Cameroon Sends Three Men to Prison for Five Years for Gay Sex

Three men have been sent to prison for five years in Cameroon after being caught having sex, AFP reports:

The Ekounou court sentenced the three on Tuesday to five years imprisonment and a fine, the heaviest sentence provided by Cameroonian law, which bans homosexuality, Michel Togue told AFP. Two of the convicted men were present for the ruling but the third was sentenced in absentia, said Togue, who added he had appealed the decision.

"It's a bad ruling because it is a blatant violation of the law," the lawyer said, citing procedural technicalities when the guilty verdict was handed down.

He also accused the judge of peppering the hearing with homophobic innuendos. The three were allegedly caught in the act in a vehicle in July.

In September, five human rights groups called on the president of Cameroon, Paul Biya, to end detentions, arrests and harassment of its citizens based on real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.

Five Human Rights Groups Call on Cameroon President to Halt Anti-Gay Arrests, Harassment by Government

In an open letter to the President of Cameroon, Paul Biya, five human rights organizations called for the government to end detentions, arrests and harassment of its citizens based on real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity, Amnesty International reports:

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch joined the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), L’Association pour la Défense des Droits des Homosexuel(le)s (ADEFHO) and Alternatives Cameroun in urging the government to release all individuals detained under the discriminatory law.

“This use of criminal law to punish private sexual activity between consenting adults contravenes international human rights laws that Cameroon has signed and ratified,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

“We are receiving an increasing number of reports that individuals are being targeted not only because of their sexual behaviour, which is the subject of these discriminatory laws, but because of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. This use of criminal law to punish identities, as well as behaviours, is deeply concerning,” he added.

The organization reports that "at least ten individuals in Yaoundé and Douala have been arrested" in the last ten months.

Gay Men Facing Deportation From UK Granted Right To Appeal

Two gay men the UK was set to deport to their home countries of Iran and Cameroon have won the right to stay and appeal their deportations after the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in their favor.

Lord Hope read the judgment:

"To compel a homosexual person to pretend that his sexuality does not exist or suppress the behaviour by which to manifest itself is to deny his fundamental right to be who he is. Homosexuals are as much entitled to freedom of association with others who are of the same sexual orientation as people who are straight."

Both men had previously been threatened and attacked in their native countries.

Gay Activist Discusses Detention, Abuse by Police in Cameroon

Earlier this week I posted a link to a story about a gay activist in Cameroon who was turned in to police by a taxi driver last week after discussing homosexuality in a cab. Sebastien Mandeng, the activist and Deputy President of the Association pour la Defense de le Homosexualite (ADEFHO), wrote a blog post in which he discussed the detention:

When returning from a trip with some friends, we hired a taxi, and during the ride we spoke about subjects relating to LGBTI rights and the need for decriminalization.  From time to time the taxi-driver intervened in our conversation, and I asked for his opinions on the subject.

It was precisely at this moment that the situation took a turn for the worse.

He began driving much faster, shouting that instead of taking me to the final destination I had requested, he would take me to the nearest police station.  When we arrived there, I paid the fare, and he became hysterical, crying out that he works hard with his hands and cannot tolerate homosexual practices.
When I arrived at the police station, it was four o’clock in the morning and the police locked me, barefoot, in a cell with no electricity, and insisted that the locked cell would provide protection. Throughout the hours I remained in custody I was subjected to insults, mocking and sarcasm from the policemen, who demanded to know why I don’t like women, why I prefer men, and “unnatural relations.”

Article 347 of the Cameroun penal code (ordinance n°72/16 of September 28, 1972) punishes by imprisonment from 6 months to 5 years and a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 FCFA any person who has sexual relations with someone of the same sex.

At one point the police threatened to insert their fingers into my anus in order to verify whether I am often sodomized, in order to charge me with homosexual activity later.  I forcibly resisted, insisting that anyone who touched me would have to do so over my dead body.

Mandeng spent the night in the cell and was released after requesting legal representation.

My Illegal Detainment for “Promoting Homosexuality” Sheds Light on the Urgent Need for Protection of Sexual Rights in Cameroun [akimbo]

News: Sweden, Morrissey, Cameroon, Walmart, Kris Allen, Kenya

Straight ex-spouses speak up for marriage equality: "They are federal workers and professionals, men and women who share little except that their former spouses tried to live as heterosexuals but at some point realized they could not."

British town mourns albino squirrel.

WATCH: Morrissey storms off stage after fan hits him on head with bottle of beer.

POLL: Majority of Californians oppose putting marriage equality on the ballot in 2010. "Overall, 51% of California voters favored marriage rights for same-sex couples and 43% were opposed. Strikingly, however, almost 60% of Californians did not want to revisit the issue in 2010, just one election cycle after it last hit the ballot."

Conservatives up in arms over gay-friendly recommendations in Fort Worth Rainbow Lounge police raid report.

Asheville, NC city council to take up extending benefits to same-sex partners.

Manchester, UK closes gay village to cars in weekend experiment.

Wingnut Peter LaBarbera calls FBI on gay blogger Joe.My.God over reader comments he characterizes as "domestic terrorism".

Popular DJs Fernando and Greg back on the air in San Francisco: "Fernando Ventura and Greg Sherrell had been the most recognizable voices on KNGY's gay-themed programming schedule since 2005. Last year they received the Fall Honors award from northern California chapter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, and in 2007 they were named to OUT Magazine's Top 100 most influential people in gay culture."

WATCH: Kris Allen's new music video for "Live Like We're Dying".

Shortened, revised trailer "de-gays" Tom Ford's A Single Man?

Gay activist detained in Cameroon after dispute with taxi driver.

Cleveland City Council to get mass postcard delivery on transgender rights ordinance.

Male model fix: Parker Gregory.

Gay couple, twin sons banned for life from Walmart over BIC lighter dispute: "'They asked if I had Bic lighters. I said, 'Yes,' and handed them over,' Paolucci said. 'Then they asked if I had a receipt. I said, 'Yes, you're holding it.' Then this group of Wal-Mart employees started forming around us.' Paolucci and Hitchcock said the employees were threatening and that one used a vulgarity. Their accusations frightened the boys, who began 'crying, screaming and freaking out,' they said."

The Guardian profiles fashion designer Henry Holland: "I think it [being gay] makes you more experimental. There's not that whole thing of, 'I can't wear that, I'd look like a poof', because you are a poof."

Master performance: "Tardy for the Party".

Sweden's Lutheran Church ordains first openly lesbian bishop: "Eva Brunne was ordained as bishop of Stockholm's diocese in a ceremony on Sunday. She lives in a "registered partnership" with another woman, a civil union between gays used in Sweden before same-sex marriages were legalized this year. The couple also has a child. 'It is very positive that our church is setting an example here and is choosing me as bishop based on my qualifications, when they also know that they can meet resistance elsewhere,' the 55-year-old Brunne told The Associated Press by phone."

Possible gay element investigated in murder of 55-year-old man in India.

More info on Kenya's plans to conduct "census" of gays for HIV/AIDS purposes: "Initial media reports said the project, which was announced last week, would be a gay census — raising fears that gays could be exposed against their will and questions about whether such a count could possibly be accurate. But Muraguri says all information collected by the government will be kept confidential and officials will not seek to contact all men who have sex with men in Kenya. The government will also seek to interview both male and female sex workers and intravenous-drug users."

Grief

Via National Geographic: "Cameroon—At the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, more than a dozen residents form a gallery of grief, looking on as Dorothy—a beloved female felled in her late 40s by heart failure—is borne to her burial."