LGBTQIA+ - The African Mirror

Nov

19

2021

Ugandan trans campaigner wants her community recognised in next census

LGBT+

ELIAS BIRYABAREMA CLEOPATRA Kambugu is a molecular biologist, the star of a Netflix documentary and a prominent social campaigner in Uganda. She was also assigned male at birth and became one of the first of a small number of Ugandans to have her gender identity officially changed. Now, she wants Uganda to widen the options at its next census in 2023 to include the transgender community. "We don't count transgender people on any document ... gender is either male or female," said 35-year-old Kambugu, her short floral dress swishing above black boots. "You are an afterthought ... erased. So can…

Nov

12

2021

By The African Mirror

Ghana parliament begins public hearings on anti-LGBT+ law

LGBT+

Ghana's parliament on Thursday will hold its first public hearing on a new law that would make it illegal to be gay or to advocate for gay rights, its press office said. The so-called family values bill is currently before the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, which said it had received more than 150 memoranda from individuals, groups and faith-based organizations on the bill. The committee is expected to hear 10 petitions each week in a series of public sessions before the bill is put to a vote, deputy majority leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin said. Gay sex is already…

Nov

05

2021

By The African Mirror

LGBT migrants in South Africa: religion can be a blessing, and a curse

LGBT+

MORAL panics over sexual and gender rights are often shaped by religious beliefs. In many countries, political, cultural and faith leaders use religious rhetoric to justify exclusionary practices and constrict the space available to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists. JOHN MARNELL, Doctoral Researcher at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS), University of the Witwatersrand The politicisation of religion in Africa is now well documented. It is a strategy used to maintain the idea that heterosexuality is the only natural and normal expression of human desire. What is less often spoken about is the positive role that…

Oct

28

2021

By The African Mirror

Soccer-Cavallo becomes first active A-League player to come out as gay

LGBT+

ADELAIDE United midfielder Josh Cavallo became the first active A-League player to come out as gay on Wednesday, saying he was done with feeling ashamed about his sexuality and the exhaustion of trying to live a "double-life". "I'm a footballer and I'm gay," the 21-year-old said on a video posted on Adelaide's social media, drawing support from fellow professionals across the world. "All I want to do is play football and be treated equally." Few elite male soccer players have come out as gay during their careers. Andy Brennan became the first former A-League player to come out in 2019…

Oct

23

2021

By The African Mirror

Ghana president calls for tolerance as parliament considers anti-LGBT+ law

LGBT+

GHANAIAN President Nana Akufo-Addo on Thursday emphasised the need for civil debate and tolerance as parliament works towards a vote on a controversial bill that would make it a crime to be gay, bisexual or transgender. The so-called family values bill has dismayed the local LGBT+ community and prompted U.N. human rights experts to warn it could establish a system of state-sponsored discrimination and violence. Gay sex is already punishable with up to three years in jail in Ghana, where homophobic persecution is widespread, but the draft law would criminalise being LGBT+ or advocating for LGBT+ rights, and impose longer…

Oct

15

2021

By The African Mirror

FEATURE-Lithuania’s ‘gay propaganda’ law looms over fight for same-sex unions

LGBT+

RACHEL SAVAGE AS the target of constant homophobic abuse as a teenager, Rimas Prokopovicius rarely heard anything positive about gay people when he was growing up in a provincial city in northern Lithuania. Like many young LGBT+ people in the Baltic state, a member of the European Union since 2004, he blames the country's "gay propaganda" law. While the 2009 legislation has not been enforced in recent years, LGBT+ rights campaigners say it legitimises homophobic attitudes, curbs free speech and is hampering their fight for same-sex civil partnerships to be legalised. "I'd really like to see the law (overturned) ...…

Oct

13

2021

By The African Mirror

Botswana appeals ruling allowing gay sex, court delays judgment

LGBT+

BOTSWANA judges have postponed ruling on a case in which the government is seeking to overturn a 2019 ruling that decriminalised gay sex, saying the matter needed more research and debate. The case was initially brought by a university student, Letsweletse Motshidiemang, whose representatives argued then that the government should do away with the law in light of a changed society where homosexuality was more widely accepted. Gay sex has been punishable by up to seven years in prison. Representing the state, Sydney Pilane told the Court of Appeal there was no evidence that people's attitudes had changed. "People don't…

Sep

25

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenya film board bans gay documentary

LGBT+

AYENAT MERSIE Kenya has banned a documentary about a gay Kenyan man's struggle to be accepted by his family and country, saying it was blasphemous and an affront to the constitution. The Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) announced a prohibition on the exhibition, distribution, possession or broadcast of "I am Samuel," on Thursday. "We knew it was possible... but you hope for the best. When I made this film, I made it with African audiences in mind," Peter Murimi, the movie's director, told Reuters. "We will try and appeal but I am really disappointed because I was looking forward to…

Sep

16

2021

By The African Mirror

Conversion therapy thrives globally as bans gather pace

LGBT+

RACHEL SAVAGE DOCTORS once prescribed long, hard bike rides and testicular transplants to cure gay men of their "sexual abnormality". More than a century on, fear and controversy still dog the secretive world of conversion therapy. From injections to electric shocks, prayer to rape, myriad methods are peddled by medics, counsellors and moralists to try and change or suppress the sexual desire or gender identity of LGBT+ people. Interviews with practitioners and people who have been through conversion therapy reveal a deep divergence over practices that dozens of medical associations have condemned as ineffective and harmful. In Egypt, a young…

Jun

17

2021

By The African Mirror

EXCLUSIVE-Hungary could be sanctioned over anti-LGBT+ law, warns EU equality chief

LGBTQIA+, LGBT+

HUGO GREENHALGH THE EU could impose funding restrictions on Hungary over legislation that bans the dissemination in schools of content deemed to promote homosexuality and gender change, the bloc's equality chief told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Tuesday. Speaking shortly before Hungary's parliament approved the ban, European Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli said Brussels was prepared to take measures similar to those imposed on Polish regions that had declared themselves "LGBT-free". "The message is that if you don't uphold the values of democracy or equality of the European Union, you are not entitled to take money for your project," Dalli said in…