Tag Archives: Africa

Via the Independent Online: A lesbian and gay rights campaign organisation has hit out at the Cape Town Pride, saying the celebration does not represent the black homosexual community and it will not be supported. “Free Gender has made the decision to continue to suspend its support for the upcoming Cape Town Pride 2015,” said Funeka Soldaat, who is the …

Scott Long reports at Paper Bird: One of the 26 men arrested, tortured, and ultimately acquitted in the December 7 raid on a Cairo bathhouse has tried to burn himself to death. El-Watan newspaper claims to have spoken to him yesterday in hospital. “I work in a restaurant in the Shobra district,” he told them. “I’m harassed constantly in my …

Scott Long writes at Paper Bird: The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights tells me (and the newspaper Al Wafd reports tonight) that the prosecution has formally appealed the not-guilty verdict against the 26 men. The prosecution has the right to appeal twice, under Egyptian law — once to an appeals court, and after that to the Court of Cassation. We …

Via the BBC: An Egyptian court has cleared 26 men arrested after a raid on a bath house in Cairo last month and charged with “inciting debauchery”. The men were arrested a month after eight men were jailed for appearing in a video alleged to show a gay marriage. Rights groups have condemned Egypt’s treatment of gay people, in particular …

Via the Independent: Gay rights activists in Uganda have risked detention by police, threats of violence and death threats to publish a new magazine sharing the stories of the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community. Campaigners in Kampala have launched Bombastic to “share the realities of being gay” in Uganda, where homosexuality activity is illegal, the mainstream …

J. Lester Feder reports at Buzzfeed: The United States on Tuesday dropped the Gambia from a popular free trade agreement in response to a crackdown on LGBT rights and other human rights concerns. The decision to drop the small West African nation from special trade status under the African Growth and Opportunity Act of 2000 came late Tuesday afternoon, just …

Earlier this month 26 men were arrested in a police raid on a Cairo bathhouse. Veteran activist Scott Long was in the courthouse yesterday for the opening of the trial. An excerpt: Police opened the courtroom doors at about 1:40 and let 60 or 70 people press through. The next twenty minutes were pure chaos. Guards hustled the cowed defendants …

Via the Associated Press: Egyptian official says prosecutors have referred 26 men arrested in a raid on a bath house to trial on charges connected to their suspected homosexuality. The prosecution official said Wednesday the trial will begin Sunday, a quick referral in a case that has captured public attention following the men’s televised arrest. Scenes of half-naked men escorted …

Watch below as Nigerian Pastor Chris Oyakhilome slays hundreds with the invisible power of the Holy Ghost. Oyakhilome has been denounced by African HIV/AIDS groups for claiming that he can faith-heal away all diseases. Christ Embassy’s website claims that Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, the proprietor of this church, can faith-heal HIV. ETV’s 3rd Degree has been outspoken against AIDS quackery and …

Via the Washington Post: Egypt’s government has aggressively cracked down on Islamist and liberal opponents over the past year. Now officials are increasingly targeting another group: gay people. Police raided a public bathhouse in Cairo this month and arrested at least two dozen men, parading them half-naked in front of television cameras before hauling them off to prison. It was …

Via J. Lester Feder at Buzzfeed: The Egyptian TV presenter who claims to have reported “group sex” at a Cairo bathhouse to police prompting a raid on Sunday aired her report late Monday evening. The program, by Mona Iraqi of the channel Al-Qahira wal Nas, presents her 26-minute report as an investigation into the spread of AIDS in Egypt, but …

Scott Long reports at Paper Bird: At about 10 PM last night, December 7, police carried out a massive raid on a hammam (bathhouse) in the Ramsis area of Cairo, not far from the main railway station. They arrested many men — dozens, reportedly — and hauled them, stripped naked like concentration-camp inmates, to the trucks. Someone living nearby who …

The First Circuit Court of Appeals today denied Scott Lively’s dismissal demand in the crimes against humanity suit filed against him by Sexual Minorities Uganda. See the ruling at Equality Case Files.

Via Reuters: Drafters of a revised anti-gay law want parliament to pass it in time to be a “Christmas gift” for Ugandans, a lawmaker said on Friday, after a controversial earlier version was quashed because of legal technicalities. Legislation passed by parliament almost a year ago, which would have punished gay sex with long prison terms, provoked a storm of …

Gambian president Yahya Jammeh has signed a bill that makes homosexuality punishable by life in prison. The law targets those with a previous conviction for homosexuality, those living with HIV, and same-sex partners of people with disabilities – all of whom could be imprisoned for life. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Thursday …

Via the Guardian: The Ugandan government could introduce new wide-reaching anti-gay laws before the end of the year, which could see people jailed for up to seven years for “promoting homosexuality”, activists warned on Saturday. The move comes nearly a year after Ugandan politicians passed legislation that could have imposed life sentences on gays. The bill was struck down by …

Via CNN: By the big smiles, warm hugs and loud cries of ululation, the video seems to show a joyous celebration. An Egyptian prosecutor looked at the same footage and saw something very different: a “satanic ceremony” with images that are “shameful, regrettable and anger God.” However it is characterized, the event has landed eight men in jail for three …

Via Reuters: Leroy Ponpon doesn’t know whether to lock himself in his flat in Monrovia because of the deadly Ebola virus, or because he is gay. Christian churches’ recent linking of the two have made life hell for him and hundreds of other gays. Ponpon, an LGBT campaigner in the Liberian capital, says gays have been harassed, physically attacked and …

The British Foreign Office is working to free a tourist who was sentenced to four months in prison for “homosexual acts” after being arrested while vacationing in Morocco. Via BBC News: Ray Cole, from Deal, Kent, was detained with his Moroccan partner by police who approached the pair at a bus stop in Marrakesh last month, his family said. His …