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News: Even after death, abuse against gays continues
Member Since: 8/22/2009
Posts: 50,646
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Even after death, abuse against gays continues
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THIES, Senegal - Even death cannot stop the violence against gays in this corner of the world any more.
Madieye Diallo's body had only been in the ground for a few hours when the mob descended on the weedy cemetery with shovels. They yanked out the corpse, spit on its torso, dragged it away and dumped it in front of the home of his elderly parents.
The scene of May 2, 2009 was filmed on a cell phone and the video sold at the market. It passed from phone to phone, sowing panic among gay men who say they now feel like hunted animals.
"I locked myself inside my room and didn't come out for days," says a 31-year-old gay friend of Diallo's who is ill with HIV. "I'm afraid of what will happen to me after I die. Will my parents be able to bury me?"
A wave of intense homophobia is washing across Africa, where homosexuality is already illegal in at least 37 countries.
In the last year alone, gay men have been arrested in Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. In Uganda, lawmakers are considering a bill that would sentence homosexuals to life in prison and include capital punishment for 'repeat offenders.' And in South Africa, the only country that recognizes gay rights, gangs have carried out so-called "corrective" rapes on lesbians.
"Across many parts of Africa, we've seen a rise in homophobic violence," says London-based gay-rights activist Peter Tatchell, whose organization tracks abuse against gays and lesbians in Africa. "It's been steadily building for the last 10 years but has got markedly worse in the last year."
Desecration of bodies
To the long list of abuse meted out to suspected homosexuals in Africa, Senegal has added a new form of degradation — the desecration of their bodies.
In the past two years, at least four men suspected of being gay have been exhumed by angry mobs in cemeteries in Senegal. The violence is especially shocking because Senegal, unlike other countries in the region, is considered a model of tolerance.
"It's jarring to see this happen in Senegal," says Ryan Thoreson, a fellow at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission who has been researching the rise of homophobia here. "When something like this happens in an established democracy, it's alarming."
Even though homosexuality is illegal in Senegal, colonial documents indicate the country has long had a clandestine gay community. In many towns, they were tacitly accepted, says Cheikh Ibrahima Niang, a professor of social anthropology at Senegal's largest university. In fact, the visibility of gays in Senegal may have helped to prompt the backlash against them.
Wedding sparks a backlash
The backlash dates back to at least February 2008, when a Senegalese tabloid published photographs of a clandestine gay wedding in a suburb of Dakar, the capital. The wedding was held inside a rented banquet hall and was attended by dozens of gay men, some of whom snapped pictures that included the gay couple exchanging rings and sharing slices of cake.
The day after the tabloid published the photographs, police began rounding up men suspected of being homosexual. Some were beaten in captivity and forced to turn over the names of other gay men, according to research by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
Gays immediately went into hiding and those who could fled to neighboring countries, including Gambia to the south, according to the New York-based commission. Gambia's erratic president declared that gays who had entered his country had 24 hours to leave or face decapitation. Many returned to Senegal, where they lived on the run, moving from safehouse to safehouse.
In March 2008, Senegal hosted an international summit of Muslim nations, which prompted a nationwide crackdown on behaviors deemed un-Islamic, including homosexuality.
The crackdown also coincided with spiraling food prices. Niang says political and religious leaders saw an easy way to reach constituents through the inflammatory topic of homosexuality.
"They found a way to explain the difficulties people are facing as a deviation from religious life," says Niang. "So if people are poor — it's because there are prostitutes in the street. If they don't have enough to eat, it's because there are homosexuals."
Muslum sermons
Imams began using Friday sermons to preach against homosexuality.
"During the time of the Prophet, anytime two men were found together, they were taken to the top of a mountain and thrown off," says Massamba Diop, the imam of a mosque in Pikine and the head of Jamra, an Islamic lobby linked to a political party in Senegal's parliament.
"If they didn't die when they hit the ground, then rocks would be thrown on them until they were killed," says Diop, whose mosque is so packed during Friday prayer that people bring their own carpets and line up outside on the asphalt.
Sermons like Diop's were carried on the mosque's loudspeakers as well as in Senegal's more than 30 newspapers and magazines.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36376840...d_news-africa/
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Member Since: 9/5/2009
Posts: 11,946
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Member Since: 1/13/2010
Posts: 7,944
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this really breaks my heart like im on the verge of crying
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Member Since: 8/22/2009
Posts: 50,646
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Its amazing how a thread about Heidis breasts, or Mileys new video, or Rihannas new tattoo can spark 10 comments in 2 seconds, but something that could in the long run affect every homosexual in the world gets ignored!
Fickles
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Member Since: 1/13/2010
Posts: 7,944
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Quote:
Originally posted by Satellites
Its amazing how a thread about Heidis breasts, or Mileys new video, or Rihannas new tattoo can spark 10 comments in 2 seconds, but something that could in the long run affect every homosexual in the world gets ignored!
Fickles
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you better preach the truth
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Member Since: 11/2/2009
Posts: 19,838
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This is probably the sickest thing I have ever heard.
I hate people like this.
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ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 6/15/2007
Posts: 29,795
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Thats just terrible 
That just makes me sick
I dunno what to say right now, I'm speechless
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Member Since: 10/5/2009
Posts: 137,162
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. This **** is too messed up for my opinion.
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Member Since: 8/28/2009
Posts: 7,345
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I'm Speechless too
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Member Since: 10/21/2005
Posts: 19,258
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Weren't the black people the ones fighting for their own rights back in the days? Wow two - sided huh?
You'd think Black People would be the ones to understand homosexuality, but nope. I guess we should enslave them again if this is how they are going to think. Ok maybe not that, but still, it's just messed up...
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Member Since: 8/28/2009
Posts: 7,345
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Quote:
Originally posted by Departure
Weren't the black people the ones fighting for their own rights back in the days? Wow two - sided huh?
You'd think Black People would be the ones to understand homosexuality, but nope. I guess we should enslave them again if this is how they are going to think. Ok maybe not that, but still, it's just messed up... |
w t f???
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Member Since: 8/28/2009
Posts: 7,345
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Member Since: 7/14/2009
Posts: 22,692
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Quote:
Originally posted by Matty
Thats just terrible
That just makes me sick
I dunno what to say right now, I'm speechless |
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Member Since: 10/8/2009
Posts: 35,527
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Departure's right - black people where fighting to be equal with white people. gay people want to be treated equally as well. you'd think that black people would understand because it is the same situation - you can't help being black and you can't help being gay. It's like someone doing this to somebody cos they're black.
and please, people, dont play the race card here. its true.
thats what pissed me off the most too
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Member Since: 10/8/2009
Posts: 35,527
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and the slave thing was clearly a joke ...
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Member Since: 10/8/2009
Posts: 35,527
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Quote:
Originally posted by Satellites
Its amazing how a thread about Heidis breasts, or Mileys new video, or Rihannas new tattoo can spark 10 comments in 2 seconds, but something that could in the long run affect every homosexual in the world gets ignored!
Fickles
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cos this is a music blog, not a gay rights blog.
im not disagreeing with you here, it is really bad, but i think thats why. Plus, the whole gay thing will go on forever no matter what. we have come to accept it. sure we can fight it but, at the end of the day there will always be people who are homophobic
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Member Since: 8/28/2009
Posts: 7,345
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Quote:
Originally posted by PopBoi
and the slave thing was clearly a joke ...
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you wouldn't take as a "joke" if you are clearly not Black... 
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Member Since: 10/21/2005
Posts: 19,258
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Quote:
Originally posted by PopBoi
Departure's right - black people where fighting to be equal with white people. gay people want to be treated equally as well. you'd think that black people would understand because it is the same situation - you can't help being black and you can't help being gay. It's like someone doing this to somebody cos they're black.
and please, people, dont play the race card here. its true.
thats what pissed me off the most too |
Black people had to fight for who they were. It said in the bible that black people were used as slaves. They finally got their rights. Now that gay people are fighting for their rights, black people find it okay to discriminate and punish people for who they are? 
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Member Since: 8/28/2009
Posts: 7,345
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Quote:
Originally posted by PopBoi
Departure's right - black people where fighting to be equal with white people. gay people want to be treated equally as well. you'd think that black people would understand because it is the same situation - you can't help being black and you can't help being gay. It's like someone doing this to somebody cos they're black.
and please, people, dont play the race card here. its true.
thats what pissed me off the most too |
being gay is not a race... You are not born gay but you are born black... did it ever cross your mind that maybe these people have other reasons as to why they might not support gay rights. (religious reasons for example) just because our people also fought to get our rights doesn't mean that we should strongly support something that is not in our belief.
I would love for these poeple to get their rights. and the race card is going to be in this because you brought it in!
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Member Since: 11/6/2009
Posts: 7,375
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It's awful there aren't basic human rights everywhere in the world. Even in a civilized country, I've generally always kept my guard up. . . it's unimaginable to think about what they have to go through.
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