Death Penalty for being gay

[marshlander]

... King Mwanga of Buganda was according to my reading something of a tyrant, so what was OK for him may not have been alright for everyone else in Buganda, and what about the rest of sub-Saharan Africa?

This is the conclusion to one of the articles I found

With reports from hundreds of sub-Saharan African locales of male-male sexual relations and from about fifty of female-female sexual relations, it is clear that same-sex sexual relations existed in traditional African societies, though varying in forms and in the degree of public acceptance. Much of this same-sex activity was situational or premarital, though there were long-term relationships, too. The special Christian animus toward homosexuality was carried to Africa by Europeans and stimulated denials that "the sin not named among Christians" existed among "unspoiled" Africans.


Stephen O. Murray

more

[marshlander]

It is clear that the people fanning the flames of these hate campaigns are engaging in all sorts of nasty tricks, but when a pastor shows extreme fetishist porn in his sermons to illustrate his points about how evil we are it does make me wonder why more people don't ask more questions :confused:

The pastor using pornography to fan the flames of gay hate in Uganda - Africa, World - The Independent

[peterinmalaga]

The incredible thing is that these hateful sermons on scat and other similar practices actually work in Africa. This pastor is as famous as a pop star and as powerful as a high-ranking politician over there. It is good to note that American evangelists are showing less support for the African bigots as a result of the worldwide attention that is being focused on the crisis of gays in Africa.

[marshlander]

From Pink Paper

A collection of pro-gay artists and activists will unite in London on 28 February in response to Africa's continuing political unrest.

The free event, Gay Africa, is organised in association with English Pen - a charity working to promote literature and human rights.

Taking place at Farringdon's Free Word Centre, East London, it is billed as "an evening of provocative performance and passionate debate" featuring notable figures from Africa and the Caribbean.

So far, special guests include: Bisi Alimi (Nigerian LGBT Activist), Campbell (Filmmaker/Curator), Gaylene Gould (Broadcaster), Inua Ellams (Performance Poet),
John Bosco (Gay Ugandan Refugee), Keith Jarrett (Performance Poet), Lee Jasper (Black Human Rights Activist), Michael Senyonjo (Ugandan Human Rights Activist), Mojisola Adebayo (Writer/Performer) and Phyll Opoku (UK Black Pride).

Other speakers are also expected to confirm.

They are expected to discuss the media's portrayal of LGB issues on the continent and examine how current gay politics affects the rest of the world.

I hope some of you will be able to go.

[marshlander]

Malawi's chief justice on Monday rejected a request from a gay couple charged with buggery and indecency for the constitutional court to review their case and magistrates will now announce their verdict on March 22.

This could mean up to fourteen years in prison for loving the "wrong" person :mad: In the meantime they have been denied bail and have been kept in a high security prison! What exactly is the threat?


(sorry, can't seem to get the image to reproduce here)

[peterinmalaga]

The more you look into the situation in Africa generally. the worse it gets. I read yesterday that in Botswana too gay men can get 7 years in prison for "unnatural offences".

[marshlander]

I have to let this article speak for itself ...

... Moses, a young gay man from Uganda, spoke at our media conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. He is seeking asylum in The United States, because he fears for his life in Uganda. The Ugandan media sometimes publishes the photographs and addresses of LGBT people, placing their livelihoods at risk and their lives in imminent danger.
I usually prep speakers by reviewing talking points. On this day, however, two staff members for the Human Rights Campaign prepared Moses to face the national media by obscuring his face. They stood in a corner fitting his head with a paper bag.
We had two different size bags, and he tried on each, as if they were shirts at an Old Navy store. We had to ensure that it was a snug fit, lest it fall off, reveal his identity and put his life in jeopardy.
It had been a three-day trek by car for Moses and a friend to get to Washington. This heroic journey would not end in magazine covers, book deals or fame as a talking head on the cable networks. All Moses had to gain was the opportunity to share the truth in anonymity, and he did so with remarkable equanimity.
As Moses stood in front of the podium, the juxtaposition of the American flag and this courageous young man wearing a bag to blur his humanity was jarring. I felt pride for living in a free country where we could hold a press conference to denounce The Family’s role in Uganda. But, there was also shame that America, famous for its innovation, had been exporting a virulent and violent strain of religious extremism to far away lands ... (more)

[princealbertofb]

Wow! Disturbing!!! All this religious hocus pocus. Distasteful.

[marshlander]

Desmond Tutu is truly a hero. More people should hear what he has to say.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God's family. And of course they are part of the African family. But a wave of hate is spreading across my beloved continent. People are again being denied their fundamental rights and freedoms. Men have been falsely charged and imprisoned in Senegal, and health services for these men and their community have suffered. In Malawi, men have been jailed and humiliated for expressing their partnerships with other men. Just this month, mobs in Mtwapa Township, Kenya, attacked men they suspected of being gay. Kenyan religious leaders, I am ashamed to say, threatened an HIV clinic there for providing counseling services to all members of that community, because the clerics wanted gay men excluded.
Uganda's parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi.
These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa.
Our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters across Africa are living in fear.
And they are living in hiding -- away from care, away from the protection the state should offer to every citizen and away from health care in the AIDS era, when all of us, especially Africans, need access to essential HIV services. That this pandering to intolerance is being done by politicians looking for scapegoats for their failures is not surprising. But it is a great wrong. An even larger offense is that it is being done in the name of God. Show me where Christ said "Love thy fellow man, except for the gay ones." Gay people, too, are made in my God's image. I would never worship a homophobic God.
"But they are sinners," I can hear the preachers and politicians say. "They are choosing a life of sin for which they must be punished." My scientist and medical friends have shared with me a reality that so many gay people have confirmed, I now know it in my heart to be true. No one chooses to be gay. Sexual orientation, like skin color, is another feature of our diversity as a human family. Isn't it amazing that we are all made in God's image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people? Does God love his dark- or his light-skinned children less? The brave more than the timid? And does any of us know the mind of God so well that we can decide for him who is included, and who is excluded, from the circle of his love?
The wave of hate must stop. Politicians who profit from exploiting this hate, from fanning it, must not be tempted by this easy way to profit from fear and misunderstanding. And my fellow clerics, of all faiths, must stand up for the principles of universal dignity and fellowship. Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.
The writer is archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. full article in the Washington Post

[peterinmalaga]

He is a hero but not enough people are listening neither in Africa, Europe or anywhere else. Thanks for posting that, Marsh, it shows how widespread homophobia is in Africa.