Senegal: Gay Couple Brutally Assaulted by Parents

Very troubling news to report from the beautiful West African nation of Senegal. A gay couple was viciously beaten when one of the men’s parents caught them having sex, according to Gay Star News. The men were later outed in Senegalese media, which has reportedly used the incident to launch another round of anti-gay hysteria in the largely Islamic nation.

The two were making love [at one of their homes in a suburb of Dakar] when his parents returned and caught them at the act on Thursday 27 December. The parents reportedly brutally attacked and beat up the two men. [He] has not been seen since the incident by his family and has reportedly fled elsewhere.

Senegalese media has reported the event replete with anti-gay hate language, describing them as ‘fags’ acting ‘against nature’, and condemning them for not hesitating to control their ‘nature’. The [Senegalese Senxibar portal] wrote that the suburb of ‘Guédiawaye is in shock’ and its inhabitants ‘incensed’. … The portal went on to remind the readers how recently other ‘fags’ were caught in the act and punished by the law for their ‘acts against nature’.

The well-known Senegalese journalist Tamsir Jupiter Ndiaye was sentenced to four years in prison for homosexuality and battery last October. Ndiaye was arrested after getting into a fight with his male partner. “The court says that Ndiaye used a knife and stabbed his partner in the stomach. The court sentenced Ndiaye’s partner to two years in prison,” reports the Associated Press.

In April and May 2009, you may recall a number of stories on bloodthirsty, state-sanctioned anti-gay lynch mobs that swept Senegal. One of the more despicable reports concerned the body of a man suspected to have been gay that was exhumed twice from a cemetery. A 17-year-old accused of being gay by neighbors was sentenced to two years in prison in 2009.

Senegal is one of at least 38 of Africa’s 54 nations that currently have laws penalizing same-sex relations or even sexuality. Under Article 3.913 of the Senegalese penal code, “homosexual acts are punishable by imprisonment of between one and five years” and a fine of up to $3,000. Four African nations—Mauritania, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan—boast the death penalty for gays or same-sex activity. South Africa and Seychelles are the only African nations that protect LGBT rights. South Africa is also the only African nation to guarantee marriage equality.

Source – Rod 2.0