Gabon: LGBT people worry that post-coup government may reinstate anti-gay laws
Conservative voices in Gabon call on the transitional regime to reinstate gay sex ban repealed in 2020
Gabon has wavered on whether to decriminalize homosexuality or not. Modern Gabon had never criminalized gay sex until 2019, when it enacted a law providing up to six months in prison for same-sex intimacy. In 2020, it repealed that law, decriminalizing homosexuality.
After a coup in August 2023, the issue is alive again.
Gabon’s laws are based on a transition charter currently in force that limits marriage to the “union of two people of different sexes” but does not explicitly prohibit homosexual intercourse. Some influential people are calling on the current regime to move Gabon back to criminalizing gay sex.
The dispute is illustrated by a recent debate between anti-gay feminist author Honorine Ngou and Jann Halexander, a Franco-Gabonese musician and filmmaker.
Below are some excerpts of what Ngou and Halexander have written.
This is a translation of a brief article in the Gabon Review about Ngou’s anti-gay pamphlet:
From the pen of writer Honorine Ngou, a brand new [booklet] hits bookstores and points an accusing finger in the direction of the regime deposed last August and particularly of the parliamentarians, the majority of whom were under orders, who voted for the decriminalization of homosexuality in June 2020.
Is Gabon moving towards a return to the criminalization of sexual relations between people of the same sex as in July 2019? For now, nothing is clear. Pending the new Constitution, the Transition Charter (article 25) currently in force limits marriage to the “union of two people of different sexes” without explicitly prohibiting homosexual unions. Part of the public expects no less from the new authorities that they decide in favor of a return to penalization. Honorine Ngou is one of them.
The writer expressed her opinion through a pamphlet recently presented to the public under the title Imposed Homosexuality, Gabon Dévergondé [Debauched]. “Decriminalizing homosexuality means introducing future generations to drinking in the waters of a sexual practice that calls into question Gabonese constitutional identity,” Ngou says. She says she did not welcome the vote of the National Assembly, June 24, 2020. For the academic, this law appeared “like a betrayal, a sledgehammer, an attack on a people crushed by all kinds of evils.”
“When we know the dangers presented by homosexuality and the excesses it can lead to, we can wonder why the Gabonese government and parliamentarians have involved everyone in the active decriminalization and rapid promulgation of homosexuality,” she says.
In June 2020, the bill decriminalizing homosexuality in Gabon carried by the Prime Minister at the time, Julien Nkoghe Bekale, benefited from the vote of 48 deputies. 24 voted against and 25 abstained. Before this vote, relations between people of the same-sex were punishable by a maximum of six months in prison and a fine of 5 million CFA francs.
Halexander: A statement to 76 Crimes en francais
I haven’t read Honorine Ngou’s book, but the title says it all, and as a Gabonese myself, I’m all too aware of the purpose of such a book, and I’m weary of it.
Gabon has been living under a military junta since August 30, and we’re in a period of transition that is fuelling a lot of expectations in civil society after 50 years of reign by the Bongo clan, father and son.
The current leader, Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguéma, who was head of former president Ali Bongo Ondimba’s Praetorian Guard, has been appointed President of the transition, to formalize the regime change underway. It is not yet known when this transition will lead to the return of civilians to power.
At the same time, the former regime penalized homosexuality in 2019, before reversing its decision a year later under obscure and opaque conditions.
In this context in Gabon, in the circles in which I travel, I am not aware of people being taken to task because of their sexual orientation, and Gabon seems quite calm compared to what we see in Senegal or neighboring Cameroon, for example.
That’s why I cringe when I see people like Honorine Ngou trying to spread the poison of hatred and discord around LGBT+ people in Gabon, when things aren’t too bad under the seal of discretion when you’re in Libreville, for example.
So I’m even more annoyed when I hear that Honorine Ngou puts forward local traditions and Africaness to deny LGBT+ people a right to a peaceful life, because that’s what it’s all about.
Of course, LGBT+ marriage as it is understood in the West doesn’t exist here, nor is it part of urbanity in Gabonese society. This was even stipulated in the Transition Charter published in the official gazette on September 4. Nevertheless, we have been an integral part of this society since the dawn of time, and it would be out of the question for us to be excluded from it, in the name of some obscure agenda.
For the time being, the military authorities have no intention of going back on the decriminalization of homosexuality in Gabon, and the country is faced with numerous institutional projects, as well as the social and material expectations of a population suffering from rising prices.”
Halexander reply to Honorine Ngou, published in the Gabon Review
“Leave homosexuals alone”: Jann Halexander’s poignant diatribe against Honorine Ngou
I am your compatriot, the Franco-Gabonese singer Jann Halexander. I was born on September 13, 1982 in Libreville, Gabon. Apart from a few years spent in Canada during my early childhood, I lived at the LBV since the age of 18, as they say. I keep a link with Gabon, family, cousins, I’m part of the diaspora. I marched against [former president] Ali Bongo’s crimes in August 2016 with thousands of Gabonese in the streets of Paris. I’m 41 years old. Perhaps you don’t know me, and that’s not important. I discovered you through an article on Gabon Review.
Before writing a book like Homosexualité imposée, Gabon dévergondé, did you take the time to talk to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Gabon? Did you take the time to listen to their lives, to get to know them?
It is indeed deplorable that the decriminalization of homosexuality on June 24, 2020 was passed by a contested and questionable government. But we have to keep things in perspective. We’re talking about human beings here. The life of a heterosexual is worth no more than the life of a homosexual. Heterosexuals are not superior to homosexuals. Nor are whites superior to blacks, or any of that nonsense.
I’m a bisexual, and I have no problem with that, and I said so early on to keep the peace and sort things out around me. I have no problem with the people around me. Who are you to tell me whether I have the right to exist or not? Who gave you the mandate? Who allows you to decide on other people’s lives according to your whim or your personal convictions? Why is your truth THE truth? Who gave you permission to challenge my humanity? Finally, what makes you think you’re more moral than me or anyone else?
Since when does someone who claims to be a feminist want to penalize same-sex relationships? That’s not feminism, that’s not altruism. I’d like to think it’s a lack of discernment on your part. After all, everyone has prejudices, even me. But then there’s the real thing, the day-to-day. If you’d taken the time to get to know people who aren’t heterosexual, you’d have seen that they’re people like everyone else. There’s no scourge of homosexuality in Gabon. The difference between now and then is that more homosexuals are open about it, asserting themselves, fighting, refusing to be ashamed and preferring dignity.
Let’s be clear: most LGBT Gabonese simply want to live their lives. Marriage, same-sex parenthood, all that, most of them don’t think about it. But a homosexual Gabonese will not become heterosexual to please you. Homosexuality is not dangerous. It’s hatred of homosexuals that kills. By claiming that homosexuality is a danger, you are siding with the murderers, and there are many of them, from Ethiopia to Chechnya. Sadly, I have at home a whole collection of photos of victims, their bodies mutilated, their throats slit, their bodies charred because their only crime was…not to be heterosexual. If you like, I’ll send them to you. Unless you like the taste of blood, but then that’s another story.
You can’t be committed to democracy and human rights and yet want to destroy the lives of your fellow citizens, just because they don’t share your values. You can’t fight machismo while despising other people. That’s not what life is about. Homosexuality has been part of humanity since the dawn of time. All the laws, all the stratagems put in place to destroy us (because that’s your goal, and you have the merit of being honest about it) don’t work, won’t work. We are here. That’s the way the world is. We’ve got to put an end to the ‘homosexuality is not part of our culture’ refrain. Jesus and big cars are not part of our traditional culture, yet millions of Gabonese believe in Jesus and want nice cars.
I’m just as Gabonese as you are. You don’t have a monopoly on deciding who is and who isn’t Gabonese. The Transition Charter states that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. Even if I’m in favor of marriage between two men or two women, I understand that Gabonese society isn’t comfortable with that. Personally speaking, I’m not married and I live it very well. The transition charter also recalls the importance of Gabonese values, and it turns out that my Gabonese father did the job and passed on certain values to me. One of these values is respect. I respect anyone who disagrees with me. Where I am vigilant, however, is when the person who disagrees with me wants to force me to live according to their principles. That’s called control. It’s called dictatorship. It was against dictatorship that I marched from 2016 to 2023, whenever I could. Where have you been all this time? Can’t you just leave people alone who don’t look like you? I’m not even asking you to love homosexuals. Just leave them alone. And let them live their lives as consenting adults. Where does this obsession you and some of your compatriots have with homosexuals come from?
The same charter reminds us of the need to respect each other’s opinions, as stated in article 23: freedom of opinion, expression, conscience and worship are guaranteed. I should point out that I also wrote my citizen contribution on the CTRI platform. In it, I reiterated the need to respect each other and not divide society, including on societal issues. The transitional government has taken care not to target minorities in Gabonese society in its many statements, and is setting an example. We need a peaceful society. What are you proposing?
Sad world in 2023, where someone who calls herself a writer, a feminist, takes the time to write a book to justify the exclusion from society of thousands of people who haven’t asked you for anything. Sad world where some people need scapegoats again and again and again.
My hope? Every week, I receive messages from Gabonese men and women from all walks of life, straight, gay, bisexual, men and women. They too represent Gabon. THEY ARE GABON. Let’s get one thing straight. I’m still a fighting man, I’m like a weed that grows and grows. My empathy goes out to the young woman chased from her home because she’s pregnant too soon, my empathy goes out to the young homosexual from PK8 taken by force to the village to be “cured”, my empathy goes out to the transsexual who’s spat on. And you, how is your empathy?
Madame, you’re on the wrong track. Your intentions are dark. But I believe and I know that Gabon is bigger and wider than all that.
Move over, queer suffering. It’s time for queer joy.