Hope is blooming in the Gambia, thanks to the ouster of Yahya Jammeh, the Gambia’s despotic and violently homophobic former president. Four months after the election of a moderate businessman as president, the West African nation’s foreign minister has proposed repealing the country’s anti-gay law. Continue reading
The Gambia’s new leader has downplayed concerns about the so-called “threat” of homosexuality — a stark contrast to his outrageously homophobic predecessor. Continue reading
On Jan. 20, as the United States inaugurated a president who might roll back advances toward LGBT justice and equality, troops thousands of miles away in West Africa were reported entering the Gambia, seeking to install the newly inaugurated president who would replace that nation’s violently anti-LGBT strongman. Continue reading
Rabidly anti-gay Gambian strongman President Yahya Jammeh has reversed course, declaring his “total rejection” of the results of the Dec. 1 election that he lost decisively. He called for a new vote “free from foreign influence.” Continue reading
Yahya Jammeh, one of the world’s most outspokenly homophobic leaders, has agreed to step down as president — and repressive strongman — of the Gambia after losing Thursday’s presidential election in that West African country. [Dec. 10 update: “Defeated anti-gay strongman demands Gambian revote.”] Property developer Adama Barrow, who has never held political office, won … Continue reading
Several countries in sub-Saharan Africa have made progress in recognizing the human rights of LGBTI people, but much work remains to be done in the region’s 29 countries that still have laws against same-sex intimacy. LGBTI rights in those African countries are the focus of the following excerpts from the 2015 edition of the U.S. … Continue reading
In a new report, Human Rights Watch describes the horrors of life in the Gambia, a small West African country whose beautiful beaches are popular with tourists. Victims of torture under the regime of strongman Yahya Jammeh include not only LGBTI people but also journalists, human rights defenders, student leaders, political opposition members and religious … Continue reading
FatuRadio reported yesterday the details of how the regime of Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh last year began putting into action his longtime threats of violence against LGBTI people. Below are modestly edited excerpts from the FatuRadio article in which three Gambian citizens tell of the torture and inhumane confinement they endured after their arrests on … Continue reading
Alagie Jammeh, the newly LGBTI-friendly nephew of anti-LGBTI Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, has raised $13,505 from more than 300 people in his effort to remain in the United States as a college student instead of returning to the Gambia. There his advocacy of equal rights for LGBTI people would put him at risk. He tells … Continue reading
Everyone who was arrested in last year’s anti-gay crackdown in the Gambia has now been released, according to former Gambian official Fatou Camara. The final three men to be released were acquitted last week of “aggravated homosexuality” after eight months in prison. They were among about 15 people arrested starting in November 2014. Camara, who … Continue reading
