Activists Deliver Petition to Nigerian Mission to the UN Opposing Bill That Would Jail Gays

On Monday , Nigerian activists and allies delivered a letter, signed by more than 58,000 people around the world, to the Nigerian mission to the United Nations asking Nigeria's president to veto a draconian anti-gay bill passed by the Senate.

The bill mandates 14 years in prison for same-sex couples who marry and 10 for those who help them. Amnesty International condemned the bill last week. I've written more about it here.

You can add your voice to AllOut's petition here.

Above, activist Ifeanyi Kelly Orazulike. Below, activist Joseph Huff Hannon and a representative from the Nigerian Mission to the UN.

Here's a nice Facebook gallery of the protest.

NEWS: Vladimir Putin, Jonah Mowry, Penn Jillette, Nigeria, Singapore, And God

It was a bad day for Putin:

United Russia, the governing party of Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, suffered surprisingly steep losses in parliamentary elections on Sunday and was barely clinging to a 50 percent majority, with nearly three-quarters of the votes counted.

The three minority parties that now hold seats in Parliament — the Communist Party, the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party and Just Russia, a social democratic party — all made strong gains, meaning that United Russia would have little choice but to forge a working relationship with at least some segment of the newly empowered opposition.

This weekend, Jonah Mowry's video about being bullied in middle school went seriously, uberly viral, and he wants everyone to know that he's okay. He posted a video to that effect, but it's since been taken down.

Bishop Eddie Long, accused sexual harasser of young male congregants, will cease preaching.

The boys of Hanson introduce their IPA. It's called "MMMHop."

Students sue to get the Ten Commandments out of their school, and school board chairman Eric Gentry calls them "cowards."

This video game doesn't try to entertain, doesn't try to delight. Mostly it wants to bore you, and choke you with angst and ennui. Interested?

The NC marriage amendment continues to lose political support:

North Carolina state Sen. Jim Davis (R) has joined the chorus of Republicans walking back their support of a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban all recognition of same-sex relationships. At a town hall this week, he reiterated his opposition to same-sex couples marrying, but admitted the amendment restricts freedoms “beyond his comfort zone”:

DAVIS: I have a lot of libertarian in me. I believe firmly, passionately that a marriage should be defined as being between one man and one woman. But I also believe with all my heart that in a free America people who choose to live a different lifestyle should have a legal right to do so. Just don’t call it marriage. [This amendment will] restrict their freedoms a little beyond my comfort zone.

Michael Beitz's vaguely disturbing folding house.

Read about the Singapore SlutWalk.

There is apparently a show called The Virgin Diaries, and on it they show you things like this. Gak!

What destroyed the Cain candidacy?

Nigeria's anti-gay legislation could risk AIDS funding:

A newly added portion of the bill, leveling 10 years in prison for those found guilty of organizing, operating or supporting gay clubs, organizations and meetings, worries advocates in Nigeria. They fear the law could be used against groups providing aid for HIV and AIDS outreach programs that traditionally consider gay men as an at-risk group.

"We work with them trying to reduce their risk factors, trying to make them more healthy and have safer sex practices," said Meyiwa Ede of the donor-funded public health organization Society for Family Health. "If we can't work with them anymore, then they are vulnerable."

But lawmakers playing to the deeply religious nation's dislike of gays and lesbians have said donor nations who threaten to cut aid over the bill can keep their assistance, putting at risk the lives of people reliant on anti-retroviral drugs.

 Alan Moore vs. Frank Miller.

Penn Jillette provides an atheist's guide to the 2012 election. He doesn't say who to vote for, but he says a lot of other things. I mean, a lot of other things. Goodness! Watch AFTER THE JUMP ...

Amnesty Condemns Anti-Gay Nigerian Bill as Human Rights Group Launches Urgent Appeal to International Community

On Monday I posted about the heinous bill that passed the Nigerian Senate banning same-sex marriage in the country. The bill mandates 14 years in prison for those who marry and 10 for those who help them.

But it's worse than that, as Amnesty explains:

By broadly defining “same-sex marriage” as including all same-sex relationships, and targeting people who “witness”, “aid” or “abet” such relationships, the bill threatens the human rights of a large number of people.

The group has condemned the bill:

“Nigeria’s House of Representatives should show leadership and uphold the rights of all in Nigeria by rejecting this reprehensible bill,” said Erwin van der Borght, director of the Africa Programme.

“If passed, this measure would target people on the basis of their identity, not merely their behaviour, and put a wide range of people at risk of criminal sanctions for exercising basic rights and opposing discrimination based purely on a person’s actual or presumed sexual orientation or gender identity.”

It would place a wide range of people at risk of criminal sanctions, including human rights defenders and anyone else – including friends, families and colleagues – who stands up for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people in Nigeria.

Individuals could face imprisonment based on nothing more than their actual or assumed sexual orientation or gender identity, or stemming from allegations about their relationship status or consensual sexual conduct.

More on the bill her from the Coalition for the Defense of Sexual Rights in Nigeria.

The group has posted an urgent call for action, which you can read in full, AFTER THE JUMP...

Nigerian Senate Passes Bill Mandating Prison for Gays Who Marry and Those Who Help Them

Last week I mentioned that the Nigerian Senate was considering a bill to ban same-sex marriage. Today the Senate passed it, the AP reports:

The Senate voted Tuesday to pass the bill. It was not immediately clear if it would then go to Nigeria's House of Representatives or to President Goodluck Jonathan for his approval.

Under the measure, couples who marry could face up to 14 years in jail, and witnesses or anyone who helps couples marry could be sentenced to 10 years behind bars.

Watch a video featuring debate over the bill, AFTER THE JUMP...

Nigeria Moves to Ban Same-Sex Marriage as Gays Fear Violence

Nigeria has proposed a bill that would criminalize same-sex marriage in a country already very dangerous for LGBT people, the AP reports:

Activists fear that discrimination and violence will only increase if a bill drawing strong support in Nigeria’s legislature is passed. Under the measure, couples who marry could face up to three years in jail, and witnesses or anyone who helps couples marry could be sentenced to five years behind bars.

“If this bill passes into law, the Nigerian government will be sanctioning even greater discrimination and violence against an already vulnerable group,” said Graeme Reid, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights director at New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The proposed law also has drawn the interest of European Union countries, some of which already offer Nigeria’s sexual minorities asylum based on gender identity.

UK Prime minister David Cameron last month threatened to cut aid to African countries that refuse to reform laws criminalizing homosexuality. So far, Cameron has been rebuffed by Ghana, Uganda and Malawi.

A report on the legislature's movement, AFTER THE JUMP...

NEWS: Ruth Davidson, The Rocking Lesbian Tory; Bill Clinton's New Book; Zombie Fish; God Hates Oklahoma

She's a 32-year-old lesbian, a kickboxer, and a veteran of the Territorial Army -- and now she's the head of the Scottish Tories!

Happy birthday, Boy Culture! To mark the occasion, Matt Rettenmund runs down his 100-ish favorite posts from the last six years.

Joan Didion's final approach.

Christwire is the funniest website in the universe:

Hell hath no spitfire like a lisping gay scorned, so it’s no surprise today to see legions of gays angrily sassafrasshing and sashaying all around their demigod Joe My God in heated fury and trying to scratch the skin off GOP Presidential Candidate Herman Cain.

Radical Islamists kill 100 in Nigeria.

Oklahoma: 10 earthquakes in 1 day.

Qur'anic polygamy in theory and practice.

Rick Santorum:

The economy is inextricably linked to the moral fabric of this country, and we can’t have a real solution-based conversation about fixing the economic problems in this country without faith and family being a large part of that conversation. [Right, Rick. Because the more pious your nation is, the richer it is!]

The Atlantic Wire on Bill Clinton: "The former president is so fed up with the current one's inability to sell his economic message, he wrote a book to do it for him."

Sleeping your way to the top of the food chain.

See zombie fish! Donate to zombie research!

Adam Lambert: looks very well scrubbed.

"An Irishman abroad's view of the Wall Street Shenanigans" -- watch AFTER THE JUMP ...