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So It's A Crime to Be Gay In Senegal: Where Else Does it Suck to be Gay?
President Obama expressed his joy over the DOMA ruling on the first leg of his African tour this week, but Senegalese President Micky Sall was quick to point out that his country is "still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality.... [but that] does not mean we are homophobic.” Come again? The shocking thing is: Obama could have been visiting any one of the 75 (!) other countries in the world where homosexual relations are still considered criminal activity. Click on to read about some of the most outrageous haters of LGBT rights.
The Planet's Still A Piece of Work
President Obama expressed his joy over the DOMA ruling on the first leg of his African tour this week, but Senegalese President Micky Sall was quick to point out that his country is "still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality.... [but that] does not mean we are homophobic.” Come again? The shocking thing is: Obama could have been visiting any one of the 75 (!) other countries in the world where homosexual relations are still considered criminal activity. Click on to read about some of the most outrageous haters of LGBT rights.
"We don't ask the Europeans to be polygamists... It's the same thing,"
Senegalese President Macky Sall said Friday, rebuking the international community for criticizing his country's anti-gay policies. Following outrage over his comments at the press conference with Obama, Sall urged everyone to chill Friday, telling the AP that "gays were not persecuted in Senegal...they were only prosecuted if they engaged in acts that violated the law." And by violating the law, he means partaking in any "improper or unnatural act with a person of the same sex," which can get you a prison sentence of up to five years, and fines of up to $3,000.
"If you're involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it's bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement."
Let's not forget our homegrown haters. Michelle Bachmann said this gem while speaking at the EdWatch National Education Conference in 2004. Bachmann also decried yesterday's DOMA ruling, saying "marriage was created by the hand of God. No man, not even a Supreme Court, can undo what a holy God has instituted." To which Nancy Pelosi brilliantly replied: "Who cares."
"[Homosexuality] is not emerging naturally but rather as a result of intense campaigns in schools, luring people with money and all sorts of falsehoods."
Staff writer Michael Mubangizi of Uganda's 'The Observer,' defending the 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which would expand the criminalization of homosexuality. The bill would prescribe life imprisonment and the death penalty for those "outed" as gay, and Ugandans found guilty of homosexuality abroad could even be extradited back to stand trial. As Time Magazine reported in 2009: "Even murderers don't face that kind of judicial reach." After a swelling of media attention abroad, the bill remains on hold indefinitely.
"It’s about protecting children from such information."
Russian President Vladimir Putin, explaining why Russian Parliament recently passed a new ban on "gay propaganda." Demonstrators launched a "kissing protest" outside the parliament to protest the ban. In another bill last year, Russians also outlawed gay rights parades for the next 100 years.
"Licentious behavior promoted under the so-called concept of sexual orientation..."
...AKA being gay, is not looked fondly upon by Saeed Sarwar, Pakistani representative to the United Nations. Earlier this year, Pakistan (along with several other Arab and African states) walked out of the UN Human Rights Council's first forum on gay rights. The Pew Research Center has found that Pakistan is one of the least tolerant countries in the world when it comes to gay rights, but Google Trends shows that they are the world leader in popular search terms for gay porn. Go figure.
"Homosexuality and lesbianism are just too dirty in the sight of Allah, those who engage in them deserve more than capital punishment."
Nigerian Islamic Cleric Malam Abdulkadir Apaokagi in December 2011, arguing that death should be the penalty for same sex relations. In some northern parts of the country, those convicted of homosexual "crimes" can face death by stoning. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
"AIDS is a gay cancer."
Brazil's Human Rights "Boss," Evangelical Pastor Marco Feliciano, on his blog and Twitter feed, September 2012. Part of the protests currently erupting in the country revolve around anger over a recently-instated "gay cure" bill, which would allow doctors to prescribe treatment for the homosexual "pathology." Many Brazilians are protesting to get Feliciano out of office. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
"This kind of support of homosexuality is only engrained in the thoughts of hard-core capitalists..."
...According to outgoing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan, September 25, 2012. He continued through an interpreter: "[Homosexuality is for] those who support the growth of capital only, rather than human values." Homosexuality is a crime in Iran punishable by death, but according to the Canadian Broadcasting Company, the government provides a "way out" by paying for sex change operations that would allow people "to conform to Iran’s theocratic standards of sexuality." Because you can solve homosexuality by encouraging people to become transgender? What will the haters think of next?
