According to a recent New York Times article, homosexuality is illegal in 38 of 54 African nations. In northern sections of Nigeria, where Sharia Law is applied, the penalty is death by stoning. Homosexuality is a death penalty offense in Mauritania, Sudan, and Somalia as well.
Over the last weekend the Associated Press reported that 14 gay men were taken from their beds and assaulted by a crowd of people in the capital of Abuja. The crowd, screaming they were going to "cleanse" their neighborhood of gay people, beat these men with iron bars and wooden clubs. Four of the men were then marched to a local police station where the police beat them again. All were threatened with 14 years in prison under Nigeria's anti-homosexual laws.
Uganda's President, Yoweri Museveni, says he will sign The Anti-Homosexuality Bill, codifying the sentences for homosexual acts, according to The Washington Post. A first offense will get you 14 years in prison and the possibility of life in prison for further acts. According to CNN, the life imprisonment punishment comes to those caught performing "aggravated acts of homosexuality." Please...anyone...define an aggravated act of homosexuality for me?
These kinds of events in Africa make the raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York City in 1969 look like a garden party. Yes, if you are born with a sexual preference for your own sex, and live in one of these African nations, you might as well kill yourself now before the government murders you in the name of justice.
Over the last weekend the Associated Press reported that 14 gay men were taken from their beds and assaulted by a crowd of people in the capital of Abuja. The crowd, screaming they were going to "cleanse" their neighborhood of gay people, beat these men with iron bars and wooden clubs. Four of the men were then marched to a local police station where the police beat them again. All were threatened with 14 years in prison under Nigeria's anti-homosexual laws.
These kinds of events in Africa make the raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York City in 1969 look like a garden party. Yes, if you are born with a sexual preference for your own sex, and live in one of these African nations, you might as well kill yourself now before the government murders you in the name of justice.
Whether Muslim, Christian, or Russian Orthodox, the far-right religious zealots of the world seem to think killing or jailing homosexuals will somehow rid their societies of gay people. They are convinced gay people will miraculously emerge as heterosexuals if only they are punished enough.
I believe the United States should draft a resolution to present to the United Nations to place economic sanctions, like those currently on Iran, on countries with these anti-human laws. As a world leader, the United States should unilaterally stop trading with these nations, including Russia.You cannot have it both ways. You are either for or against human rights. Picking and choosing which ethnic group, religious group, or which sexual group to support is wrong. The world sanctioned South Africa in the past over apartheid laws, eventually forcing change that brought Nelson Mandela out of incarceration. Surely these anti-gay laws are no less evil than were laws supporting apartheid or slavery.
The world LGBT community, and citizens of the world who care about their fellow human beings, must lead this effort. There is a force of evil in the world, led by religious zealots and ignorance, that must be stopped.
A nation that kills its own people by law is a nation that should cease to exist.
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