The goal: “a space in West Africa where persons from diverse faiths, cultures, class and sexual orientations can convene, work with faith leaders and communities to create a world in which everyone enjoys all human rights irrespective of class, religious belief, culture and sexual orientation.” Late last month, West Africa moved a step closer to … Continue reading
Hope is blooming in the Gambia, thanks to the ouster of Yahya Jammeh, the Gambia’s despotic and violently homophobic former president. Four months after the election of a moderate businessman as president, the West African nation’s foreign minister has proposed repealing the country’s anti-gay law. Continue reading
The Gambia’s new leader has downplayed concerns about the so-called “threat” of homosexuality — a stark contrast to his outrageously homophobic predecessor. Continue reading
On Jan. 20, as the United States inaugurated a president who might roll back advances toward LGBT justice and equality, troops thousands of miles away in West Africa were reported entering the Gambia, seeking to install the newly inaugurated president who would replace that nation’s violently anti-LGBT strongman. Continue reading
Rabidly anti-gay Gambian strongman President Yahya Jammeh has reversed course, declaring his “total rejection” of the results of the Dec. 1 election that he lost decisively. He called for a new vote “free from foreign influence.” Continue reading
Yahya Jammeh, one of the world’s most outspokenly homophobic leaders, has agreed to step down as president — and repressive strongman — of the Gambia after losing Thursday’s presidential election in that West African country. [Dec. 10 update: “Defeated anti-gay strongman demands Gambian revote.”] Property developer Adama Barrow, who has never held political office, won … Continue reading
Several countries in sub-Saharan Africa have made progress in recognizing the human rights of LGBTI people, but much work remains to be done in the region’s 29 countries that still have laws against same-sex intimacy. LGBTI rights in those African countries are the focus of the following excerpts from the 2015 edition of the U.S. … Continue reading
In an unprecedented meeting, human rights experts from Africa and the Americas have appealed for an end to violence targeting LGBTI people. The meeting, which involved United Nations human rights experts and representatives of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, occurred in November 2015. It … Continue reading
In brief, some troubling news from countries with anti-gay laws, excerpted with slight modifications from UNAIDS’s Equal Eyes recap of the world’s LGBTI-related news and elsewhere: Anti-LGBTI rally in Jamaica portrays homophobes as victims In Jamaica, hundreds of Christians rallied against same-sex marriage in a move organizers said was meant to ‘give heterosexuals a voice’ … Continue reading
FatuRadio reported yesterday the details of how the regime of Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh last year began putting into action his longtime threats of violence against LGBTI people. Below are modestly edited excerpts from the FatuRadio article in which three Gambian citizens tell of the torture and inhumane confinement they endured after their arrests on … Continue reading
