Gay Senegal News & Reports 2009-10

The jailing in Senegal of nine gay men for eight years over "indecent conduct and unnatural acts" has been condemned by an international gay rights group. Homosexual acts are illegal in Senegal but the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) told the BBC it was "shocked by the ruling". The judge added three years to a five-year sentence, saying the men were also members of a criminal group. Most of them belonged to an association set up to fight HIV and Aids.

"This is the first time that the Senegalese legal system has handed down such a harsh sentence against gays," said Issa Diop, one of the men’s four defence lawyers. Mr Diop said he would be appealing against the sentences. The IGLHRC’s Cary Alan Johnson said he was "deeply disturbed" by the case.

"There have been pretty consistent human rights violations? in Senegal," he told the BBC’s Network Africa programme from Cape Town in South Africa. "But the extremity of this sentence [and] the rapidness of the trial all really shocks us in a country which has been moving so positively towards rule of law and a progressive human rights regime."

‘Schizophrenic’
The head of a gay rights organisation in Senegal told AFP news agency that the situation for gay people in the country was getting worse. "Many gays are already fleeing to neighbouring countries because of our living conditions," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Senegal is a predominantly Muslim country and gay men and women remain socially marginalised. Mr Alan Johnson said Senegal was "schizophrenic" in its attitudes.

Religious attacks on gay and lesbian people were on the increase, he said. While Senegal recently played host to a major conference on Aids and sexually transmitted diseases, where "the needs of men who have sex with men were prominently featured", he said. "There’s both a movement towards progressive and inclusive culture but at the same time very, very strong movements towards oppression, specifically towards sexuality," he added.

In February 2008, a magazine editor received death threats after publishing pictures claiming to depict a wedding ceremony between two men. Several men were also arrested in connection with the publication but later released.

January 8, 2009 – PinkNews

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Senegalese AIDS activist among nine men jailed for sodomy

by Tony Grew
A court in Senegal has sentenced a group of men arrested at the home of a leading figure in the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to lengthy prison terms. They were convicted of criminal conspiracy and engaging in acts against the order of nature and sentenced to eight years in jail. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) said the prosecutor had asked for a sentence of five years, the maximum penalty provided by Senegalese law in sodomy cases.

On December 19 police raided the apartment of Mr Diadji Diouf, who heads AIDES Senegal, an organisation providing HIV prevention services to men who have sex with men, and arrested him and his guests. They appeared in court this week. IGLHRC said it is "deeply concerned by what appears to be a violation of the right to a free and fair trial, the right to privacy, and the right to freedom from discrimination."

Homosexual acts are punishable by imprisonment of between one and five years in Senegal. Last year the African Assembly for the Defence of Human Rights expressed concern over the rise of homophobia and hatred of homosexuals in Senegal. Muslim organisations in the African nation have warned against "enemies of the faith and of morality."

In February the release from prison of several men arrested on suspicion of homosexuality following the publication of photographs of a same-sex "marriage ceremony" led to riots, acres of print and media coverage and a conspiracy theory. Some gay men were driven out of their homes. The fact the accused were released led local media to speculate that they were threatening to reveal "high-ranking state officials" are gay.

Afrol News reported that "dozens of Senegalese homosexuals" have left the country to escape death threats. In August a 61-year-old Belgian and his 63-year-old Senegalese husband were sentenced to two years in jail for "homosexual marriage and acts against nature." The couple, Richard Lambot and Moustapha Gueye, were married in Belgium in July and then returned to Africa.

January 12, 2009 – PinkNews

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Human rights group claims Senegal’s sodomy law criminalises HIV work

by Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
Laws against homosexual conduct damage HIV- and AIDS-prevention efforts as well as the work of human rights defenders, Human Rights Watch said today. Nine men who were involved in HIV-prevention work were sentenced to jail terms in Dakar on January 6th on charges of “indecent and unnatural acts” and “forming associations of criminals."

"These charges will have a chilling effect on AIDS programmes,” said Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights programme. “Outreach workers and people seeking HIV prevention or treatment should not have to worry about police persecution. Senegal should drop these charges and repeal its sodomy law.”

HIV and AIDS advocates in Senegal report that the ruling has produced widespread panic among organisations addressing HIV and AIDS, particularly those working with men who have sex with men and other marginalised populations. The men were detained on December 19, 2008, after several police officers burst into the private residence of an HIV outreach worker some miles outside Dakar at 11 p.m. and arrested all nine men in the house.

The police confiscated condoms and lubricants – tools used for HIV-prevention work. The police forced several of the men to disclose family members’ phone numbers and threatened to inform their families. Sources told Human Rights Watch that the men were beaten in detention, which would constitute a significant violation of Senegal’s international human rights obligations. The men were charged with violating article 319.3 of Senegal’s penal code, which provides that “whoever commits an improper or unnatural act with a person of the same sex will be punished by imprisonment of between one and five years.”

Reports received by Human Rights Watch indicate that the men were not engaged in any activity considered criminal under Senegalese law. At the trial, prosecutors apparently used the materials found in the house that are standard HIV-prevention tools used in outreach work as evidence of homosexual conduct, for which the men received the maximum five-year sentence. They were also found guilty of “criminal association” in violation of article 238 of the penal code, permitting the judge to add three years to their five-year term. “Senegal’s sodomy law invades privacy, criminalises health work, justifies brutality, and feeds fear,” said Long. “This case shows why it is time for the sodomy law to go.”

15 January 2009 – VoaNews.com

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Activists Express Concern Over Sentencing of Gay Men in Senegal

by Fid Thompson, Dakar
Just one month after gay activists from around the world gathered at the International African AIDS conference in Dakar, a Senegalese judge has sentenced nine men to long prison terms for homosexual activity. The men were arrested last month at the home of Diadji Diouf, a prominent gay activist and head of the non-profit organization, AIDES Senegal, which provides HIV education and counseling. The nine men were each sentenced to eight years in prison last week. Joel Nana of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in Cape Town says the ruling was a big step backwards in the fight for gay rights in Africa.

"It was a surprise to me because Senegal is a country that is very progressive among African countries and actually the first country in Africa to address HIV in communities of men who have sex with men," said Nana. "This is a country where we thought there were some achievements, but having such a judgment brings us backward." Nana says up until now, no other African country has handed down such a severe sentence. "Leaders have spoken out against gay and lesbian people, but no one has actually moved to sentence gay and lesbian people to such harsh laws," added Nana. "Even in countries with Sharia law, no one has actually been stoned or sentenced so harshly on the basis of one’s sexual orientation."

Senegal’s penal code says "an impure or unnatural act with another person of the same sex" is punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a $3,000 fine. But in this case, the judge added an extra three years for criminal conspiracy. Human rights organizations have condemned the ruling as an abuse of basic rights and are calling for a change in the law. French president Nicholas Sarkozy has expressed "concern" and the French foreign ministry says it "deplores the jailing of homosexuals in Senegal". The New York-based Human Rights Watch says the men should be freed and Senegal’s sodomy law overturned. But some influential religious leaders in Senegal support the court’s action.

Imam Massamba Diop, president of JAMRA, an Islamic organization in Dakar, says that the judge’s decision to add three years to the sentence emphasizes the seriousness of the offense. Maybe in France or in other countries it is accepted, he says, but in Senegal Islam is the dominant religion. Islam declares that if you find two men doing what he calls "this revolting act," they should be killed. Because there is no death penalty in Senegal, Diop says the judge was as severe as he could be in order to discourage others. Imam Diop says that Senegalese culture will never accept homosexuality. He says while Senegal is a free country and homosexuals have the right to live, they do not have the right to have sexual relations.

The International AIDS Society and the Society for AIDS in Africa say the judgment threatens to reverse progress made in Senegal’s fight against HIV. Cheikh Niang, an anthropologist at Dakar’s Cheikh Anta Diop university who has studied HIV/AIDS and homosexuality in Senegal, says that Senegal is a pioneer in comprehensive AIDS programs that encourage social cohesion and exclude no one. But the severity of the sentence in this case may well undo much hard work. Niang says the ruling has created an atmosphere of panic among HIV organizations who work with homosexuals. And this climate of repression, he says, could force activists into exile and bring HIV/AIDS programs to a halt.

A gay Senegalese man who works with an HIV awareness group says violence is more common now. The young man, who did not want his name or voice used, says gay men in Senegal feel they must act like straight men in public. He says he just wants people to realize that men having sex with men is a reality in Senegalese culture. Their sentence is under appeal, but the nine men remain in prison.

January 22, 2009 – PinkNews

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EU and UN condemn arrest of AIDS workers in Senegal

by Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
The United Nations AIDS organisation and representatives of the European Union have called on Senegal to decriminalise homosexuality after the arrest of nine gay men. On December 19th police raided the apartment of Mr Diadji Diouf, who heads AIDES Senegal, an organisation providing HIV prevention services to men who have sex with men, and arrested him and his guests. All nine were convicted earlier this month of criminal conspiracy and engaging in acts against the order of nature and sentenced to eight years in jail.

UNAIDS said it "deplores" the arrests and said it is leading a coalition bringing together organisations from civil society, the public sector and partners such as the French Embassy and the Swedish Embassy, representing the European Union, to lobby for the release of the detainees. "There is no place for homophobia," said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé. "Universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support must be accessible to all people in Senegal who are in need—including men who have sex with men. This will only happen if the men convicted are released and steps taken to rebuild trust with affected communities."

UNAIDS said that homophobia and criminalisation of consensual adult sexual behaviour represent major barriers to effective responses to HIV. It recommended that criminal law prohibiting sexual acts between consenting adults in private should be reviewed with the aim of repeal and urged the release of the nine detainees. UNAIDS also wants the Government of Senegal "to take steps to eliminate stigma and discrimination faced by men who have sex with men and create an enabling legal environment for them and the organisations working with them so as to protect their rights and increase access for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services."

02 March 2009 – Behind The Mask

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Senegal denies prosecuting homosexuals

by Mongezi Mhlongo
Senegal – United Nations’ member states have urged Senegal to repeal its Penal Code which criminalises homosexual conduct. This was proposed at the UN Universal Periodic Review held in Geneva from 11-13 February 2009. The United Kingdom, Canada and Netherlands cited that the code violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” On the other hand, Senegalese representatives denied that their country prosecutes homosexuals, a statement that directly contradicts the provisions of that country’s penal code.

Article 319.3 of Senegal’s Penal Code states that “Whoever commits an improper or unnatural act with a person of the same sex will be punished by imprisonment of between one and five years.” Even so “the delegation gave assurance that sexual orientation is a private matter and denied that Senegal prosecutes homosexual conduct”, The International Service for Human Rights stated in its website. Meanwhile human rights violations against gay people continue unabated in Senegal.

In January this year nine men were arrested in Darkar on suspicion of engaging in homosexual conduct and were charged with “indecent and unnatural acts” and “forming associations of criminals.” Pushing forward, Amnesty International submitted a report to the UN Universal Periodic Review recommending that Senegal repeals all laws compromising human rights on the basis of sexual orientation. This submission calls for Senegal to “end incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence against individuals on the basis of their real or perceived engagement in consensual same sex practices and/or gender identity.”

According UN, This Universal Periodic Review aims to keep all countries accountable and reminds states of their responsibility to fully respect and implement all human rights and fundamental freedoms. “This mechanism has great potential to promote and protect human rights in the darkest corners of the world”, UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon said in the UN website.

April 7, 2009 – PinkNews

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Senegal: Nine men contest gay prison sentences

by Jessica Geen
Nine Senegalese men who were sentenced to eight years in prison for "indecent conduct and unnatural acts" are appealing against the decision. The men, most of whom belong to a group set up to combat HIV/AIDS, appeared at the Dakar Court of Appeal yesterday with their attorneys. The men’s counsel argued that there was no material proof for the accusations, no specific complainant had filed charges against the men and that the time of their arrests (after 10pm) was illegal.

The prosecution has not contested the defence plea. The nine men were arrested in December last year at the apartment of Diadji Diouf, a prolific LGBT leader, and sentenced in January. Biram Sassoum Sy, a lawyer for the nine men, was optimistic about the outcome. "We have good hopes," he told journalists on at the appeal yesterday. He added that if the judges accept that there were technical irregularities, the case would be dismissed and the detainees freed immediately.

A judgement is expected on April 20th. Gay rights groups believe the eight-year sentence is the harshest ever handed down to anyone accused of gay crimes. Homosexual acts are punishable by imprisonment of between one and five years in Senegal. Last year, the African Assembly for the Defence of Human Rights expressed concern over the rise of homophobia and hatred of homosexuals in Senegal.

Muslim organisations in the African nation have warned against "enemies of the faith and of morality." In February 2008, the release from prison of several men arrested on suspicion of homosexuality following the publication of photographs of a same-sex "marriage ceremony" led to riots, acres of print and media coverage and a conspiracy theory. Some gay men were driven out of their homes.

April 20, 2009 – PinkNews

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Senegal overturns ‘gay’ jail terms

by Jessica Geen
Nine men in Senegal who were sentenced to eight years in prison for "indecent conduct and unnatural acts" have had their convictions overturned. Dakar’s court of appeal ordered the arrest warrants against the men to be lifted and ruled they must be released immediately. The men, most of whom belong to a group set up to combat HIV/AIDS, were arrested in December at the apartment of Diadji Diouf, a prolific LGBT leader, and sentenced in January.

The men’s counsel argued that there was no material proof for the accusations, no specific complainant had filed charges against the men and that the time of their arrests (after 10pm) was illegal. The prosecution did not contest the defence plea.

Gay rights groups believe the eight-year sentence originally given to the men is the harshest ever handed down to anyone accused of gay crimes. Homosexual acts are punishable by imprisonment of between one and five years in Senegal. Last year, the African Assembly for the Defence of Human Rights expressed concern over the rise of homophobia and hatred of homosexuals in Senegal.

4 May 2009 – BBC News

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‘Gay man’ disinterred in Senegal

The body of a man believed to be homosexual has twice been dug up from a Muslim cemetery in Senegal. The man, in his 30s, was first buried on Saturday before residents of the western town of Thies dug up his body and left it near his grave, police say. His family then reburied him, but he was once more exhumed by people who did not want him buried there. His body was dumped outside the family house.

Senegal outlaws homosexual acts but there is a tradition of effeminate men. A police officer told the AFP news agency that the body was eventually buried away from the cemetery. The state-owned Le Soleil newspaper reports that it was buried within the grounds of the family home. "Goor-jiggen" (men-women) dress up as women, socialise with females and have long been tolerated in Senegal, a majority Muslim country. However, attitudes seem to be changing.

The AFP news agency reports that local imams, as well as some newspapers and radio stations, have denounced homosexuals after an appeals court last month overturned the conviction of nine people for homosexual acts. They had been sentenced to eight years in jail after being found guilty of "indecent conduct and unnatural acts". The men, who were part of an HIV/Aids group, were arrested in December at a flat in a suburb of the capital, Dakar. In February 2008, the editor of a magazine in Senegal received death threats after publishing pictures claiming to depict a wedding ceremony between two men.

22 August 2009 – VOA News

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Senegalese Court to Try Teenagers for Homosexuality

by Fid Thompson
Dakak – Two Senegalese teenagers will stand trial this coming week for allegedly committing homosexual acts. It is the latest in a string of cases targeting gay men and now young boys in Senegal. Newspapers here in Dakar are preoccupied with the onset of the Muslim holiday Ramadan and the final matches of the season for Senegal’s most popular sport, traditional wrestling. They have yet to comment on the story of two young men from the religious town of Darou Mousty in northern Senegal. The two seventeen-year-old boys will stand trial this week for "homosexual acts" in a juvenile court in the region’s capital, Louga.

Three other young men from Darou Mousty were arrested with the teenagers in June, but were tried in an adult court in August. Two of the men received five-year sentences and a third, who is younger, was sent to jail for two years. In Senegal, homosexuality is punishable by a maximum of 5 years in jail and fines of up to $3,000.

Siré Ba is a lawyer representing two of the men, including one of the seventeen-year-olds. He says the men were in a private house when a neighbor walked in. Ba says the young men were not caught in the act of having sex, but rather were involved in what he calls ‘questionable’ activities. Senegalese law requires that people of the same sex be caught in-the-act in order to be convicted. But Ba says the judge’s decision in sentencing the men was subjective.

Since February 2008 when a local paper published photos of a gay marriage ceremony, gay men in Senegal have lived in constant fear of harassment, abuse and imprisonment. Some have fled the country and others have been forced to move to different towns or neighborhoods to avoid discrimination and assault. In December 2008, nine men were arrested in the home of a prominent gay activist and sentenced to eight years in prison for ‘unnatural acts’ and ‘conspiracy’. Senegal’s court of appeals overturned the ruling in April 2009.

But violent public backlash provoked by conservative religious leaders has many gay men now fearing for their safety. In May, the grave of Madièye Diallo was repeatedly dug up and dumped outside of the Muslim cemetery where he was buried. Diallo was a gay man whose sexual orientation was well known.

Cary Alan Johnson is executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. He says, "We are standing in solidarity with human rights movements in Senegal and with the LGBT community in Senegal which is calling for Senegal to adhere to its commitments — commitments to its own constitution and to the African charter on human rights and its commitment to the UN human rights treaties. All of which say, in one way or another, that discrimination is wrong. Mistreating people simply because of their sexual orientation and gender identity is wrong."

Johnson hopes Senegal’s commitment to human rights, to diversity and to the rule of law will prevail in the case of the young men from Darou Mousty.

December 29th, 2009 – Box Turttle Bulletin

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Senegal Police Detain 24 Men for “Homosexual Activities”

by Jim Burroway
Senegal police arrested 24 men on December 24 at a house in Saly for allegedly engaging in “homosexual activities” and for holding an unauthorized party. They were released the next day, but police are continuing the investigation.

Last August, a 17-year-old man was arrested for homosexuality, and two others were sentenced for two and five years imprisonment for homosexual activities. Earlier this year, nine AIDS workers were given prison sentences of between one and eight years, with three more years added for being in a “criminal group” — presumably the AIDS service organization they worked for. They were released in April following an international outcry.

According to AFP, the Senegalese Foreign Minister Madicke Niang said on December 10 that homosexuality would be decriminalized in Senegal.

January 4, 2010 – The Vancouver Sun

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Stigma hampers Senegalese AIDS fight

A 2007 Pew Research Centre poll of 700 Senegalese respondents found that 97 per cent of Senegalese believed homosexuality ‘should be rejected’ by society.

by Peter O’Neil, Canwest News Europe Correspondent
Dakar, Senegal — Three gay Senegalese men huddle just after midnight in the corner of a restaurant, wolfing down chicken dinners after agreeing to have their photographs taken on the condition their faces are hidden from view. All three, who like two-thirds of gay Senegalese men maintain conjugal relationships with wives or girlfriends as part of their public facade, say they live each day fearing that exposure of their homosexuality would provoke contempt, family rejection and possible violence in this poor, predominantly Muslim country on West Africa’s coast.

"We face verbal and physical aggression in the streets if people know we are MSM (men who have sex with men)," says Lamine, secretary-general of a 95-member group called Xam Xamle ("teaching knowledge"), which was organized three years ago to convince men, often unsuccessfully, to come out of the shadows to attend meetings on the importance of safe sex and regular HIV testing. "They call us perverts, they say we are worms."

Dr. Bara Ndiaye, project leader for the non-governmental organization Enda-Sante, said anti-AIDS initiatives led by government and non-government organizations are often viewed suspiciously. "This society is very hostile toward homosexuals," said Ndiaye, whose organization works closely with MSM and sex workers on issues like safe sex, testing, treatment and nutrition. "They assume it is promoting homosexuality."

Some Senegalese claim there had historically been a modest level of tolerance for sexual minorities in this former French colony, but a 2007 Pew Research Centre poll of 700 Senegalese respondents found that 97 per cent believed homosexuality "should be rejected" by society. The poll had an error margin of four per cent, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Pew organization. Any pretence of a tolerant society was shattered after two events last year. In early 2008, five men were arrested, and later released, after their photos appeared in a magazine celebrating a symbolic gay marriage.

Then, last December, police burst into the private residence of an HIV outreach worker and arrested nine men, charging them with violation of the country’s law against gay sex prohibiting "unnatural" acts. They were allegedly beaten in prison and then sentenced to eight years in jail, but were released on appeal in April amid international protests from rights groups. Some fled the country as refugees due to threats from outraged citizens who said in public forums that the men should be beaten or even lynched.

Gay men, and male and female sex workers, are by far the two groups most devastated by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has infected 33 million people around the world, two-thirds of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. Roughly one in five members of each group is HIV-positive in Senegal, which otherwise has a relatively low infection rate of just under one per cent, according to government estimates.

"We are sometimes rejected by our own kids," said Ndeye, an HIV-positive female prostitute and spokeswoman for a support group called Karlene. "If the community finds out you are a sex worker, your opinion will no longer mean anything. We are not regarded as human beings."

Prostitution is legal in Senegal for women over 21, and those who register get easier access to health care, health information, general support and condoms. But an estimated 80 per cent aren’t registered, in many cases because women fear the stigma of being officially labelled a sex worker. National and international health organizations desperately need to reach out to these groups to ensure they don’t spread HIV to sex partners, or in the case of mothers to their children during pregnancy or while breastfeeding, according to Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the $18.7-billion U.S. Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

He said social stigmatization represents the second-biggest barrier facing national and international bodies waging a multibillion-dollar battle against AIDS, a crisis that has been overtaken in the media by the global financial collapse, war, climate change and the H1N1 flu pandemic. It is next only to weak government health-care systems in recipient countries, said Kazatchkine, whose organization funds Enda-Sante, Xam Xamle and Karlene.

"These people, because they’re harassed, will hide," Kazatchkine told Canwest News Service. "Because they hide they will not access treatment services, and they will go underground and spread the epidemic. So stigma and discrimination are major issues." Women who aren’t sex workers, and who get the virus from their husbands, represent another vulnerable group because many women avoid testing and treatment due to fears they will be divorced if they test positive — even though in most cases their husband was their only sex partner. Women are infected at twice the rate of men, say officials.

Their husbands are often reluctant to get tested even if their wives are HIV-positive, saying they’d rather not know, and many who do test positive don’t go for treatment. "Men are supposed to be the pillars who provide authority and resources for their families," said Alice Desclaux, a French anthropologist who has done several studies on stigmatization of AIDS victims here.

"It’s very difficult for them to be seen publicly or semi-publicly as demanding, as weak persons."

Read Article HERE

January 21, 2010 – Metro Weekly

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Meanwhile, in Senegal – International pressure on Uganda is important, but other nations remain havens of anti-LGBT oppression

by Cary Alan Johnson and Ryan Thoreson
The global outcry against Uganda’s "Anti-Homosexuality Bill" could not be more deafening. Opponents of the legislation have condemned the effort not just to put gays in prison, which is already the law in Uganda, but to further criminalize the ”promotion of homosexuality,” require that suspected gays and lesbians be turned in to authorities, and to punish some individuals — including those who are HIV positive or those euphemistically called ”repeat offenders” — with death.

The governments of Canada, France and Sweden have branded the bill wrongheaded. From Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to President Barack Obama himself, the U.S., a major foreign donor to Uganda, has made its disapproval of the legislation clear. Usually silent religious leaders, from Anglican and Catholic Church leadership to Saddleback Church‘s Rick Warren and other evangelical Christians, have condemned the bill’s promotion of the death penalty, imprisonment for gays and lesbians, and the threat its provisions pose to pastoral confidentiality.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe has expressed deep concern with the bill’s potential impact on Uganda’s heretofore successful HIV-prevention efforts. And while both the African Union and the government of South Africa have characteristically failed to condemn the bill, several important African leaders, including former president of Botswana Festus Mogae and UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Elizabeth Mataka, have spoken out firmly and forcefully. If the bill passes in this firestorm of criticism, it certainly won’t be for lack of unified, unequivocal condemnation.

This vehement response was absent less than a year ago and fewer than a hundred miles away, when the Parliament of Burundi amended its Penal Code to criminalize consensual same-sex relationships for the first time in its history. Nor was it conspicuous when Nigeria considered criminalizing attendance at gay-rights meetings or support groups in 2006. Now, horror at the cruelty of these new laws and growing evidence of direct involvement by the U.S. religious right is leading to a subtle, but significant, sea change. Local LGBT and civil-rights movements are finding the voice to condemn these horrible new pieces of legislation and the international community is standing its ground. Last month, the government of Rwanda dropped a proposal to criminalize homosexuality in the face of pressure from rights activists and HIV-service providers inside and outside of the country.

But while condemning new oppressive laws is important, it is just as important — and perhaps more pressing — to take measures to hold governments accountable for the daily violence and lifetimes of discrimination that LGBT people face in the more than 80 countries around the world that continue to criminalize homosexuality and the many more that impose penalties for those who challenge gender norms.

Take Senegal, for instance, where homosexuality has been illegal since 1965. The last two years have seen a dramatic escalation in homophobic persecution and violence, largely unnoticed by the international community and the world media. The country has experienced waves of arrests, detentions, and attacks on individuals by anti-gay mobs, fueled by media sensationalism and a harsh brand of religious fundamentalism. Police have rounded up men and women on charges of homosexuality, detained them under inhumane conditions, and sentenced them with or without proof of having committed any offense. Families and communities have turned on those suspected of being gay or lesbian. In cities throughout the county, the corpses of men presumed to have been gay have been disinterred and unceremoniously abandoned. As the international community has laudably warned Uganda on the progress of its nonsensical law, arrests on charges related to homosexuality in Senegal — five men in Darou Mousty in June, a man in Touba in November, and 24 men celebrating at a party in Saly Niax Niaxal on Christmas Eve — continue largely unnoticed.

Responding to the homophobic extremism in the Ugandan legislation is hugely important, but it is no substitute for a broad and unequivocal condemnation of sodomy laws and anti-LGBT violence wherever it occurs. When just such a statement condemning grave violations of human rights on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and calling for the end of criminalization was brought to the UN General Assembly just one year ago, only 66 of 192 countries voted for it. At the time, the U.S. was not one of them.

Even if the campaign against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill succeeds, homosexuality will continue to be illegal in Uganda — just as it is in Senegal, where the lives of LGBT people are virtually unlivable. The test of our commitment to rights for all members of the human family, including LGBT people, is not whether we respond when the media turns its hot spotlight on a new, extreme piece of legislation. It is whether we are willing to commit our attention, resources, and political will in places like Senegal, where there are no cameras or reporters chronicling the impact of a decades-old law to hold us accountable. While the global sense of outrage at Uganda’s bill is inspiring, it will be a missed opportunity if this spirited condemnation of homophobic violence fails to become standard operating procedure.

Cary Alan Johnson is the executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). Ryan Thoreson is a research fellow at IGLHRC and co-author of Words of Hate, Climate of Fear: Human Rights Violations and Challenges to the LGBT Movement in Senegal. The opinions expressed here are the authors’ and not necessarily those of the organization.

9 March 2010 – VOA News

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Activists Criticize Senegal for Anti-Gay Persecution

by Nico Colombant
While gay rights are slowly expanding around the world, including in Africa, human rights activists note some political, media and religious leaders are leading sometimes violent campaigns in the opposite direction. Activists say they feel the tradition of tolerance no longer applies to homosexuals in that West African nation. Protesters in Senegal screamed at each other during this noisy anti-gay rally, one of many broken up by security forces over the past two years. One protester said it was not normal in a mostly Muslim country to have homosexuals, and that it was his right to protest their existence.

Ryan Thoreson has been researching anti-gay persecution in Senegal as part of his work with the U.S.-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. He says Senegal’s traditional image as a country of tolerance has been severely tarnished by a recent wave of arrests, negative media coverage, and announcements by political and religious leaders targeting Senegal’s gay community.

"Every time, there is a wave of arrests, they are covered in a really sensationalistic way and politicians have picked up on that and capitalized on that as well by running and organizing marches and inciting people to violence as a way of stirring up support for opposition parties and the opposition to the government," said Thoreson. "And then, as soon as the government saw how popular that could be, you saw people like the prime minister making the same sorts of accusations and condemnations."

Prime Minister Souleymane Ndiaye Ndéné last year called homosexuality "a sign of a crisis of values." He said it was due to the world’s economic problems, and that government ministries as well as society as a whole should fight against homosexuality. His statements were then praised in Senegalese media. Articles said the prime minister was standing up against alleged pro-gay western lobbying.

Senegal’s penal code says what it calls "an impure or unnatural act with another person of the same sex" is punishable by a maximum of five years in prison. Last year, activists fighting HIV/AIDS were sentenced to eight years in jail on charges of homosexual acts and criminal conspiracy. When their conviction was overturned several months later on procedural matters, an influential religious leader, Imam Massamba Diop, said they should have been killed. Other Imams said unless there was proof they had committed homosexual acts, they should be set free, and that God would judge them.

Thoreson, the American researcher, uses the acronym LGBT to refer to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders. He says once people are identified as being one of these in Senegal, their life and even death become difficult.

"Many LGBT are sort of in and out of exile. They have to move frequently from place to place because their housing is not secure and if their neighbors, or families or communities find them to be LGBT, or if allegations are made that someone is LGBT, they are often ejected from that community, or they face pretty severe violence from even their own family members," he added. "There have also been reports that the corpses of people who are presumed to be LGBT have been dug up in multiple cities from Muslim cemeteries, and have been dumped back into their family’s own compound, or dumped by the side of the road."

Last year, the body of a man believed to have been gay was dug up twice in the western town of Thies. A Senegalese lesbian living in the United States, Selly Thiam, recently started an audio history project and Web site called "None on the Record." Interviews, which Thoreson has been using to complement his research, have been conducted across Africa. Most, like this gay man describing his experiences in Senegal, requested they remain anonymous to avoid retaliation.

He says if someone is known to be gay in Senegal it is a justification for others to insult and attack him, and rob him on the streets or in his home. He says people do not believe it is possible to be Muslim and gay. He adds that in the 1990s, gays were viewed as artists who were called on to help organize parties and public ceremonies. Now, he says, they are viewed as persona non-grata. One woman who is lesbian says she is a human like others. She says she has her religious faith and she has her heart.

She adds that being in love is when your heart chooses someone regardless of gender and says she believes it is a noble life to follow one’s heart. One gay Senegalese man who has exiled himself to Belgium for security reasons says there needs to be a public debate involving media, politicians and religious leaders to discuss equal rights and protection against discrimination. Pro-gay activists in Senegal say they feel they are victims of politicians and religious leaders trying to gain power by using hate and fear tactics against them to divert attention amid poverty, unemployment and youth frustration. They say they also fear the publicizing of help they are receiving from outside the country, saying it could hurt their cause more than help it.

13 April 2010 – Fridae

15
Even after death, abuse against gays continues

by News Editor
To the long list of abuse meted out to suspected homosexuals in Africa, Senegal has added a new form of degradation — the desecration of their bodies.

The Associated Press reports (via The Washington Post):

Even death cannot stop the violence against gays in this corner of the world any more. Madieye Diallo’s body had only been in the ground for a few hours when the mob descended on the weedy cemetery with shovels. They yanked out the corpse, spit on its torso, dragged it away and dumped it in front of the home of his elderly parents.

The scene of May 2, 2009 was filmed on a cell phone and the video sold at the market. It passed from phone to phone, sowing panic among gay men who say they now feel like hunted animals. "I locked myself inside my room and didn’t come out for days," says a 31-year-old gay friend of Diallo’s who is ill with HIV. "I’m afraid of what will happen to me after I die. Will my parents be able to bury me?" A wave of intense homophobia is washing across Africa, where homosexuality is already illegal in at least 37 countries.

21 January 2010 – Afrol News

16
Senegal’s gay community confronts social taboos

by UN media IRIN
Misanet / IRIN – The meeting-place was at a noisy down-market street café where the waiter as well as the clients were gay, but where everyone was staunchly pretending not to be. Senegal’s homosexual men are peeping out from behind the mask, but social and religious taboos run strong.

–We are always pretending, said one of a couple of the leaders of the country’s underground gay movement who had agreed to come out of the woodwork to talk to the UN media ‘IRIN’ on condition of anonymity. "Sometimes we feel sick of the lies," he said. Hit by a spate of deaths and disease in the community five years ago, a group of gays got together "to find out whether it was HIV/AIDS and what to do about it," said 27-year-old Mamadou (not his real name). "There were no free tests available; people wondered if it was malaria."

Mamadou elaborates: "There were active and passive gays, transvestites, queens, a whole mass of people who’re vilified and don’t dare go to hospital because they’re afraid of being blacklisted and marginalised. Many were illiterate too," he said. "Being gay means being shut out. We had to organise." From 56 card-carrying residents of Senegal’s fast-paced hip capital Dakar in 2000, group membership has leapt to more than 400 today, most of them aged between 18 and 40 and living in towns and villages across the land. A second group of MSMs – the acronym for men who have sex with men – claims to have signed up around the same number.

– Work with the gay community is beginning to bear fruit, said Alioune Badara Sow, head of projects at the National Alliance Against AIDS (ANCS), a leading non-governmental organisation. "The number of activists is getting bigger by the day, attracting men from all walks of life, tailors, politicians, the sons of traditional healers." But the dilemma facing Senegal’s gays is the same as it was five years ago – whether to work quietly but efficiently underground, or come out of the closet and face the music. "Sex is a taboo subject here," Mr Sow told ‘IRIN’.

– Public opinion wouldn’t understand if we talked about all this openly, he added. "People would think we were okaying homosexuality. But we must support men who have sex with men, focusing on their battle against HIV/AIDS in the interests of public health."

At a downtown public hospital, where ceiling-fans whirred in poorly-lit corridors peopled by wan, dejected patients, the head of the HIV/AIDS and STI [Sexually Transmitted Diseases] department, Abdoulaye Sidibe Wade spoke out against discrimination in the public health sector. Men who have sex with men "are part and parcel of the population, we consider them to be human beings, with rights and duties," he told ‘IRIN’. Sociologists say the "gor jigeen" – which means "man-woman" in Wolof, the dominant language of Senegal – have long been an accepted part of society, on condition that they avoid open displays of their sexuality. However, gays appear to have a very long bridge to cross to join the rest of the human race in Senegal.

As in most sub-Saharan African countries, homosexuality is illegal in Senegal. Article 319 of the penal code bans same-sex relations as "un-natural". Strong conservative values, plus the preachings of the Koran in this 95 percent Moslem country, mean trouble for those breaching accepted sexual practice.

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June 9, 2010 – IGLHRC

17
Senegal – Addressing Escalating Arrests & Violence

In Senegal, same-sex activity has, since 1965, been punishable by up to five years imprisonment. Enforcement of this law has escalated in the past two years, with the arrests of more than 50 people and trials of at least 16 individuals suspected of same-sex activity or being part of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans community. Simultaneously, state-sanctioned violence and anti-gay rhetoric in the media against individuals believed to be LGBT has increased.

In February 2008, publication of photographs from a same-sex commitment ceremony set off a wave of arrests and an anti-gay media frenzy and sent dozens of gay men into exile. In December 2008, police raided an HIV training hosted by a local AIDS Service organization — AIDES-Senegal. Those present were arrested, beaten, held in appalling conditions and sentenced to eight years in prison before successfully appealing their convictions.

Arrests continued with the apprehension of four men in Darou Mousty in June 2009. In November, Safinatoul Amal, an organization charged with the spiritual protection of the town of Touba, reportedly raided a man’s home and arrested him for "incitement to debauchery" and forming a "network of homosexuals." On December 24, twenty-four men were arrested at a private home in Saly Niax Niaxal and briefly held before being released. The arrests were accompanied by sensational media coverage of LGBT issues, virulently homophobic statements from religious and political leaders, and violence — including physical attacks and the exhumation and desecration of the bodies of deceased people suspected of being LGBT.

IGLHRC has responded to these events and worked closely with emerging LGBT communities in Senegal to protect the human rights of LGBT people and their defenders. Along with regular updates and action alerts designed to bring pressure to bear on Senegal’s government, we also provided material support for those fleeing from danger, visited those in prison and provided food and medical supplies, and documented the patterns of abuses faced by LGBT people in Senegal. Of particular significance is our recent collaboration with None on Record: Stories of Queer Africa, that resulted in four audio profiles of LGBT Senegalese, who recount their experiences with hostility and homophobia in the country. To hear the interviews, click on the arrows below or visit our blog.

July 2010 – Afrol News

18
Dakar from Africa’s gay capital to centre of homophobia

afrol News – In colonial times, Senegal’s metropolis Dakar was famous for its open and tolerated homosexual prostitution market, and as late as in the 1970s, as many as 17 percent of Senegalese men admitted having had homosexual experiences. Now, Dakar is West Africa’s centre of gay oppression. The government of Senegal has made it clear that homosexuality is un-African. Since 1965, same-sex activity has been punishable by up to five years imprisonment, but only during the last five years, Dakar’s former visible gay community has had to go underground, risking punishment.

Dakar’s gay history is the best example demonstrating that homosexuality is not un-African. Indeed, homosexuality has been a visible and well-known part of Wolof traditions, and only moralist opinions of the colonialists, later adopted by an increasingly dominant Muslim clergy, led to the suppression of this culture. The old Wolof name for homosexual men is gor-digen, or men-women. Armand Marie Corre, a French navy doctor stationed in Senegal in the 1870s, writes how he met many locals "with feminine dress and demeanour, who he was told, made their living from prostitution." Dr Corre referred to the Wolofs’ appetite for "morbid eroticism" in his critical report; the oldest known written records of homosexuality in Senegal.

In the 1930s, European reports about the exotic gor-digen increase in numbers, reflecting their visibility in the streets of Dakar. Traveller Geoffrey Gorer reports the men-women are "a common sight" and that "they do their best to deserve the epithet by their mannerisms, their dress and their make-up; some even dress their hair like women." Mr Gorer interestingly notes that these openly gay men "do not suffer in any way socially, though the Mohammedans refuse them religious burial." French colonial authorities, although not trying to stop same-sex prostitution, however claimed to be bothered by the practice but blamed it on "Muslim culture" – a widely held misunderstanding among Europeans at the time.

British historian Michael Crowder, travelling West Africa in the 1950s, was also puzzled by the visibility of the gor-digen and male prostitution in Dakar. Even on Place Prôtet – which is now Dakar’s prestigious centre square Place de l’Indépendence – young Senegalese males waited to be picked up by elder men. "The elders and faithful Muslims condemn men for this," Mr Crowder noted, thus documenting a slowly growing intolerance towards homosexuality from the local clergy. "But it is typical of African tolerance that they [the male prostitutes] are left very much alone by the rest of the people," Mr Crowder however added.

British traveller Michael Davidson described Dakar in 1949 as "the ‘gay’ city of West Africa." When he returned nine years later, "Dakar was gayer than ever" and nobody did have to shy about his homosexuality in the city. And by 1958, he recalls, homosexuality was not confined to the French dominated centre of Dakar, but to the nightlife in the "native quarters" and shantytowns surrounding the capital. Mr Davidson reports about brothels and nightclubs dominated by the gor-digen. A suburban club "was full of adolescent Africans in drag. … Most of them were indeed in girls’ clothes: some in European, some wearing the elaborate headdress of the West African mode. … They danced together. They camped around like a pride of prima donnas. They came to our table and drank lots of beer with us," he recalls.

Raymond Schenkel was the first to present scientific research about the sexuality of the Senegalese in 1971. A non-random survey of Senegalese made by the researcher revealed that 17.6 percent of male respondents and even 44.4 percent of females said thhad had homosexual experiences. The researcher also noted the big visibility of homosexuality in Dakar. Dakar remained West Africa’s gay capital during the 1970s and 1980s. But attitudes started changing during the 1980s. Dutch anthropologist Niels Teunis in 1990 found that Dakar men engaging with men were changing their identity. While many still used the Wolof term gor-digen, several men now referred to themselves as "homosexuèles" in French.

A connection between the Wolof gor-digen tradition and the international notion of "homosexuality" – a much wider definition often exclusing the option of marrying someone of the opposite gender – was slowly being established. Picked up by government and the clergy, influenced by homphobic trends in Africa, this connection should lead to the destruction of the gor-digen culture. At the beginning of this milennium, homosexuality was becoming more taboo and less visible in Dakar. But still in the mid-2000s, gay meeting points were well known to Dakar inhabitants and gay men relatively openly could pick up equally oriented men in terrasses of the famous beach promenade Corniche Ouest in the centre at plain daylight. Most parties, however, started going underground.

Around 2005, Dakar had become a more conservative city at large. While the city centre earlier had a saga-like nightlife with live music and heavy alcohol consume, Dakar now is more in line with other Muslim cities. Nightlife, alcohol and sex during the last decade have been widely sent to the domain of taboos. Homosexuality has turned the greatest taboo. And during the past two years, government got tough on homosexuals. Anti-gay rhetoric in the media and by politicians against individuals believed to be gay or lesbian sharply increased. Suddenly in 2008, the 1965 law punishing same-sex activities was rediscovered, with the arrests of more than 50 people and trials of at least 16 individuals until now.

In February 2008, publication of photographs from a same-sex commitment ceremony set off a wave of arrests and an anti-gay media frenzy and sent dozens of gay men into exile. In December 2008, police raided an HIV training hosted by a local AIDS organisation suspected of aiding gay men. In November 2009, Safinatoul Amal, an organisation charged with the spiritual protection of the town of Touba, raided a man’s home and arrested him for forming a "network of homosexuals." In December, 24 men were arrested at a private home. The arrests were accompanied by sensational media coverage, strong homophobic statements from religious and political leaders, and violence — including physical attacks and the exhumation and desecration of the bodies of deceased people suspected of being gay.

By now, the Wolof culture of the gor-digen is suppressed and homosexuality is branded un-African. Together with neighbouring The Gambia, Senegal has turned into the centre of homophobia in West Africa. Dakar, the refuge for the gor-digen of the entire region, is now a source of gay refugees. Dakar’s "typical African tolerance", noted by Mr Crowder 60 years ago, has been replaced by typical colonial intolerance.

2010 – PanosAIDS

19
Homosexuality and Homophobia in Senegalese Media

The rise of homophobia occurred during a period of crisis that affected various sectors of Senegalese economic and social life. Homophobia was used as an outlet or an opportunity to divert emotions. This context was also one that saw the emergence of political ambitions and radical Islamic views. It was also marked by the presence of discriminatory provisions in the Senegalese penal code against homosexuals (sexual relations between same-sex persons are punishable by heavy prison sentences and fines) that contradict constitutional provisions and international laws of which Senegal is signatory.

The print media’s analysis during critical periods that witnessed the rise of homophobia in 2008-2009, highlighted the production of an image of homosexuality that can be defined based on the following ideas:
– Homosexuality is portrayed as a new import from the West, supported by dark lobby groups;
– The image of homosexuality portrayed by the media is one of an existential threat against society and its sacred foundations;
– Resorting to violence against homosexuals is made legitimate by self-defence and “moral purification”;
– Homosexuality is illustrated in association with the fear of AIDS.

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