EUROPEAN UNION RULES ASYLUM SEEKER TESTS FOR HOMOSEXUALITY UNLAWFUL

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) today ruled that gay asylum seekers do not need to undergo a test to prove they are homosexual, reports Big News Network.

The ECJ had ruled last year that persecuted gay people from Africa have grounds for asylum.

Due to severe anti-gay laws in a number of African countries there has been an increase in the number of asylum seekers in the European Union (EU).

The decision came after three men failed in their attempts to seek asylum in the Netherlands after the Dutch court ruled they had not proved their sexuality.

The ECJ said determination of a refugee's sexuality must be in accord with EU law and cannot infringe on rights to privacy and dignity. The court added authorities can discuss sexual matters with asylum seekers but cannot ask about personal sexual practices or demand "medical tests" or recordings of sexual acts.

However, the court also found that although “the starting point in the process of assessment,” a mere declaration of homosexuality, is insufficient grounds for asylum.

In September, Egypt’s Forensic Medicine Authority found that nine men are “not homosexuals” after they had appeared in a recording of a “gay marriage”.

Ebola Success Seen With HIV Med

Acting out of "desperation," a doctor in Liberia is reporting success in treating ebola with the HIV medication marketed as Epivir.

Dr. Gobee Logan has given the drug, lamivudine, to 15 Ebola patients, and all but two survived. That's a 7% mortality rate. Across West Africa, the virus has killed 70% of its victims. Outside Logan's Ebola center in Tubmanburg, four of his recovering patients walk the grounds, always staying inside the fence that separates the Ebola patients from everyone else. "My stomach was hurting; I was feeling weak; I was vomiting," Elizabeth Kundu, 23, says of her bout with the virus. "They gave me medicine, and I'm feeling fine. We take it, and we can eat -- we're feeling fine in our bodies." Kundu and the other 12 patients who took the lamivudine and survived, received the drug in the first five days or so of their illness. The two patients who died received it between days five and eight. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says that theoretically, Logan's approach has some merit. Lamivudine is a nucleocide analog, and other drugs in this class are being studied to treat Ebola.

In the United States, Epivir is typically prescribed as one of the medications in the combination pills Trizivir and Combovir.

Malawi Solicitor General Says Country Has Suspended Anti-Gay Laws

At a meeting with the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva last week, Malawi’s Secretary for Justice and Solicitor General Janet Chikaya-Banda said that the southeast African nation has suspended arresting people for homosexuality until its anti-gay laws are reviewed.

Back in 2012, it was first reported that Malawi was suspending its anti-gay penal codes and ordering police not to arrest gays. However, the country’s Justice Minister quickly backed away from claims that he was reversing any anti-gay laws, leading to doubts as to whether gays in the country were safe from legal prosecution.

Nyasa Times adds that Banda told the committee the review of the anti-gay laws was stalled due to lack of financial resources but that there was political will to deal with the matter. 

Malawi, like most other African countries, has harsh laws on the books that criminalize consensual homosexual acts. Individuals convicted under Malawi’s anti-gay laws can be punished with up to 14 years imprisonment with hard labor.

Head of Anglican church: We must discriminate against gays lest someone think we’re gay and bash us

In a horrific statement, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that Anglicans must discriminate against gays, lest bigots in Africa think Anglicans themselves are gay, and then gay-bash them.

Yeah, he really did.

The archbishop says that some Anglicans were massacred in Africa because – get this – their murderers allegedly thought they were gay.  Thus, the archbishop says, it’s really complicated for the church to consider becoming more pro-gay, and especially pro-”gay marriage,” because, you know, what if people then try to kill even more Anglicans for doing the right thing?

Yes, because everyone knows that Jesus’ principal message for those confronted with dangerous exposure was to have you “deny” it, preferably three times.

That’s like getting beaten up because someone thinks you’re black or Jewish, and the lesson you take from that isn’t a lesson of tolerance, it isn’t a lesson that perhaps those communities are under attack more than you previously recognized, and perhaps you should double up your efforts to help them.  No, the lesson the head of the Anglican church (the Anglican Communion, they call themselves) is to distance yourself from the embattled minority, lest the bad guys attack again.

This is a church we’re talking about.  This is the head of the church.  Could Archbishop Justin Welby have said anything less Christ-like than this?

Read through the details of Welby’s interview:

TANZANIAN MP TO SUBMIT BILL OUTLAWING 'GAY RECRUITMENT'

Tanzanian Member of Parliament Ezekiel Wenje recently told The East African that he plans on submitting a anti-gay bill outlawing “gay recruitment” in his country.

The East African reports:

Mr. Wenje said homosexuality is on the rise in Tanzania because the existing legislation does not provide a sufficient deterrent.

Under the current law, convicted suspects face custodial sentences ranging from 20 years to life imprisonment. According to Section 154 of the Act, any person who has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature is liable to imprisonment for life.

But Wenje said the law does not cover those who induce others to become gays or those who promote the behaviour.

He said there are many gays in Dar es Salaam who operate in the open, go to bars and social places, and that more young people are choosing the lifestyle.

Mr. Wenje is optimistic that his Bill will receive support from his colleagues and eventually get passed into law despite a predictable donor stance on the issue.

“We should not care about aid, we should care about our values and the future of the country,” he said when asked if passing of such law would not lead to donor’s freezing aid like is happening in Uganda.

According to the book The Dictionary of Homophobia:

Male homosexuality has been illegal in Tanzania since colonial times (Tanzania was a German colony from 1884 until World War I, then a British colony until independence was declared in 1961). Articles 154 to 157 of Tanzania’s penal code render all homosexual relations between men punishable… [though] (there is no mention of women).

Having said this, the law does not seem to be regularly applied, or if so, only erratically… And there is a burgeoning gay movement in the country; Community Peer Support Services (CPSS), an association for the defense of gays and lesbians, has been in existence since 1997 and currently has 334 members whom it trains to become activists. According to CPSS, the situation of gays and lesbians is better in Tanzania then in all its neighboring countries.

Though that would certainly change if this proposed bill becomes law. In 2012, a gay rights activist was murdered in Tanzania.

Ethiopian Legislation Would Make Criminal Sentences of Homosexuality 'Non-pardonable'

The quickly escalating anti-gay trend in many African countries, including Uganda, has tacked on a new bill, this one aimed at increasing the potency of a law already in place.

Legislation states that Ethiopians found guilty on charges of same-sex acts can be imprisoned for up to 15 years, and persons found guilty of engaging in same-sex acts which transmitted HIV are susceptible to 25 years. Now, the Council of Ministers will likely approve a bill which would make those persons unpardonable by the president.

Mail & Guardian reports:

Ethiopia's president often pardons thousands of prisoners during the Ethiopian New Year. When the Bill becomes law, the president will lose his power to pardon prisoners facing charges ranging from homosexuality to terrorism.

As always, it is particularly disturbing to see homosexuality placed alongside inherently violent acts, though we should not forget that the equation has deep roots in American evangelism as well.

Uganda's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community credits evangelical Christian pastors with sparking the anti-gay sentiment that led to the present-day legal repercussions for homosexuals in the country.

Hopefully the bill loses the battle. We will keep you updated. 

Two Senegalese Men Get 6 Months in Prison for Being Gay

Two men in Senegal were sentenced to six months in prison each, for being gay, the AP reports:

The two were arrested after neighbors alerted police to their home in Grand Medine neighborhood of Dakar, the capital.

In court Friday the two men acknowledged having sex. Judge Racky Deme sentenced them under Senegal's penal code that calls for prison sentences of up to five years and fines of up to $3,000 for committing "an improper or unnatural act with a person of the same sex."

Last June, President Obama visited Senegal on a trip to Africa and spoke out about the country's criminalization of homosexuality.

Said Obama: "People should be treated equally."

President Mack Sall of Senegal replied: “We are still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality. I’ve already said it in the past. We’re still not ready to change the law. This does not mean that we are all homophobic.”

That position was echoed by Senegal's Justice Minister Sidiki Kaba in September.

In November, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that persecuted gays in Uganda, Senegal, and Sierra Leone have grounds for asylum in the European Union.

European Court of Human Rights: Persecuted Gays from Africa Have Grounds for Asylum

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that persecuted gays in African have grounds for asylum, offering an opinion in a case brought by The Netherlands concerning three gay citizens from Uganda, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, the BBC reports: 

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) says asylum can be granted in cases where people are actually jailed for homosexuality in their home country. ECJ rulings apply to all EU members. 

Homosexual acts are illegal in most African countries, including key Western allies such as Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya and Botswana. In June a report by Amnesty International said homophobic attacks had reached dangerous levels in sub-Saharan Africa and must stop. 

The ECJ judgment on Thursday was a response to the Dutch Council of State, a top advisory body, which had asked whether homosexuals could be considered a "particular social group" and whether criminalisation and possible imprisonment amounted to persecution. 

The ECJ says laws specifically targeting homosexuals do make them a separate group. But it is up to the national authorities - in this case the Netherlands - to determine "whether, in the applicant's country of origin, the term of imprisonment... is applied in practice".

Will Obama Speak Out About Gay Rights in Africa?

President Obama is visiting Africa next month. The AP wonders if anti-gay human rights abuses on the continent and/or the SCOTUS marriage cases will play any role in his dialogue with the countries he will visit:

Homosexuality is considered a criminal offense in many African nations, including Senegal and Tanzania, two of the countries Obama will visit. South Africa, the third country on the president's itinerary, has broad protections for homosexuals and is the only African country to legalize gay marriage.

"If the timing works out so that he's there, it may provide a perfect opportunity for him to speak out about the principles we value in our democracy and how we would hope that others follow it," said Socarides, who worked in the White House during the Clinton administration.

Two of the countries Obama will visit outlaw homosexuality:

According to the State Department's 2012 human rights report on Tanzania, consensual same-sex sexual conduct is illegal and carries a prison sentence of 30 years to life. The report also concluded that gays and lesbians face "societal discrimination that restricted their access to health care, housing and employment" and that there were no government efforts to combat such discrimination.

Conditions are similar in Senegal, according to the State Department. The agency's 2012 human rights report on the West African nation says consensual same-sex activity, referred to in the law as an "act against nature," is a criminal offense.

And, Nigeria, as you may know, yesterday passed a law that would jail gays for up to 14 years for a variety of offenses.

Catholics suspend priest for blowing whistle on sex abuse of minors

This is what is wrong with the Catholic Church. They are blind to the harm they cause. They are more interested in keeping the faithful and keeping the money flow coming in to pay for the abuse claims and to keep the Pope in gold dresses that they will hide anything and everything under the rug. It's time to sell off their property and pay off the abused and feed the poor. You know the stuff that Jesus actually commanded his Church to do.

The Catholic Church reportedly suspended a Ugandan priest for blowing the whistle on child sex abuse in that country.  The priest was told to apologize and help cover up the crimes, because, he was advised, that’s what one is supposed to do.  He refused, and got suspended.

The priest is named Anthony Musaala.  And the LA Times reports that he was suspended indefinitely by the archbishop of Kampala for blowing the whistle on child sex abuse, among other wrongdoing, in Uganda.

To appreciate why the Catholic Church is so upset with Musaala, you have to appreciate something about Africans and child sex abuse – they (at least their Catholic leaders) think it’s a white thing.  I wrote a while back about Ghanian Cardinal Peter Turkson, who was reportedly on the short list for Pople, who recently said that pedophilia isn’t a problem in the African church because being gay is a white thing (so many levels of ignorance in that one statement).

Father Musaala via a YouTube video.

As we know, the Catholic church is bad enough on confronting the child-rapists in its midst.  But throw in the African notion that homosexuality (which is how they incorrectly define pedophilia) is a white thing, and you have a perfect storm of denial.

More at Americablog.com

More on pedophile priest at Americablog.com