Gambian President Yahya Jammeh continued to feed the frenzy of anti-gay fervor on the African continent when on Tuesday he called homosexuals “vermin” and pledged his government will fight them much the same way it fights mosquitoes (notorious for spreading malaria). Reuters reports:
"We will fight these vermins called homosexuals or gays the same way we are fighting malaria-causing mosquitoes, if not more aggressively," Jammeh said in a speech on state television to mark the 49th anniversary of Gambia's independence from Britain.
Britain and some other Western nations have threatened to cut aid to governments that pass anti-gay laws.
But Jammeh said his country would defend its sovereignty and Islamic beliefs, and not yield to outside pressure on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues.
"We will therefore not accept any friendship, aid or any other gesture that is conditional on accepting homosexuals or LGBT as they are now baptised by the powers that promote them," he said.
"As far as I am concerned, LGBT can only stand for Leprosy, Gonorrhoea, Bacteria and Tuberculosis; all of which are detrimental to human existence," he added.
These are not Jammeh's first incendiary and anti-gay comments since coming to power two decades ago in a coup. Last April, Jammeh threatened, “If we catch you, you will regret why you are born.” And in his address before the UN General Assembly this past fall he labeled homosexuality one of the three “biggest threats to human existence,” dubbing it “more deadly than all natural disasters put together."
