In a landmark decision the High Court of Delhi has ruled that Secion 337 of the Indian Penal Code is unconstitutional. Section 377 which criminalises same sex relationships dates back to the 19th centuary British colonial rule in India. Although the penalty of up to 10 years in prison has rarely been used, the police have used it to harass, detain, sexually and physically abuse LGBT people. The ruling is presently limited to Delhi but a precedent has been set for similar favourable rulings in other parts of the country as it has a “binding affect on all other Indian states”. However there still remains some ambiguity and possibility for the ruling to be appealed and of course the ruling will not automatically put an end to the persecution of LGBT people by the police or the community at large. There has also been an immediate response from religious groups opposing the decision.
There is a very real worry that in order to appeal to the religious groups, and regional political parties, the government might choose to appeal the decision to the supreme court, though preliminary reports suggest otherwise. After all, only a few days ago, after initially conceding that it might consider scrapping the law, the home ministry backtracked the next day when the news made front-page headlines in national newspapers, triggering opposition from religious groups. Even if the government doesn’t, religious groups and opposition parties have indicated that they will challenge the ruling.
I cant see the government overturning the decision but this may make it more difficult for the ruling to be replicated in other regions of the country so there is still much work to be done.
There is also some criticism that the disappearance of Section 377 will not make a significant difference in the daily lives of vernacular (non-English speaking) youth, economically disempowered people, or non-heteronormative women facing forced marriages, forced confinement by the family, and forced separation from same sex partners because these issues are grounded in denial of autonomy and dignity for non-conforming sexuality, gender identity or expression.
Nonetheless this is a fantastic decision and one which will bring a great deal of hope to LGBTI people in so many other countries where they are criminalised and a wake up call to countries in Africa such as Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon, Senegal.
Three homosexuals were arrested today by the Edo State police command in Benin City, Nigeria.They were paraded like common criminals and displayed on television. The command Public Relations officer has said they would be charged to court as homosexuality is a criminal offence in Nigeria.
An excellent article from the executive secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Leo Igwe, on the tradition of same sex marriage in Igboland which speaks to the untruth that same sex relationships are “unAfrican”.
One of the contentious issues in the debate over homosexuality and same sex marriage is whether a marriage between persons of the same gender is totally alien to African culture and tradition. Those opposing same sex marriage have continued to argue that same gender union is foreign to Africa. On the contrary, I have tried to draw their attention to the fact that there is a strain of the same gender marriage in African tradition particularly in Igboland.
And that we should not rush to deny this, or pretend it does not exist or just sweep it under the carpet in the quest to establish that same gender marriage is alien to the African continent, and must be banned.
A survey by the South African Medical Research Council found that one in 4 men have raped a woman and half admitted they had attacked more than one woman. Many of the rapists started in their late teens. One in 20 had raped in the past 12 months. A further one in 10 said they had been raped by other men.
Human Rights Watch publishes the results of a qualitative survey of 100 sexual rights activists from 50 countries on issues of gender identity and sexual orientation. From an African perspective the findings of “Together Apart”are predictable but it is helpful and supportive to know that activists face similar challenges across the world. For example the lack of funding needed to challenge the legal and social status quo, the violence faced by activists, state sponsored homophobia and the constant struggle against cultural and religious fundamentalism which is growing rapidly across Africa.
South African AIDS and human rights activist Zackie Achmat offered one explanation for how state-sponsored homophobia began. “Many African politicians,” he said in 1998, “want to blame the West for everything, homosexuality included”:
“And so these governments are precarious and terrified. The people are roused up against them, and there is no one to support them. Their only real hope is that people die of AIDS or hunger before they are angry enough to rebel. And what do [the governments] find? They say “homosexual” and two sorts come running to them: the Christian churches and the African traditionalists, two groups who usually won’t even speak to one another, come flocking behind the government’s banner. Suddenly they have support. It’s a magic word.” Read more…
Chibuzor Vitus Ezekwem is a Nigerian who was executed in China for drug trafficking. A further 18 Nigerians are on death row……….. My Pen and Paper wonders what attracks Nigerians to China – well clearly in these cases drug trafficking!
Three Nigerian NGOs have approached three tiers of the government to stop discriminating against LGBT people in the country.
Mahmood Mamdani still with the “Genocide Myth” attacks the Save Darfur Campaign as “ahistorical and dishonest”
The homophobia crusade continues in Uganda as “former” gay activist George (previously known as Georgina) adds his voice to those denouncing the LGBTI community as unAfrican and predators. Worse than that he has contributed to the outing of many in the Ugandan LGBT community and therefore put their lives and livlihoods at very serious risk.
In this video he claims young men and women are actively recruited by lesbian and gay men. What is shocking and sad is that George was a former gay activist who knows very well what its like to be the victim of this horrendous campaign. He himself was one of two activists arrested and interrogated last September by the police. It was after this incident that Ugandan LGBT activists had to go into hiding or exile. Cary Johnson of ILGHRC explains how other activists searched and searched for George during this period…..
George seems to have decided that local and international activists didn’t do enough to help him, and has since used his intimate knowledge of the community to target and attack. With the help of Ugandan religious leaders, particularly the conservative FLN, he has “outed” dozens of individuals and destroyed countless lives, careers and families.
Oundo seems to be making the most of his 15 minutes of fame. In phone calls to members of the Ugandan LGBT community, Oundo admits that his claims to be an “ex-gay” are an elaborate facade developed to further his own personal ambitions and to please his current handlers. One can only hope that Oundo will not have sold out so many of his former friends, bartered so much of his soul, and caused so much violence that there will be no LGBT community left for him to return to.
The Ugandan government is currently considering legislation that may increase already extreme criminal penalties for consensual homosexual relationships and make LGBT organizing and “recruitment,” whatever that might be, illegal.
I can’t say I hate you. Even though in this mundane world of ours, I would not have had it any other way; I so have reason to or so I can sometimes think but what would that be saying about me? The question is why do you hate me so much? I remember the scenario that played itself out at the Tish Kent station there I was waiting for Kariso when you and Nfifi turned up on the concourse. You saw me as soon as you turned into the station almost as if it were our first meeting as usual you drew a bank on seeing me as if I wasn’t even there. Still hatefully, angry for reasons you don’t care to share but I have no doubt that you’ve read Janice Raymond’s take on transsexuality (especially, where you’re concerned, if your victim happens to be black, free thinking and eloquent with it you waste no time) following that uncritical bandwagon of anti-sisters known as the “separatist” and their fundamentalist credo. I might well have been the proverbial needle in a haystack as far as you cared. You even alerted Nfifi, whom I have to say wanted to say hello as her disposition seemed to suggest but there was no way you were going to allow that. It’s a shame she thought she needed your permission to say a simple, “Hi!” Alone she would have been able to do her will but with you; her incongruent indecision proved fatal.
“Your poetry has experienced a shift in focus. I notice that you no longer regard race as an issue; it seems that the focus of your poetry is gender from what I can tell,” once said a retiring lecturer of mine when I approached him as a possible referee for my application for a PHD in English. What he didn’t realise was that the perceived shift wasn’t so much a move from one agency to another but an inter-subjective progression of ever moving narratives; mine! If I maybe so daring as to take a stance for Africa and those in the Diaspora after all we’ve be marginalised enough. Somehow he (that lecturer of old) always assumed that I might end up as an Afrocentric scholar but he could not have been further from the truth. I was very aware of our suffering as a people but this debate is different. The LGBTI is almost non-existent to the mindset of African’s at home or those abroad unless we are of the community ourselves. This is stifling in the sense that it seems to speak of a neo-colonial fervour Africa inherited from its colonial masters which is undeniable in their demeanour towards us. Read more…
South African activist and Banyana Banyana soccer player, Eudy Simelane was murdered on April 28th 2008. Thinking about how to honour her memory, the Equality Project decided to start by cleaning the field where she was found. On April 4th 40 people turned up with shovels, plastic bags and brooms and spent the day cleaning the field. The initiative is part of a desire to reclaim public spaces and take ownership as a way of making the community a safe place for everyone especially women. Part of the project included building a bridge which will not only act as a physical crossing but a way to bring together members of the community around the open field.
This initiative is part of others that aim at re-building and maintaining clean community spaces that are open to all to enjoy and use for leisure and transiting. For lesbian and gay activists this space bears additional symbols: a fellow struggler was killed there for transgressing pre-assigned societal gender roles and for living openly as a non-heterosexual.
The wooden cross, put where her body lay on the morning of 28 April 2008, is a further symbol to remember Simelane and the many others who died in similar circumstances and motives across South Africa. It is a reminder of the struggles faced by those who survived death and who continue to live in fear for their lives.
Phumi Mtetwa - South Africa/Ecuador. Fundación de Acción, Estudios y Participación Social (FEDAEPS)
Coordinator of The International Network LGBT South-South Dialogue and Represent of the SSD in the International Council of the World Social Forum. Now Director Equality Project, South Africa
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