2011 round-up: Part five: Backlash and repression

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

I'm rounding up the year in a series of posts - in which no doubt I've missed something, so please let me know what I've missed in the comments!

Backlash and repression

A whole new country, South Sudan, was born with a sodomy law and exclusion of LGBT from rights supposed promised to 'all'.

Turkish LGBT groups suffer repeated attempts to legally shut them down and to block their websites.

The increasingly visible LGBT organising in Malaysia suffered a backlash including law change proposals in two states and the banning of events.

An attempt to use gay rights as a 'wedge' issue failed in Zambia as the opposition leader Michael Sata was elected President. Gay rights was also used as a 'wedge' in Zimbabwe, most awfully to divide the Anglican Church leading to Church resources like orphanages closing and children going hungry.

Malawi criminalised lesbians. This was an issue, but a minor issue, in a subsequent aid reduction by the country's biggest donor, the UK. It was mainly the Malawian government's other walk-backs on human rights and a diplomatic spat which caused the UK's change of approach on aid, but it was played up by them as a 'wedge issue' against the opposition with protests against the state of the economy and human rights abuses called 'gay rallies' in state media.

The so-called 'Kill gays' bill failed to pass at the end of Uganda's parliament in May, probably more by luck than design. It has been reintroduced into the current parliament. The bill provoked the biggest international petition drive for LGBT rights ever, well over two million supported different efforts. Activists pleaded for such support to be offered in the context of the general human rights problems in the country, but most solidarity work continued to single out the gay issue from the bigger crisis. Protests against the bill raised, again, the use of development aid redirection from governments and other government-to-government 'leverage' by Western countries in front of and behind the scenes. The atmosphere generated by the bill led to increased government and societal repression of Ugandan LGBT, highlighted by the murder of leader David Kato in January. Three brave Ugandan activists won international human rights awards, including one described as the most important after the Nobel Peace Prize.

There were a series of arrests of gays in Cameroon, followed by convictions including some based solely on people's appearance, not their acts. There was violent rhetoric, organised hunts for gay people using entrapment and the government ended the year proposing a 'tightening' of the anti-gay law.

Anti-gay rhetoric in Ghana's media and agitation by religious leaders over the past few years produced a proposed witch-hunt by a state leader - and subsequent international attention. In the ensuing fallout, local human rights and civil society groups failed to defend LGBT. The year ended with proposals in parliament for further criminalisation of gay people.

Nigeria reintroduced anti-gay legislation which was then extended in the parliament to attack any pro-LGBT human rights organising, potentially fatally undermining HIV/Aids work amongst other impacts.

There were sporadic reports of death sentences for homosexual offenses in Iran but little follow-up on these reports by either media, human rights or LGBT groups due, in part, to issues with verification and dangers to sources in Iran.

Honduras finally acted on the large number of unsolved murders of LGBT in that country, after US prompting. The rate of murders of LGBT elsewhere in Latin America - particularly in Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela - drew little international attention. As did the failure of the international community to support devastated local LGBT in Haiti following the earthquake, though the UN finally pledged a response.

Anti-gay laws were passed or proposed in Russia and in Ukraine. Pro-gay demonstrations in Russia, and in Belarus, were banned and violently broken up - whilst vicious anti-gay ones permitted. Though Russians finally won a European Court of Human Rights ruling that the ban on Moscow's gay pride march was illegal.

There were reports of arrests of gay men in Tanzania, Kurdish Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.

The Serbian gay pride march was banned, reportedly for political reasons. The gay pride march in Split, Croatia was attacked, video of which ensured worldwide attention but in the capital, Zagreb, pride went ahead with no problems - and little attention. In Montenegro the government publicly backed LGBT rights.

The fake 'Syrian lesbian blogger' scandal in June created a huge international storm, outraging real activists participating in the revolution there. Local LGBT in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region report mixed feelings about the potential outcomes of the 'Arab Spring' for them - in Syria, gays are reportedly divided on participation in that country's revolt. The devastating impact of the Iraq war on LGBT continued to be felt. A new project documented those who have fled to Jordan, but the year went by with almost no media attention to these 'forgotten people'.

A criminalisation attempt in the DRC (Congo) parliament was started then put on hold.

The UK's foreign aid policy relationship to LGBT human rights became the focus of a major backlash following an anti-aid story in a right-wing British newspaper, particularly in Africa and including from some LGBT activists. In a messy PR foul up, the UK was forced to clarify it wasn't planning to remove aid but redirect it.

The so-called 'curing' of LGBT people continued to spread worldwide from its US origins with a backlash in Ecuador leading to closure of some 'clinics' and the discovery of supposed 'conversion therapy' being payed for by Hong Kong's government. In the US itself 'cure the gay' drew both ridicule and outrage, the latter in particular highlighted by a media expose about the suicide of some gay people forced when they were children to go through it and the discovery that a Republican presidential candidate's camp husband was selling 'conversion' therapy.

Related articles

• The battle of the bins in Bulawayo (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• UN publishes landmark LGBT rights report (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Ghana Education Ministry: 'Train teachers to reduce homosexuality'

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

The Ministry of Education in Ghana has said that the Ministry's HIV/AIDS Secretariat has trained teachers to educate students about homosexuality and its “adverse consequences” including HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Education Ministry Public Relations Officer Paul Krampah told the Accra Mail:

"We are very optimistic that things will change and the incidence of homosexuality in the country will be a thing of the past."

The Mail quotes the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVSSU) of the Ghana Police Service saying that more teenage boys in Junior High and Senior High Schools are becoming 'victims of sexual abuse'.

Many of these young boys and their families, according to the Mail, are reluctant to report such cases to the police.

In February the Deputy Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Stephen Adu told Citi News:

“I will agree that homosexuality and lesbianism started with single-sex schools. It has become prevalent and so more people have become aware of it. This is just one of the many problems we have in our educational system.”

In June The National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) in the Volta Region said they would use civic education clubs to 'fight homosexuality in Senior High Schools'.

The Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) have called for specialists to be placed at their disposal to train them on how to deal with homosexuality but has rejected widespread calls for single sex schools to be ended - though because, as the General Secretary of CHASS Felix Essah-Hienno puts it, mixed schools can 'equally breed gays and lesbians'.

Many Ghanaians believe, as Kwaku Adu-Gyamfi writes in Modern Ghana, that:

"Homosexuality is not born, but made. I believe the brainwashing process begins in schools and colleges, where many people develop the desire to experiment the act of having sex with the same sex. In the case of the Ghanaian homosexuals, it's an acquired lifestyle which is mainly derived from boarding schools and the importation of the sexual trade by our open-door hospitality."

Writes Isaac Karikari for Ghana Liberty:

"Second cycle schools have been major hubs for gay and lesbian acts. Senior high schools have been the real hot spots for gay and lesbian activities. It is in those places that gays and lesbians are really made. Underground gay and lesbian cells exist in many senior high schools."

Homosexuality has become a major topic of discussion in Ghana for some time, with international attention on the country following a directive earlier this year by the Western Regional Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo, to the police to arrest people suspected to be gay or lesbian.

Legislators began discussions last month on strengthening legal sanctions against gay people.

Related articles

• Audio: In Ghana, is it getting worse for LGBT? (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Gay Ghanians come out as civil society abandons them (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Ghanaian gay refugee tells his horrific story (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Ghanaian gay refugee tells his horrific story

Sombede Korak picture by Paula Stromberg

By Paula Stromberg

Imagine if your family published a newspaper story saying you were evil, and that the story made some neighbours feel obligated to smash your skull with rocks. There are thousands of stories like this in Africa. This one is horrific but has a happy ending.

We know there’s a crisis facing lesbian, gay and transgender people around the globe.

Homosexuality is criminal in about 77 countries, including five with the death penalty, and numbers are growing. Particularly in Africa, queer people are being terrorized into the closet, prison cells or the club-wielding hands of lynch mobs. Many religious groups exacerbate this terror to mobilize against wicked Western morals and the ‘previously unknown’ foreign import – homosexuality.

Laws against homosexuality did not exist in Africa until the late 19th Century under British colonization. Nowadays, African leaders who promote gay hatred maintain the colonialist mentality. Governments cracked down on homosexuals as a way to unite Christians and Muslims in Africa.

This could seem comical, except that modern queer Africans are fleeing homelands where they’ve been imprisoned, blackmailed or tortured because of their sexuality or gender identity. Many are physically or sexually assaulted by police or religious officials.

In 2011, the Canadian Government amended the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and other legislation claimed to improve Canada’s asylum system for refugees.

Vancouver lawyer Rob Hughes, well-known for representing gay and lesbian refugees over the past 20 years, says Canadian law allows refugee protection for those who can demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution. They must also prove they cannot be safe in another part of their country and that their own state government is unable or unwilling to protect them.

In Vancouver, Hughes represented newcomer Sombede Korak at a refugee hearing in 2011. Korak is a gay man who recently fled West Africa. He’s from Ghana’s second largest city, Kumasi, in the centre of the country’s Ashanti Region.

Although Korak is now safely in Canada, he prefers to remain anonymous and his name here is a psudonym. This is his story.

Kumasi is the capital of Ghana’s kente cloth and gold-producing Ashanti Region. Much of Ghana’s wealth and many of its leaders come from this area. The Ashanti ethnic group is estimated to comprise 19 percent of the population, making it the largest cultural group in Ghana.

As a young Ashanti boy, Korak knew he was different. One day, after he wore his sister’s clothes on the street, his father beat him so severely it took several weeks to recover.

His adolescence was difficult, but at age 20, he met his first boyfriend. “We stole time together,” says Korak in an interview in Vancouver.    

“That same year, 2001, a male relative demanded that I date a woman and have sex to prove I was a man, not a homosexual. My family forced me into a heterosexual relationship.”

Read more »

In Japan, justice stalled in brutal death of deportee

Abubakar Awudu Suraj

Source: Japan Times

By Sumie Kawakami and David McNeill

Abubakar Awudu Suraj had been in Japan for over two decades when immigration authorities detained him in May 2009. The Ghanaian was told in Yokohama of his deportation to Ghana at 9:15 a.m. on March 22 last year. Six hours later he was dead, allegedly after being excessively restrained by guards.

Jimmy Mubenga also died last year while being held down by three private security guards before takeoff on a British Airways flight from London to Angola. The father of five had lost his appeal to stay in the U.K. and was being deported. Mubenga put up a struggle and died after the guards sat on him for 10 minutes, say witnesses.

But the details of the deportations of two men from rich countries back to their native Africa, and their aftermath, are strikingly different. Mubenga's death is already the subject of a vigorous police inquiry, front-page stories and an investigation by The Guardian newspaper. The case has been discussed in Parliament, where security minister Baroness Neville-Jones called it "extraordinarily regrettable."

Suraj has received no such honors. The 45-year-old's case has largely been ignored in the Japanese media and no politician has answered for his death. An investigation by Chiba prosecutors appears to have stalled. There has been no explanation or apology from the authorities.

His Japanese wife, who had shared a life with him for 22 years, was not even aware he was being deported. She was given no explanation when she identified his body later that day. His body was not returned to her for nearly three months. Supporters believe he put up a struggle because he wanted to tell his wife he was being sent home.

An autopsy report seen in a court document notes abrasions to his face, internal bleeding of muscles on the neck, back, abdomen and upper arm, along with leakage of blood around the eyes, blood congestion in some organs, and dark red blood in the heart. Yet the report bizarrely concluded that the cause of death is "unknown."

Any movement in the Suraj case is largely down to his wife, who wants to remain anonymous. She won a lawsuit against the Justice Ministry, which oversees immigration issues, demanding it disclose documents related to his death. The documents were finally released in May, more than a year after he died.

According to the documents, Suraj was escorted from Yokohama by nine immigration officers to Narita airport. After spending about two hours in a waiting room at the airport, he was taken to another vehicle, in handcuffs and with a rope tied around his waist. They arrived at the aircraft at 1:40 p.m.

Suraj stepped out of the vehicle at 2:20 p.m. The immigration officers said in the documents that because he was protesting his deportation, they restrained him face down and carried him onto the Egypt Air MS965 flight for Cairo. They used an additional pair of metal cuffs around his ankles (a prohibited practice) and forced him to sit in an aisle seat on the back row.

One officer took out four pairs of plastic restraints that he had bought with his own money and tied the handcuffs to his belt. Other officers gagged him so tightly with a towel (again, illegally) that his front teeth bit through the towel. One officer pushed Suraj's neck from behind to bend his body further forward. Suraj was motionless by 2:35 p.m.

At the request of the cabin crew, the officers moved Suraj to a window seat, but he was unresponsive. The officers reasoned that he was just pretending to be sick, but the cabin crew saw Suraj was leaning motionless against the window and asked for him to be removed from the plane at 2:50 p.m. No resuscitation attempt was made until he was carried out of the aircraft and into the vehicle they came in. A doctor in an airport clinic confirmed his death at 3:31 p.m.

"These documents based on the accounts of the officers point to illegal and excessive use of restraints," says Sosuke Seki, a lawyer involved in the case. "Immigration officers are supposed to videotape deportation procedures when restraints are applied, but the officer in charge of Suraj's deportation specifically ordered videotaping to be stopped when he was carried into the aircraft. Whether this was intentional or not must be revealed in the trial."

Read more »

Ghanaian gays also fight blackmail, extortion using the Internet

Graham Knight writes to point out that it is not just Nigerian gays attacking the scammers and blackmailers online (see Nigerian gays fight blackmail, extortion using the Internet) - Ghanaians are too.

Gay Dating Scams in Ghana has been in operation for at least three years.

As with Nigeria, they say that the law acts as a ‘blackmailers charter’:

As homosexuality is illegal in Ghana, MSM’s have no protection under the law and reporting a crime can lead to the victim being criminalised.

Furthermore, the police often work with the criminals to extort money and therefore cannot be trusted.

fakers2go monitors and exposes these scammers.

Video: Watch Ghana gays come out at Accra forum

Source: REDD Kat Pictures

Each month, ACCRA [dot] ALT hosts The Talk Party Series, a monthly film and discussion series in Ghana where the dopest artists and creatives meet over good cinema, talk, food and music.

Over the past few months, President Mills, preachers, and Parliamentarians have made vigorous speeches about homosexuality being ungodly and un-African. In contest to these public statements, September's Talk Party explored life in Accra for young gay men.

These men (from the Coalition Against Homophobia in Ghana) spoke proudly of their sexuality and answered questions from our curious crowd about the challenges of being gay in Ghana.


The Talk Party Series: Gay in Ghana from REDD Kat Pictures on Vimeo.

Produced For REDD Kat Pictures

Camera: Abass Ismael
Edit: SelormJay

Related articles

• Gay Ghanians come out as civil society abandons them (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• UK Foreign aid policy: LGBT Ghanians need 'more than speeches' (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• 'Looking for Satan in everybody's drawers' (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

UK Foreign aid policy: LGBT Ghanians need 'more than speeches'

Gay Ghanians come out. Picture ACCRA [dot] ALT

By Paul Canning

Yesterday we explained how a new British government policy of tying foreign aid to a country's LGBT human rights actions has received an enthusiastic welcome in the UK but the reaction of activists in the 'global south' is more cautious.

The story gave the opinions of activists from Nepal, Jamaica, Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria as well as from Europe and the UK itself.

One of the countries widely mentioned in media reports whose foreign aid from the UK is supposed to be under threat is Ghana. This is as a result of a mounting anti-gay campaign.

Not only have LGBT suffered constant media attacks since May, they have also been denounced by politicians and religious leaders and have been largely abandoned by civil society.

Leaders of organisations such as The Ghanian AIDS Commission (GAC) and the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) - both of which are almost entirely funded by foreign governments - have abandoned them. Even the local branch of Amnesty International has publicly abandoned LGBT people.

Despite this abandonment, a group of gay Ghanians bravely publicly came out, one-by-one, 30 September, at a big public event in Accra. They were warmly received.

Mac-Darling Cobbinah, Executive / National Director of Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights Ghana, Ghana's sole LGBT rights organisation has reacted strongly to the UK's new foreign aid policy. Here are his words.

"We from Ghana LGBTI community think this is not enough. Cutting down aid will not bring anything other than pain and anguish to the already polarized society or country and LGBTi people will be used as scapegoats for under development in our countries."

"There should be support for LGBTi groups to conduct more education to get people to know and understand sexuality and gender diversity instead of aid cuts. The UK should lead the way by supporting LGBTi groups in these countries to organize more awareness programs and talk shows to get the majority of the people to understand the issues of LGBTi rights."

"As we speak now, the Netherlands embassy in Ghana have said categorically that LGBTi rights are not on their list of priority issues as have other European organizations and groups like the Swedish and the German embassies. More needs to be done to get people to understand LGBTi rights and it must begin now."

"Actions must follow the talks by these great allies of the LGBTi movement in Europe. We also belong to families and have friends who needs food to survive. We cannot live in isolation as LGBTi people but only in a diverse society in Ghana."

"We do not want to leave to Europe for asylum and so want to live here and improve the lives of our people here."

"We need more than just speeches."

Cautious welcome, concern as UK ties foreign aid to LGBT human rights

Picture DFID

By Paul Canning

In a move which has surprised many the British government has gone public on a new policy of tying foreign aid to a country's LGBT human rights actions. The new policy has received an enthusiastic welcome in the UK but activists in the 'global south' are more cautious.

The move appeared in the right-wing, anti foreign aid tabloid the Mail on Sunday but has been confirmed to the author by a source, who says the decision on the new policy was made in the summer.

The Mail article names three African countries whose aid is under threat; Uganda, Malawi and Ghana. All three countries sodomy laws are relics of British colonisation - and this was named as a highly relevant point by Kofi Mawuli Klu, the Executive Commissioner of Panafriindaba, an African think tank, in a heated discussion about the foreign aid move on BBC Radio 10 October.

Malawi has already had its aid cut by the UK. Although LGBT issues were not mentioned by the UK - the cut was described as being due to increasing authoritarianism - the Malawian government explicitly blamed local LGBT human rights supporters for the aid cut.

Aid cut threats to Uganda because of increased repression of LGBT and the potential passage of the 'Kill gays' Anti-Homosexuality bill are believed to be being made behind-the-scenes.

The Mail article claims that a British Minister explicitly threatened aid cuts to Ghana because of that country's increasingly anti-gay atmosphere, which has been highlighted internationally by one regional Minister's threat to 'arrest all gay people'.

However a fact-sheet made available to journalists during a Media Open Day at the British High Commission in Accra 29 March said that the UK government would increase its development assistance to Ghana in the next four years (2011-2015) to £375 million (US $587m).

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, specifically singled out Malawi for mention in remarks delivered to a Downing Street reception in June for Gay Pride.

He claimed that the British coalition government's commitment to not cut its foreign aid budget despite its austerity programme meant it carried "moral authority" when speaking to 'global south' countries about "what we expect from them".

"I’m very proud of the fact we [put] huge pressure on the leader of Malawi about an issue in that country but I’m convinced we can do more. We have got the ability to speak to African leaders, African governments, about this issue that I know concerns everyone here tonight. And it concerns me," he said.

Read more »

Gay Ghanians come out as civil society abandons them

Picture ACCRA [dot] ALT

By Paul Canning

Fed up with both day after day of nasty newspaper headlines and one civil society leader after another abandoning them, last Friday Accra's gay community came out, one-by-one, at a major 'straight' forum.

Ghanian blogger Graham Knight described the collective coming out as "remarkable".

The forum was the 'Talk Parti', a monthly space for Accra's "dopest artists and media creatives". It "provides a space for young people to create innovative projects, exchange ideas about global art and politics."

"The event last week showed the [voguing] film Paris is Burning and they had invited [gay leader] Prince MacDarling and his crew," says Knight, "some of whom represented his Coalition Against Homophobia in Ghana (CAHG). One by one, these guys stood up and announced they were gay (or gay but with girlfriend)."

In a Facebook comment, Independent Filmmaker Akua Ofosuhene said:

"It was great to see such a self confident, articulate, sharin and stylish Accra Gay community. The discussions were great and testimony to all that is great in Ghana."

Knight said that in the discussion gay people said that all the recent negative press had actually highlighted the issue to isolated MSM's (Men who have Sex with Men) and "showed they were not alone". As a result: "They didn't seem to have any strong views on the negative publicity."

The attacks on LGBT in the media began after a false but widely repeated report in May claiming that '8000 homosexuals had been registered' at an NGO.

The origins of the 'registered homosexuals' story are a humble USAID workshop, wrote Graham Knight in June:

"The workshop was attended by about 30 health workers. One of the doctors present made a wild guess that there were 8000 MSMs [men who have sex with men] in the combined Western and Eastern regions. It seems that this unsubstantiated opinion has been leapt upon by the media whilst refusing to give the background to the claim. It has led the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare to publicly state that no NGO is registering homosexuals in Ghana."

Read more »

Do we need an LGBT underground railroad?

By Joe Mirabella

As African nations like Uganda, Ghana, Congo, and others continue their witch hunt against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and perceived LGBT people, there is a growing need for a new underground railroad.

Our community is being hunted, beaten, raped, and murdered for their sexual orientation and gender identity. This is not hyperbole, life could not be worse for our LGBT brothers and sisters in many regions of Africa.

Even those who escape the most horrendous murderers in places like the Congo to more tolerant countries like South Africa, they are left homeless and tortured by their own family members.

24-year old Junior Mayema fled the Congo for South Africa after her mother tried to inject her with gasoline after learning she is a lesbian - but only after an exorcism failed to "rid her of evil spirits." Once in South Africa, she was kicked out of home after home, as her Congolese community discovered her sexual orientation.

Paul Canning covers LGBT refugee issues every day on LGBT Asylum News. His site is filled with stories of those who escape their torturous nations with the hope of discovering a new life in a more tolerant society, only to find a less than friendly immigration system waiting to send them back into the grips of hell.

Despite the challenges they face establishing legal status in their new country, they still have an opportunity at life, like Robert Segwanyi who was spared deportation. Paul Canning led a campaign on Change.org to spare him deportation back to Uganda.

Frankly, if Paul had not done this, Robert would have surely been killed upon his arrival in Uganda. Robert is safe now. He is free in the UK because of the kindness of thousands perfect strangers who signed Paul's petition.

But for every person who gets out there are hundreds left to fend for themselves. John Bosco told me about the life of Ugandan gays in prison. He said:

"There are no beds in prisons in Uganda - no mattresses - just the concrete floor. The prisons are packed. You sleep on one side. You don't have room to turn around," John recounted. 

"There are no toilets, there is no running water. There are buckets where everyone eats. No blankets, no curtains. It is hell. It is even worse than the place that they keep pigs," John explained.

Life is getting worse for Uganda's gays and lesbians, as an active witch hunt pursues anyone showing any signs of homosexuality, like not marrying or dating women. Who cares if you just have not met the right woman? If you don't have a girlfriend or wife, your life could be in danger.

Uganda could soon pass a law that would give gays and lesbians the death penalty. Few people realize, the law also makes it illegal to be supportive of gay rights, so straight people who are not vehemently anti-gay could also face persecution - leaving Uganda's LGBT people with no where to turn.

LGBT people in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other Western nations live relatively comfortable lives in comparison. Yes, we have our problems to deal with at home, but we also have the capability of helping our brothers overseas who are facing the worst circumstances imaginable - rape, torture, imprisonment, and death.

During the holocaust, people sheltered Jews and others being persecuted by the Nazis. An underground railroad shepherded some victims to safety. In the United States, an underground railroad moved African Americans from the South to the North where they could live freely and help others escape.

Clearly there is a need for this now. There are literally thousands of people who need to be rescued from oppressive populations, but the task of removing them to safety is not easy. A network of volunteer families, lawyers, corporations, and elected officials must work in concert to ensure the safe harbor of those in danger.

I don't pretend to be an expert on how to make this happen, but the need is there. I see it every day. I guess the first question to ask starts with you. Would you be willing to let a perfect stranger live in your home for a period of time while they negotiate the legal and immigration systems? Would you be willing to be a part of the new underground railroad?

Related articles

• Change.org protests removal by UK of gay Ugandan Robert Segwanyi (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Ugandan gay refugee recounts horror of imprisonment (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• How the Home Office is misusing law in gay Ugandan asylum seeker case (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• UK LGBT asylum activists react strongly to Ugandan activist comments (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

'Looking for Satan in everybody’s drawers'

Source: Colorlines

By Frankie Edozien

On particular midweek nights, throngs of men and women gather at a few particular clubs to dance the night away to pulsating beats, and sometimes live music. The men dance provocatively close to each other, with reckless abandon. The few women around do the same with each other. Kisses are even exchanged.

At seaside dance parties where beer and reggae flow to all and sundry, it’s no longer uncommon for men and women in Ghana’s capital city, Accra, to test the waters and try to pick up companions of the same sex. Even in conservative Ghana, it seems that gays and lesbians are taking steps out in the public domain, at least at night.

But like elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, a backlash to that new openness has erupted as well. Since late May, it has spilled out onto the radio. Hours are spent debating whether gays should be allowed to exist here. Then Ghanaians wake up to national headlines screaming that gays and lesbians are dirty and sinful and ought to be locked up.

The pattern is becoming a familiar one throughout sub-Saharan Africa. As evangelical Christianity has seen its fastest growth on the continent, gay communities have simultaneously grown more open. The parallel developments have led to a growing list of countries in which politicians and media outlets have both incited and exploited social panic around sexuality. In the late 1990s, a beleaguered Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe drew global attention as he invited violence against gay people and blamed the country’s growing troubles on the European deprivation he said they symbolized. Since then, similar moments have struck in places stretching across the continent. Most recently, Uganda has been embroiled in controversy over a proposed law that would, among other things, allow the death penalty as a punishment for homosexuality. The authors of that law are closely tied to the U.S. religious right.

Now, this West African nation is having its own gay-dialogue moment and, once again, much of it has been unsavory, with religious leaders and some politicians stoking the flames.

“Gay bashing had never been a feature of the Ghanaian social landscape until, oh, I would say the last 10-15 years. And it came with the evangelical Christians,” says Nat Amartefio, 67, a historian, lifelong resident and former mayor of Accra.

“It’s these evangelicals who are looking for Satan everywhere, in everybody’s drawers, who have created this specter of an expanding gay universe. In all fairness, maybe they see things that those of us who are not involved cannot see. But they are the ones who are driving this hysteria,” Amartefio adds.

Read more »

In Ghana, how two gay Liberian refugees survive

Liberian refugees Sekou Grear (left) and James Gayee, from Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana. Identities changed for security reasons.

Source: Xtra

By Paula Stromberg

It was in Ghana, West Africa, that I was asked the most troubling question by an interview subject. Homosexuality is illegal there, but after phone-text promises of anonymity, two gay men met me in a suburban café outside Accra, Ghana’s capital. They had fled West Africa’s bloodiest conflict, a vicious civil war in Liberia, and now live 44 kilometres west of Accra in the Buduburam Refugee Camp. Being refugees, gay, unemployable, poor and despised by locals: could life be any more difficult? I was about to find out. 

We position our red vinyl chairs to ensure we can’t be overheard and settle on pseudonyms. Real names are dangerous. "Sekou Grear," 35 years old, is slim, five-foot-nine, wearing jeans and a striped, long-sleeved T-shirt. When he sees my camera, he runs his hand over his closely cropped head. “I ha hai’ exsensions til las’ wee, bu’ I cu’ ih off because o’ de espens.” ( I had hair extensions until last week but cut them off because upkeep is expensive.)

The second man, wearing jeans and a blue wax-cloth short-sleeved shirt, wants to be named "James Gayee." He is petit, with a sharply defined face and hollows under his cheekbones. He tugs his earlobe, showing me it is pierced. “When I go to bas, I wea’ a blue stone,” but the rest of the time, he says, an earring is too dangerous.

Sekou, James and I need patience to communicate. "How are you?" is "How you comu on?" Everything is expressed in the present tense no matter when it happened. It occurs to me that, given their violent backgrounds as war orphans, perhaps existing only in the present moment is a wise choice. The Liberian accent swallows endings of words and other consonants. The word "thing" became "ting"; "get" and "it" have no "t."

I ask James how easily they meet other gay men. “Is there a gay community in Accra?”

“De area nah, dis’ da’ de Tensionwire in Kasoua. An’ each ge’ abou’ tree or fou’, boh dey ge’ little, little monay,” (The area under the power lines in Kasoua -- we get three or four men a week, but little money.)

Read more »

In Ghana, fightback begins against homophobic attacks

John Atta Mills image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

Updates are below

After initially trying 'quiet diplomacy', Ghanaian LGBT have formed an alliance with civil society supporters to oppose an increasingly vociferous anti-gay campaign in that country.

International attention has focused on the call by the Chief Minister of the Western Region for the arrest of gays but Ghanaian media has been full of attacks against gays and calls for government action against them has included highly personal attacks on President John Atta Mills. One health NGO reports being asked by the Western Region government to provide names of MSM (Men who have Sex with Men) using its services.

A Coalition Against Homophobia in Ghana (CAHG) was announced yesterday. It says:

"The Coalition has among its objectives to create a friendly rapport between the media and the LGBT community and also educate people to respect the rights of LGBT people’s privacy and human dignity, which is a vital part of fundamental human rights."

"With the help of our local and African Regional allies of Human Rights Defenders, the Coalition will continue to organize against any efforts by hateful groups, institutions, and individuals to demean, blackmail, arrest, or violently assault LGBT individuals."

CAHG says that the increasing homophobic attacks "disgraces Ghana’s image internationally" and warns that if they continue unchecked Ghana faces becoming "a pariah state like Uganda and Zimbabwe".

The Coalition's formation follows criticism that many local human rights activists and bodies were failing to speak out. According to a 22 July Toronto Star article:

"On most issues, Ghana has a fairly vocal human rights activist community. Not so in this instance."

This included the local branch of Amnesty International, whose Director Laurence Amesu would "not take a position on the 'unnatural carnal knowledge' law" and whose website has not carried a statement on the arrest call put out by Amnesty's International Office.

Wrote Abdul Musah Sidibe:

"It seems anyone who attempts to speak out against the apparent human rights violation and the seeming unconstitutional rallying cry is labelled a homosexual. And in a very homophobic society, that is enough to silent critics and continue the rage."

Amongst those failing to offer support was Richard Quason, Deputy Commissioner of the government appointed independent organisation for the safeguarding of human rights in Ghana, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). However on Monday, the newly appointed Commissioner, Lauretta Lamptey, called for the decriminalisation of homosexuality, this following her predecessor who had also publicly supported LGBT human rights.

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Audio: In Ghana, is it getting worse for LGBT?

By Paul Canning

Law lecturer Kissi Agyabeng of the Ghana Law School explains the position of the law vis a vis homosexuality, lesbianism, and sex crimes in Ghana. He spoke with Dzifa Bampoh of the Radio Station JoyFM.



A reported call by the Western Regional Minister in Ghana, Paul Evans Aidoo, to arrest gays is getting major coverage in Western media with, at time of writing, one petition and headlines such as 'Has a gay holocaust begun in Ghana?' and 'Ghana Joins In On “Kill The Gays” Mania In Africa'. This attention to Ghana is bound to increase - and has not gone unnoticed in Ghana itself.

The news follows numerous recent stories in Ghanaian media on homosexuality. Nana Ama Bonsu, writing for In Depth Africa:

"The issue of homosexuality has dominated the Ghanaian airwaves and print media for quite a while, which is unusual in a country where our attention span on issues is about the same as a butterfly, fluttering from one flower to another."

This has included a report that President Mills had reacted to growing pressure from religious groups saying he "would institute measures to check the menace of homosexuality and lesbianism." The President has denied he said this, going as far as to call the Editor of the newspaper which printed his supposed quote, the Ghanaian Times.

Another newspaper, the Daily Graphic, was called out by the youth group of the ruling party the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for another story which dominated headlines about a NGO 'registering 8,000 homosexuals'. We reported on this last month - it appears that much of the current media storm in Ghana followed this article. It even led to a bizarre story that The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), Ghana’s national security agency, would be investigating the registered names of homosexuals.

The origins of the 'registered homosexuals' story are a humble USAID workshop, wrote Graham Knight:

"The workshop was attended by about 30 health workers. One of the doctors present made a wild guess that there were 8000 MSMs [men who have sex with men] in the combined Western and Eastern regions. It seems that this unsubstantiated opinion has been leapt upon by the media whilst refusing to give the background to the claim. It has led the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare to publicly state that no NGO is registering homosexuals in Ghana."

"The real story is of a rather low-key workshop that has been sensationalised by the press, possibly with the collusion of a local doctor. The press reports are designed to create fear as are the unrepresentative group of Muslims claiming an imminent Sodom and Gomorrah for Africa."

In 2009 Western Regional Focal Person on HIV/AIDS, Dr. Roland Sowah claimed that 'over 2,000 registered homosexuals' are 'said to be roaming' in Sekondi-Takoradi, the capital of the Western Region of Ghana. "We need to talk about it. Whether we like it or not, it has become part of society so what do we do as a country?", Sowah was quoted as saying.

Following those media reports, last year more than one thousand protesters in Sekondi-Takoradi, participated in a peaceful rally organised by Muslims 'against reports of gay and lesbian activities in their city'. This was reportedly the first antigay protest in the country. Aidoo's arrest order followed another demonstration and petition 16 July in the city, organised by the Western Regional Network of Churches.

Knight warns that:

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Did Ghana register 8000 homosexuals? The facts behind the hype

By Graham Knight

On May 30th a strange story circulated in the Ghanaian media. It claimed that 8,000 homosexuals, many with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, had been registered by an NGO. The figures also included students in junior and senior high school.

A few days later a group of Muslims tried again to lobby the government to bring the ‘homosexual crisis’ under control before Allah destroys Africa.

The original story should have raised questions that challenged its authenticity. In a country in which an open declaration of homosexuality will result in stigmatisation and intolerance, it seems hard to imagine that 8000 men would voluntarily register as homosexuals. What responsible NGO would keep such a list?

Men who have sex with men (MSM’s) have been neglected in HIV prevention programmes due to stigmatisation, intolerance and the apparent illegality of anal sex. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has enabled new efforts to be directed at this group although, typically, it is not official.

Against this background, USAID organised a workshop, together with some of its partner organisations, encouraging health workers to provide their services in a professional manner, regardless of the method of transmission. This included treatment for sexually transmitted infections, HIV testing and so on. This kind of workshop is necessary as some health workers feel the need to moralise and preach, putting off potential patients, instead of delivering these vital services.

The workshop was attended by about 30 health workers. One of the doctors present made a wild guess that there were 8000 MSMs in the combined Western and Eastern regions. It seems that this unsubstantiated opinion has been leapt upon by the media whilst refusing to give the background to the claim. It has led the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare to publicly state that no NGO is registering homosexuals in Ghana.

The real story is of a rather low-key workshop that has been sensationalised by the press, possibly with the collusion of a local doctor. The press reports are designed to create fear as are the unrepresentative group of Muslims claiming an imminent Sodom and Gomorrah for Africa.

The debate around homosexuality in Ghana is an illusion because only one side is being heard. Its function is not to allow discussion but to reinforce negative public opinion informed only by myth and ignorance. An example of misinformation is the statement by the National Commission on Civic Education resolving to fight homosexuality in secondary schools which it claims are used as nurseries for homosexuals.

The prospective MP, Jacob Osei Yeboah’s call to have a referendum on whether Ghanaian’s like homosexuality is dishonest because it clearly allows for only one outcome. An outcome which Mr Yeboah states is needed to “withstand the power of the international gay community.”

As Ghana’s silent MSM’s quietly go on with their lives, those seeking power are attempting to use the issue to forward their careers.

The final twist to the story claimed that The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), Ghana’s national security agency, would be investigating the registered names of homosexuals. If true, their precious resources would be invested into chasing a fantasy.

• Graham Knight's blog

Related articles

• The 8 Dumbest Arguments Against Homosexuality in Ghana (grahamghana.wordpress.com)
• Advocacy Toolkit on Msm Issues Launched (mask.org.za)
• In Africa, will massive US HIV/Aids funding start trickling to gay/MSM groups? (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

UK Government denies appeal rights to refused gay asylum seekers from Jamaica, Nigeria and Ghana

Earl Attlee, a government whip in the House of Lords

By Paul Canning

The UK will continue to regard Jamaica, Nigeria and Ghana as 'safe countries' to which to return sexual orientation applicants if they're refused, which will highly restrict their ability to appeal. The government has suggested their negative decisions on asylum claims should be "appealed only from outside the UK".

They have also specifically refused a request - because of the documented decisions of Border Agency staff based on their views "of a stereotypical gay person" - to consider adding 'sexual orientation' to the list of specific descriptions of "named categories of people" who have the right of appeal.

This follows an earlier refusal by Immigration Minister Damien Green to consider adding 'sexual orientation' to a list of types of asylum claims which should not be entered into the so-called 'fast track' process, which also erodes legal appeal rights.

Research by Stonewall and by UKLGIG have found extremely high rates of refusal overall of claims made on grounds of sexual orientation and a particular culture of disbelief of claims from Jamaica.

Ghana has "lots and lots of people in our prisons" jailed because of anti-gay laws, according to LGBT leader Prince MacDonald.

12 states in Nigeria have the death penalty for gay sex (although it hasn't been enacted). Public hostility to homosexual relations is widespread there. Very few gays are out, and violence against LGBT people is frequent, including from police.

Jamaica has been described by human-rights groups as the most homophobic place on earth due to both hate speech and bias motivated crimes of violence.

The government's answer came 7 March from Earl Attlee, a government whip in the House of Lords, to questions from Liberal Democrat peer and long time advocate for LGBT asylum seekers Lord Avebury.

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Report: Blackmail, extortion the experience of LGBT in sub-Saharan Africa

Source: IGLHRC

Antiquated laws against same-sex sexual activity as well as deeply ingrained social stigma result in the all-too-frequent targeting of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Africa for blackmail and extortion, said the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) in a new report.

The report, 'Nowhere to Turn: Blackmail and Extortion of LGBT People in Sub-Saharan Africa', illustrates how LGBT Africans are made doubly vulnerable by the criminalization of homosexuality and the often-violent stigmatization they face if their sexuality is revealed. Based on research from 2007 to the present, the volume features articles and research by leading African activists and academics on the prevalence, severity and impact of these human rights violations on LGBT people in Cameroon, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.         

"The tragic reality is that blackmail and extortion are part of the daily lives of many LGBT Africans who are isolated and made vulnerable by homophobic laws and social stigma," says IGLHRC's Executive Director, Cary Alan Johnson. "The responsibility clearly lies with governments to address these crimes and the underlying social and legal vulnerability of LGBT people."

The report's authors vividly depict the isolation, humiliation and manipulation to which LGBT people are subjected by blackmailers and extortionists and describe the threats of exposure, theft, assault, and rape, that can damage and even destroy the lives of victims. Vulnerability to these crimes is faced on a regular basis and families and communities are not safe havens. For example, according to research conducted in Cameroon and featured in the report, "the bulk of blackmail and extortion attempts were committed by other members of the community - 33.9% by neighbors, 11.8% by family members, 11.5% by classmates, and 14.1% by homosexual friends. Police were often complicit in this - either by ignoring or dismissing it or, in 11.5% of cases, directly perpetrating it."

'Nowhere to Turn' explores the role the State plays in these crimes by ignoring blackmail and extortion carried out by police and other officials by failing to prosecute blackmailers, and by charging LGBT victims under sodomy laws when they do find the courage to report blackmail to the authorities.

IGLHRC urges States to take concrete steps to reduce the incidence of these crimes by decriminalizing same-sex sexual activity, educating officials and communities about blackmail laws, and ensuring that all people are able to access judicial mechanisms without prejudice.

Nowhere to Turn: Blackmail and Extortion of LGBT People in Sub-Saharan Africa

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In US, gay asylum seekers gaining ground?

Image by Matt Algren via Flickr

Source: WGLB

By Kilian Melloy

An American organization that assists GLBT asylum seekers reports that it helped a record number of gays from hostile home countries secure safe haven in 2010.

Immigration Equality, working together with legal volunteers, successfully assisted 101 GLBT asylum seekers last year, according to a press release issued by the organization on Feb. 7. The largest number from a single country was 28; those refugees came from Jamaica, one of the most violently homophobic nations in the world.

Gays in Jamaica are reportedly subject to mob violence, sometimes beaten and even murdered in their own homes. Homophobia is deeply rooted in Jamaican culture, with anti-gay songs played at dance halls. Homophobia is further inculcated into the society by anti-gay religious leaders.

A further 10 gay asylum seekers came from other Caribbean nations, the press release noted.

Other sexual minorities who won the right to stay in the United States and not be shipped back to face anti-gay persecution--which can often be life-threatening--came from Russia (seven of the 101 individuals), Uzbekistan (four asylum seekers), and Ghana (three individuals), among other nations.

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Did Japan kill a Ghanaian during a removal attempt?

Source: SA Times

Japanese prosecutors are to investigate 10 immigration officials over a Ghanaian man's mysterious airport death during an attempt to deport him from the country, police said.

Police have sent files to prosecutors on their investigation into whether the immigration officials used excessive force against the man, a rare move against Japanese civil servants that could lead to indictments.

Abubakar Awudu Suraj, 45, died at Tokyo's Narita airport in March, as the Japanese immigration officials tried to deport him, escorting the restrained man onto an aircraft bound for Cairo.

"The immigration officials restrained the man who had wildly resisted," said a police spokesman without elaborating. "The cause of his death remains undetermined even after a legal autopsy."

Suraj's Japanese widow has filed a complaint with police, challenging authorities to explain how her husband died as he was being deported for illegally staying in Japan.

Rights activists believe he was gagged with a towel, recalling a similar but non-fatal case in 2004 when a female Vietnamese deportee was handcuffed, had her mouth sealed with tape and was rolled up in blankets.

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UK asylum win for bisexual Ghanaian

By Paul Canning

The bisexual Ghanaian asylum seeker Baffour Obeng has been released from detention on the order of an Immigration Tribunal judge. According to the journalist Simon Lewis, who has been helping him, "the judge at the tribunal indicated that [his asylum] claim would be successful but Baffour is still awaiting official confirmation."

Lewis said that the judge cited the July Supreme Court decision which said that LGBT asylum seekers could no longer be told to 'go home and be discreet'. In previously ordering his removal using the 'discretion' argument the Home Office had admitted that there would be "no protection available [from authorities] if you were to experience problems on account of your sexuality."

Obeng has been in detention for six months. In June he had no solicitor and a removal flight was booked for June 13. But a campaign was started, the Home Secretary's office was flooded with faxes and emails, a solicitor found, the flight was canceled, and Baffour was told by the Home Office that his case would be "substantively re-considered".

Baffour traveled to Europe in 2005 with his father, who has Dutch citizenship, both escaping a particularly violent inter-family chieftainship dispute which claimed the lives of four people.

For the first time, in Europe Baffour was able to be open about his sexuality, and began a relationship with another man. In Ghana, this would have been extremely dangerous, as well as being illegal. However, his coming out also led his father and family to abandon him. Baffour thinks his father has returned to Ghana, but is unable to contact any of his family any more - they will not speak to him.

With no access to documentation of his father's European citizenship, which would have allowed Baffour the right to stay in the UK, he was placed in a detention centre and faced forced removal from the UK. This terrified him as friends in Ghana warned him that his "secret" is out, and that it would be very dangerous to return.

Homosexuality is illegal in Ghana and the local LGBT community operates at least one safe house to protect people from attacks. Blackmail and extortion is widespread. The US Department of State human rights report, published March 2010, says:

LGBT persons face widespread discrimination, as well as police harassment and extortion attempts. Gay men in prison are often subjected to sexual and other physical abuse. The law makes consenting homosexual acts a misdemeanor, and strong sociocultural beliefs discriminate against and stigmatize same gender sex.

A prominent heterosexual supporter of LGBT in Ghana, Nana Oye Lithur, recently was not appointed to represent Ghana on the African Union's Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), it is thought because of her support for LGBT.

Baffour told NCADC:

Without your help they would have send me already. Thank you so much to all the people who support me. It's rough inside, but it helps to know people are campaigning. Now please help others in this situation, there are too many needing help.