LGBTQIA+ - The African Mirror

Feb

29

2024

Ghana parliament passes stringent anti-LGBTQ law

LGBTQIA+

GHANA'S parliament passed legislation that intensifies a crackdown on the rights of LGBTQ people and those promoting lesbian, gay or other non-conventional sexual or gender identities in the West African country. Gay sex was already punishable by up to three years in prison. The bill now also imposes a prison sentence of up to five years for the "wilful promotion, sponsorship, or support of LGBTQ+ activities". The bill, one of the harshest of its kind in Africa, still needs presidential assent to come into force. President Nana Akufo-Addo has not confirmed if he will sign the bill into law. A…

Feb

08

2024

By MAXWELL AKALAARE ADOMBILA

Ghana LGBTQ+ activists see church blessings as distant luxury

LGBTQIA+

IN a country where religious leaders openly condemn homosexuality and gay sex is punishable with jail time, Ghanaian couple Kay and Naa Shika fear more for their lives and safety than whether a church will bless their same-sex union. They have lived together for eight months, hiding their relationship by pretending to be sisters, even as they face gossip that risks spilling into hostility due to suspicions about their sexual orientation. "We are not safe," said 27-year-old Kay, a lesbian woman who spoke to Reuters in the capital Accra on condition that she and her partner's real names were not…

Jan

04

2024

By The African Mirror

Ugandan LGBT activist in critical condition after stabbing

LGBTQIA+

A prominent LGBT rights activist in Uganda, where sexual minorities say they have faced a wave of abuse since a harsh anti-gay law was enacted last year, was stabbed and is in critical condition, his organisation said. Steven Kabuye was "stabbed to near death by unknown assailants a few meters from our home as he was heading for work this morning", Coloured Voices Media Foundation-Truth to LGBTQ Uganda, said on the social media platform X. Coloured Voices shared a video that showed Kabuye writhing in pain with an apparent gushing wound on his wrist and a knife protruding from his…

Dec

09

2023

By The African Mirror

Dating app abductions raise fears for LGBT+ safety in South Africa

LGBTQIA+

THABSIE Mabezane, a transgender woman and LGBT+ activist in South Africa was aware of personal safety when she met a man on the dating app Tinder earlier this year. She told him that she preferred to meet up in a public space instead of at his home. But as she waited at their meeting point in Johannesburg an unregistered car pulled up and a man with a gun got out and coerced her into the vehicle. Mabezane said she was taken to an abandoned building where her kidnappers demanded she call friends and ask them to send money, she told…

Oct

30

2023

By The African Mirror

Johannesburg Pride marches for LGBTQ+ Ugandans after anti-gay law passed

LGBTQIA+

MORE than 20,000 people marched through Johannesburg to celebrate Pride, singing, dancing and making their support clear for LGBTQ+ communities across Africa who cannot be open safely and whose relationships are criminalised. At the front of a parade that organisers estimated was 24,000-strong was Mandela Swali, a 25-year-old Ugandan gay man who was attending his first Pride, having been in South Africa just a month and a half. Swali, face coated in glitter, draped in a Ugandan flag, recounted how he had fled his country in 2021 while on bail, having been arrested when his landlady caught him having sex…

Oct

25

2023

By AHMED KINGIMI

Nigeria’s paramilitary raids birthday party for gay people, 76 arrested

LGBTQIA+

SEVENTY-SIX people were arrested for attending a birthday party for gay people in northern Nigeria, the country's paramilitary agency said, adding that the organiser had also planned to hold a same-sex wedding, which is illegal. There are the latest arrests targeting LGBTQ Nigerians after police in August raided a gay wedding in the southern city of Warri in Delta state and arrested dozens of people. The accused are out on bail. In Nigeria, like in most parts of Africa, homosexuality is generally viewed as unacceptable, and a 2014 anti-gay law took effect despite international condemnation. Buhari Saad, the Nigeria Security and Civil…

Oct

25

2023

By KANISHKA SINGH AND JASPER WARD

US warns businesses of risks in Uganda, citing anti-LGBTQ law

LGBTQIA+

THE United States issued a business advisory for Uganda, saying that businesses faced potential risks in the African country, citing an anti-LGBTQ law condemned by many countries and the United Nations. The advisory was issued by the U.S. Departments of State, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Commerce, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. THE TAKE Uganda's anti-LGBTQ law, considered one of the harshest in the world, was enacted in May and carries the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality," an offence that includes transmitting HIV through gay sex. It drew condemnation from Western governments, including Washington, and put in jeopardy…

Oct

14

2023

By The African Mirror

Mauritius is the latest nation to decriminalise same-sex relations in a divided continent

HUMAN RIGHTS, LGBTQIA+

THE Mauritius Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional a law that criminalises consensual same-sex acts between adult men. The decision boosts the trend in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region towards decriminalisation. Now, a slight majority – nine out of 16 member states – do not prohibit gay and lesbian sexual relations. I have researched and taught human rights law in Africa, including the rights of sexual minorities, for over three decades, and closely follow the work of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. FRANS VILJOEN, Director and Professor of International Human Rights Law, Centre for Human Rights,…

Oct

03

2023

By The African Mirror

Ugandan court moves toward hearing challenge to anti-gay law

LGBTQIA+

UGANDA'S Constitutional Court took a first step toward hearing a challenge to an anti-gay law that rights activists and Western governments have denounced as draconian. The Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni in May, is one of the world's harshest anti-gay laws and punishes some same-sex acts with the death penalty. Lawyers in the case met before the court registrar and agreed to reconvene on October 12, when the matter will be forwarded to the court's judges to set a hearing date, Nicholas Opiyo, an attorney for the organisations contesting the law, told reporters. "Our prayer is that…

Sep

29

2023

By The African Mirror

Uganda’s anti-gay law causing wave of rights abuses, activists say

LGBTQIA+

THE consideration and passage by Uganda's government of one of the world's harshest anti-gay laws have unleashed a torrent of abuse against LGBTQ people, mostly committed by private individuals, rights groups said on Thursday. The Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), which was enacted in May, prescribes the death penalty for certain same-sex acts. At least six people have been charged under it, including two accused of the capital offence of "aggravated homosexuality". But the report, authored by a committee of the Convening for Equality (CFE) coalition, said the main perpetrators of human rights abuses against LGBTQ people this year - including torture, rape, arrest…