Nigerian LGBT rights activist Davis Mac-Iyalla contributed this New Year’s message at a time when the Nigerian Senate has voted for a harsh anti-gay bill and urged President Goodluck Jonathan to sign it into law: I am feeling very positive that Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan might not signed the draconian Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: December 2013
LGBT rights in 2013: Don’t forget gains amid losses
As 2013 comes to an end, this blog’s ally, the Rev. Canon Albert Ogle, president of the St. Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation, reviews both the progress and setbacks of 2013 from the viewpoint of that organization’s advocacy of LGBT rights: BY THE REV. CANON ALBERT OGLE As 2013 ends today, time provides us with … Continue reading
London protest would link Sochi, world’s anti-gay laws
Best wishes to artist/activist Vince Laws, who hopes to stage another face-paint protest of 76-plus countries’ anti-gay laws — this time in London in February during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, where the crackdown on LGBT people continues. His proposal on Facebook: I’d like to create BANNED in London in February 2014 to coincide … Continue reading
Gay in Cameroon: Police accuse blackmail victim
This article is also available en français. Police in Cameroon this week turned on an LGBT man who sought their help after he was assaulted by an extortionist/blackmailer, according to the anti-AIDS pro-human-rights group Alternatives-Cameroon. Instead of pressing charges against the extortionist/blackmailer, Alternatives-Cameroon said, police accused the victim of violating Cameroon’s anti-homosexuality law and … Continue reading
Uganda school targets 22 students in anti-gay push
While Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni considers whether to sign the harsh Anti-Homosexuality Bill recently passed by parliament, a Ugandan secondary school has expelled nearly two dozen female students for alleged involvement in same-sex relationships. The Ugandan Daily Monitor reported: Iganga school expels 22 students over lesbianism IGANGA- Twenty two students have been expelled for allegedly … Continue reading
Hostility greets Nigerian LGBT rights advocate
Nigerian LGBT rights activist Davis Mac-Iyalla, currently in the United Kingdom, is working hard to persuade other Nigerians of the wrongheadedness of the “Jail the Gays Bill,” which the Nigerian Senate has passed and asked Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to sign. But depressingly widespread support for that bill was apparent in the silence and hostility … Continue reading
Jamaican Christmas cheer for homeless LGBT youths
Christmas Day brought presents and a special dinner to homeless LGBT youths living in the sewers of New Kingston, Jamaica. Forced out of everywhere else they have tried to live — their parents’ homes, then abandoned buildings, then an open-air gully — the youths now live in the drainage tunnels of New Kingston, except when … Continue reading
Zambia: Police raid suspected gays without warrants
Don’t forget Zambia’s oppressed LGBT community, who continue to endure homophobic repression even as Uganda and Nigeria teeter on the verge of adopting their own new repressive laws targeting their LGBT citizens. Zambia has been conducting a harsh anti-gay crackdown since last spring. Four people are facing prosecution for homosexuality. A fifth is on trial … Continue reading
Uganda president: I might not sign anti-gay bill
Uganda’s New Vision newspaper reports that on Dec. 25 President Yoweri Museveni turned back a Pentecostal leader’s appeal to sign the Anti-Homosexuality Bill that parliament passed last week. Instead, Museveni said he will review the text of the bill before deciding whether to sign it into law. He said, “I will first go through it. … Continue reading
Cameroon: Christmas attack on LGBT rights/AIDS office
Under threat, landlord tells LGBT-friendly AIDS fighters to leave Three days before Christmas, anti-gay vandals destroyed the office of CAMEF, an organization that fights for human rights and against AIDS among LGBT people and sex workers in Limbe in coastal Cameroon. Leaders of CAMEF (Cameroon Association for Empowerment Outreach Programs) said they were “still in … Continue reading
