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Loading ...Senegal jails couple for marrying in Belgium
08.29.2008 2:14pm EDT
(Dakar) A court in Senegal has sentenced a same-sex couple to two years in prison for marrying in Belgium.
Richard Lambot, 61, a Belgian citizen who was living in Senegal, and Moustapha Gueye, 63, a Senegalese were convicted of “gross indecency and marriage against nature” their lawyer told a British-based African publication this week.Attorney Seyni Ndione told IC Publications that neither man is gay and that Gueye was Lambot’s “domestic helper.”
According to Ndione, Lambot had married Gueye only to help him relocate to Belgium so he could continue working for Lambot.
The men were detained by authorities when they stepped off a plane from Belgium and the marriage license was discovered in their luggage. They had returned to the country to begin preparations to move back to Lambot’s homeland.
“This marriage was only intended to help Mr. Gueye,” Ndione said.
But police claim a subsequent search of Lambot’s home in Dakar, the capital, turned up “evidence of homosexuality.”
Predominantly Muslim, Senegal is one of the few Francophone African countries that penalize homosexuality. Gay sexual acts are punishable by imprisonment of between one and five years and a fine of up to $3,000.
In February five men were arrested on charges of homosexuality after pictures purportedly of a gay wedding appeared in a popular Senegal gossip magazine.
Following an international outcry the five were released. But the dropping of charges outraged Muslims.
Several hundred people gathered outside Dakar’s main mosque despite the refusal by police to issue a permit for the protest.
Garbage bins were set on fire as organizers in front of the Grande Mosquee de Dakar demanded that all homosexuals in the country be rounded up and jailed.
When police ordered the protestors to disband some in the crowd began throwing stones. Police fired teargas into the crowd to quell the riot.
Ah, more homophobia from a “predominantly Muslim” country. They are quite obssessed with homosexuality, aren’t they?
Wherever there is rank sexism and oppression of women, homophobia is also rampant. The fear of homosexuality is based on a fear that men will lose their privileged position in society. It’s not so much that they are obsessed with homosexuality, it’s more that they react viscerally to any threat to the status quo in their sexual politics. After all, if two men or two women can live together as equals, what does that mean for a man and a woman? That’s a very scary question for these people.
How sad it is that so much oppression still exists towards women and gay people in the world and even in this era. There is so very much to be done to educate and eradicate people from the tightly controlled fists of these male dominated, voodoo mentality societies.
There was a time not long ago in Senegal when homosexuality was mostly ignored.
But the fundamentalist mullahs have learned well from American evangelical Christian pastors, who have turned the preaching of bigotry against gay people into an enormously successful fund-raising technique.
It’s yet another of America’s enlightened exports.
Can you give any citation for the proposition that “There was a time not long ago in Senegal when homosexuality was mostly ignored.”?
Dear Sir
I know this couple personally, there is a mistake in the age of the Senegalese man, his age is 23 years. I can provide you with photos of this couple. I urge you to publish this news and defend the this couple against this blatant discrimination against gays.