explored in UC Research
Professor Ashley Currier will present field research for the American Sociology Association on both pro-LGBT and anti-LGBT movements in Liberia. Ashley Currier, associate professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at McMicken Arts & Sciences at the University of Cincinnati, will present research at the annual American Sociological Association conference this August. Her research, culled… Read more »
Nigerian Novelist Reflects on Anti-Gay Law
Malmo, Sweden – One day in January 2014, award-winning Nigerian writer and rights activist Jude Dibia woke up gasping for air. Nigeria had just passed a law criminalizing homosexuality. This prompted Dibia to make the decision to leave his home country. Dibia now lives in Sweden, where he is a guest writer of the Malmö… Read more »
The Gay Pride festival in Uganda this weekend defied local law and taboo
Members of the Ugandan lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community celebrated their fourth annual Pride Uganda festival this weekend, defying strict laws criminalizing homosexuality with up to 14 years in jail. Crowds of gay and transgender Ugandans traveled to the shores of Lake Victoria on Saturday to walk in the festival’s gay pride parade, which… Read more »
Uganda gay pride rally held a year after law overturned
Activists in Uganda have held a gay pride rally, a year since a law requiring homosexuals to be jailed for life was overturned. Crowds danced, sang and waved rainbow flags at the event held outside the capital Kampala, the culmination of a week of celebrations. One of those attending hoped it would be a “step… Read more »
Obama faces gay rights challenge in Kenya
As the United States has grown more tolerant during Obama’s presidency, African countries have imposed harsher laws on gays and lesbians. Six and a half years after Kenyans started naming their children in honor of America’s first black president, Barack Obama’s name has also become synonymous, often derisively, with gay rights. “Go wait for your… Read more »
5,000 naked anti-gay protesters to greet President Obama in Kenya
Nairobi, Kenya – An anti-gay political party in Kenya plans to protest against U.S. President Barack Obama by greeting him with 5,000 “totally naked” protesters for his “open and aggressive support for homosexuality.” The Republican Liberty Party’s “main objective is for him to see and understand the difference between a man and woman,” according to… Read more »
Ugandan rights activist Frank Mugisha: We need visible LGBT role models
PinkNews speaks to Ugandan rights activist Dr Frank Mugisha to talk about the long road to acceptance in his country. The executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, Dr Mugisha and his organisation were very involved in fighting the Anti-Homosexuality Act – internationally referred to as the “Kill the Gays” bill. After the act was struck… Read more »
Tunisian LGBT community making strides
The first official LGBT advocacy group and gay pride parade seem promising, but discrimination and imprisonment are still real threats Tunis – There are about seven organisations in Tunisia that fight for the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community (LGBT), but you wouldn’t know it at first glance: only one of these… Read more »
Mozambique decriminalises homosexuality
The decriminalisation of homosexuality has come into force today in Mozambique. While the law had not been enforced since the African country gained independence in 1975, it was still technically illegal to be “habitually engage[d] in vices against nature.” It was a hangover from colonial Portuguese codes, dating from 1886, and theoretically punished homosexuality with… Read more »
Gay Moroccans sentenced to jail for posing too close in a photo
Two gay men from Morocco have been sentenced to four-months in jail each for posing too close in a photograph. The men, only identified by the Guardian as Lahcen, 38 and Mohsine, 25, in order to protect their identities, were on Friday found guilty of obscenity and homosexuality. The men posed for a photograph at… Read more »
Less than human
The situation for gays in Libya was never easy, but since ISIS militias are controlling some areas of the country, things have gotten even worse. This April, in a mosque courtyard in Derna in eastern Libya, the Islamist extremists executed three young men they charged with homosexual acts. Lined up next to one another, each… Read more »
Mauritius: The homosexual community proud of its difference parades through the streets of Rose-Hill
The homosexual community of Mauritius marched through the streets of Rose Hill, Saturday, June 6, 2015, to defend its right to be different during the tenth edition of the Pride March. Homosexuals, bisexuals, “trans” as well as heterosexual hand in hand, in a rainbow sky procession thus have walked together to fight against homophobia on… Read more »
Mozambique To Decriminalize Homosexuality June 29: Southeast African Nation Is Latest Country In Africa To Legalize Being Gay
Mozambique is set to become the latest country in Africa to decriminalize homosexuality, breaking away from what was once widely seen as a continentwide tradition of discriminating against gay people. The landmark legislation was scheduled to go into effect June 29 and would make the southeast African nation the 21st country in Africa to legalize… Read more »
Mozambique Decriminalizes Homosexuality
The revised law, which was passed last year, will come into effect next month. One of the most tolerant African countries in regards to homosexuality, Mozambique will mark a major milestone on June 29, when homosexuality becomes legal. The criminalization of homosexuality —characterized as “vices against nature”— in the country stemmed from Portuguese colonial rule.… Read more »
Ugandan tabloid publishes photos of ‘bum drillers’ at Birmingham Pride ‘mega sex fest’
A tabloid in Uganda has published photos of Ugandan people celebrating pride in the UK, referring to pride as a “mega sex fest”. The newspaper ‘Hello Daily’, published an article with photos from Birmingham Pride, making ridiculous claims that the pride event was an “anal sex fete”, and a “mega sex festival.” Referring to gay… Read more »
Mozambique’s new penal code decriminalising homosexuality set to take effect
A new penal code in Mozambique will soon come into effect under which same-sex intimacy is no longer illegal. The new criminal code is set to come into effect in June, and removes a clause which previously allowed “security measures” to be taken against people “who habitually engage in vices against nature.” Although homosexuality was… Read more »
Quorum: How To Do LGBTI Activism In Kenya
When meeting anonymously with anti-gay religious leaders, Kenyan LGBTI activist Essy asks, “Do you really think that I should be beaten, now that you know me?” Quorum is a live journalism forum focused on LGBT experiences around the world. Its mission is to lift up the voices of non-Western LGBT activists defining the struggle for… Read more »
Tunisia recognizes first LGBT association
Progress in struggle for sexual minority rights Tunis – The Tunisian association for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights ‘Shams’ has become the first one of its kind to be officially recognized by the interior ministry as part of a law on associations. The move marks progress in the sensitive issue of sexual minorities… Read more »
Is It Finally Ok To Be Gay In Tunisia?
Tunisia’s gay community is finally out and proud following a week which saw the announcement of government recognition for a leading anti-homophobia group, just days after a ‘gay-pride’ style party marked World Anti-Homophobia Day at a Northern Tunis hotel. Outspoken campaign group, Shams, received the go-ahead from the Ministry of Interior on Monday just hours… Read more »
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