As the United States takes in the effect of Wednesday’s landmark court
rulings on same-sex marriage rights, President Obama is en route to his
first lengthy visit to Africa. While there, advocates hope that he will
make an effort to urge African governments to protect gay rights within
their own borders.
Obama was already aboard Air Force One, bound for Senegal, when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down decisions granting federal recognition
to gay marriages in states that allow them and permitting marriage
equality in California. Once he lands, it will be the beginning of a three-country swing across the continent, taking him from Senegal to South Africa to Tanzania. In each of these countries, the U.S. is seeking to improve ties through greater investment and promoting inclusion of women and youth in the countries’ national dialogue.
Advocate groups are hoping, however, that Obama takes the opportunity
to engage with governments and civil society groups alike in promoting
equal rights for gays and lesbians in each of the countries he visits
and across the continent as a whole. Amnesty International this week issued a new report
on not only the troubling lack of gay rights in Africa, but the efforts
to criminalize homosexuality in several of these states. In fact, two
of the countries that Obama is visiting — Senegal and Tanzania — have
laws in place making any form of sexual activity between members of the
same sex a crime. Even without evidence, a gay man in Senegal can be
sentenced to as many as eight years in prison just for having sex.
In the case of one gay Senegalese immigrant to the United States who faces deportation,
the situation of his return may be one of life or death. Should Michel
Manley be returned to his country of origin, it’s likely that he will
face imprisonment for the crime of being gay, or even death at the hands
of his fellow countrymen. Likewise in Tanzania, gay citizens have been
the target of frequent harassment and outright assault from the police with a blind eye turned by the government, according to a recent report from Human Rights Watch. In 2011, Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda pushed back
on British warnings of foreign aid reductions to his country unless
greater equality was granted to gay citizens by claiming that “not even
animals” engage in homosexuality.
South Africa has a better stance on homosexuality than the vast
majority of the other countries in the region, with laws on the books to
protect against the discrimination of the LGBT community and full recognition of same-sex marriages. Transgendered individuals even have the right
to petition the government to change their gender on all official
documents. Unfortunately, South Africa is also the world capital of
brutal “corrective rapes” against lesbians, where males seek to “cure them” of their sexual preference through forced intercourse.
Hoping to sway him towards actually addressing these injustices
during his time overseas, Amnesty International’s Deputy Executive
Director Frank Jannuzi sent an open letter
to President Obama. “Mr. President, your visit to Africa may just last a
few days,” he wrote, “But your words and deeds and the messages they
convey will reverberate for far longer. We sincerely hope that you will
use this visit to recommit the United States to being a force for human
rights and human dignity in partnership with the governments of Africa
and the African people.”
BY Hayes Brown
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