BY STEVE WILLIAMS

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has refused to sign Uganda’s infamous Anti-Homosexuality bill, returning it to parliament. Museveni had previously told parliament he would not sign the bill until the government had been given an appropriate length of time to study the issue. This was widely interpreted to mean the bill would not be allowed to pass until international attention had died down.

In an eight page letter to MPs that was released this week, Museveni again rejected the bill. He challenged  that the chamber passed the bill without quorum, or the minimum representative number of lawmakers in attendance. Museveni, terming homosexual citizens as “abnormal” hasn’t changed his opinion of gay people, but: “The question at the core of the debate of homosexuality is; what do we do with an abnormal person? Do we kill him/her?” At the same time, he rallies against gay rights, saying, “You cannot call an abnormality an alternative orientation. It could be that the Western societies, on account of random breeding, have generated many abnormal people.” Museveni also made it known he believes women may become lesbians due to “sexual starvation.”

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LGBT Nigerians protest outside the Nigerian embassy in New York (Photo: Saharareporters)

BY ERIN HIGGINS
dot429

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has approved a bill that not only bans same-sex marriage, but criminalizes it. A spokesperson for Jonathan, Reuben Abati, did not clarify the exact date, but merely stated on January 13 that the president had signed sometime “earlier this month.”

“More than 90 percent of Nigerians are opposed to same-sex marriage. So, the law is in line with our cultural and religious beliefs as a people,” said Abati. “I think that this law is made for a people and what [the] government has done is consistent with the preference of its environment.”

The law is not intolerant of only same-sex marriages. It also states that anyone who registers, operates, or participates in gay clubs or societies, as well as anyone who shows any homosexual public displays of affection, is breaking the law. These offenses are punishable by up to ten years behind bars.

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BY ERIN HIGGINS

The Prime Minister of Uganda, Amama Mbabazi, has said that gay citizens should not be imprisoned under the country’s anti-homosexuality bill. Why? Because being gay is an “abnormality.” While his words defend LGBT Ugandans from possible life in imprisonment and death, I wouldn’t be too quick to label Mbabazi as an advocate. Not only does he believe homosexuality to be abnormal, he compares it to “mongolism”—a derogatory term for Down syndrome.

“I think in our tradition, homosexuality is treated as an abnormality,” said Mbabazi. “Given that as a fact, the question is how do we treat abnormalities in our society. Do we kill them? […] If you identify an abnormality and you say, ‘Let’s kill homos,’ then my conclusion is that you are the one that is abnormal. They need help. How do you treat your children who are born as mongols? Do you execute them, imprison them for life?”

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BY KELLY MORRIS

Five women were arrested for violating the Senegalese anti-gay law last week in the West African nation of Dakar, Senegal. The women were taken into custody during a birthday party in Dakar’s Yoff district, according to KWQC. Ndeye Kebe, president of the only lesbian activist group in the country, Women’s Smile, said she believes the restaurant where the women were arrested was familiar with the women’s work with Women’s Smile and tipped off the police.

While raids against suspected gay men are much more frequent than against lesbians in the Muslim-majority country, Kebe said that lesbians have been receiving a lot of pressure from scandals that have been in the media. For example, a man put cell-phone coverage of his 18-year-old girlfriend online when he caught her kissing another woman and she was forced to flee the country.

Since the November 11 arrest, a judge has ruled there is “insufficient evidence to convict four woman accused of violating the country’s law banning homosexual acts.” The fifth woman is minor.

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Zambian First Lady Dr. Christine Kaseba holding a baby at the launch of the Dr. Christine Kaseba-Sata Cervical Cancer Screening Centre at Wusakile Mine Hospital in 2012 – (Photo: Thomas Nsama)

BY ERIN HIGGINS
dot429

Three men are currently awaiting trial, facing up to fourteen years in prison, for violating Zambia’s anti-gay laws. But in the midst of hate emerged the country’s First Lady, Doctor Christine Kaseba-Sata, to send a message of peace. “No one should be discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation,” Doctor Christine Kaseba-Sata said during a UNAIDS reception in Lasaka, the country’s capital. “Rather, we should address reproductive health issues around this issue.”

LGBT activists in the southern African country are calling the First Lady’s words a “miracle” and “potential game-changer.” Legislation is incredibly intolerant to LGBT citizens, and it seems the people of Zambia feel the same. In 1999, a non-government associated organization called Zambia Against People with Abnormal Sexual Acts (ZAPASA) was created to eliminate homosexuality, and according to LGBT asylum news, a 2010 survey found that just 2 percent of Zambia’s population believes homosexuality is “morally acceptable.”

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Yesterday, the public proceedings of the African Commission on People’s and Human Rights (ACHPR), founded in 1987, came to close, and it remains to be seen what will become of the ideas proposed and how they will affect LGBT people throughout Africa. The resolutions put forward will be discussed in private until November 5. Despite the progress and support behind the advancement of the African LGBT community, or as they prefer to be titled, the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI), the commission will not necessarily adopt them. However, their progress this year marks a stepping stone for LGBT rights in Africa, as their voices are heard publicly and universally.

The forum is a highly politicised environment as grievances between or about certain states are thrown into the public eye, making it a hugely important event for the LGBT community. SOGI have been making progress these last few years with the eleven elected members of the commission, and this year they managed to get almost 50 participants to focus on SOGI goals.

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