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Loading ...Nigeria moves to ban gay marriage
01.29.2009 4:56pm EST
(New York City) Even though homosexuality is illegal in Nigeria, the country’s Parliament is considering legislation that would make it a crime for two people of the same-sex to marry.
Consenting gay sex is punishable by up to 14 year in prison with hard labor.Under the anti-gay marriage bill, a same-sex couple married anywhere and returning to Nigeria, or anyone who is married to a same-sex partner who travels to Nigeria including foreign business people, would be jailed for up to three years.
The legislation also would imprison anyone who attends a gay wedding with up to five years behind bars.
In addition, police would have the right to raid public or private gatherings of any group of people suspected of being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
The measure would increase the risk of violence and other acts of discrimination against individuals who are suspected of being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, said Amnesty International.
“It is simply unacceptable to single out one group of people to be deprived of the rights we all enjoy,” said Aster Van Kregten, Amnesty International’s Nigeria researcher. “Legalizing discrimination is reprehensible in itself and can only promote acts of hatred.”
Van Kregten said that the bill before Parliament would violate rights guaranteed in the Nigerian constitution and by human rights treaties.
In 2006, a similar bill was introduced, but died when the government fell.
Amnesty International has expressed in the past concerns about human rights abuses against individuals on the basis of their actual or perceived sexuality.
In August 2007, police in Bauchi arrested 18 men suspected of same-sex relations, charging them with belonging to an unlawful society, committing indecent acts, and engaging in criminal conspiracy. In 2008, several men and women were also arrested and detained on charges of engaging in consensual same-sex relations.
Way to go Nigeria.. May God be your guide. Stand up to your morals, and not those dictated to you by the rest of the world!!!
Hi Queen! Great to see you here! Could you phone me with the time and location of the next book burning? Thanks. Have a good day now, ya hear!
People please !! It is a SIN to be a GLBT. A SIN !!!! AKA it is wrong !! I totally agree with Nigeria.
If the US had any sense it would totally put a stop to all these SINS that are keeping us from God’s blessings.
Why do you think we are in the situation that we are right now? Not because Bush made all bad decisions, but b/c Bush did not involve God in his decision making.
I believe that if America would turn from her wicked ways God’s grace and blessings would pour out on us once again.
God bless America !! and God bless Nigeria !!!
Nigeria is not always right, but at least, they are trying to do well in God’s eyes.
jeff said
“What that country needs real bad is a plague to wipe each and every…”
your racism is showing
As if any intelligent person would go to that pathetic country in the first place! I mean, honestly!
What that country needs real bad is a plague to wipe each and every one of them off the face of the earth.
“Is Niggeria a must see on the vacation or business list?”
I sincerely hope that was an accidental misspelling.
Look, there are many countries out there that don’t like gays. There are many countries where we can be put in prison or executed just for being ourselves. Nigeria is not the worst of these countries, but it is certainly right up there.
You can mock it, you can abuse its government and people, but that doesn’t make a difference for the gay men and women living there.
I’ve heard some of you talk about boycotting Nigeria, about imposing sanctions. That won’t work. It never works. The US, even the United Nations, have imposed sanctions against countries in the past. Rather than fixing the problem it has pushed those nations further away from us, driving them to further embrace the barbaric aspects of their culture.
The US has proven itself to be a real force for change in the world, influencing many other countries. It does so in one of two ways – either by invading and installing “friendly” regimes (a tactic that has backfired more often than it has been successful) or by maintaining diplomatic relations with that country and addressing it as a friend.
Personally, I want to see every country that persecutes homosexuals or other minority groups isolated in the world community, but there are too damn many of them for that to be effective. Instead the US needs to embrace Nigeria as a friend, and guide it towards a more civilised way of thinking when it comes to minority groups.
Of course, the US first needs to develop a more civilised way of thinking when it comes to minority groups, but it can still have a positive influence until it gets there.
OK, I will agree that calling an entire country and its people “filthy and dirty”
is way out of line. It’s obvious the government is so evil that Satan can now take a holiday. Denounce the government as vermin slime if you must but always be aware that it is the people there who are suffering the most and we always should extend a hand to help them where we can.
Nigeria is one of the most corrupt countries in the world – their assbackwards state of affairs will continue to leave most of their people in a state of poverty and starvation.
The entire country smells of feces and the people smell worse. The politicians accept bribes at every opportunity. Their most educated are retarded compared to an average American fifth grader.
Nigeria is a country of fail. No one should pay attention to this country until the people decide one day to no longer sit quietly like a bunch of retards and overthrow the government and replace it with one that acknowledges basic human rights… and then learn how to run an economy… and then manage to pull out their country out of poverty. I’m not saying they should westernize, in fact western politics do not work in the culture of Nigeria, but where they are at now is absolutely pathetic.
Most of Africa is fail. This will change, but not for a while.
Hopefully, HIV infection will wipe out these highly intelligent religious individuals. Keep on practicing your ignorance Africa, with any luck Africans won’t be around much longer.
Suits me.
Is Niggeria a must see on the vacation or business list?
Of course, this also means the US and any other country which recognizes same-sex marriages must with-hold any further economic aid of any kind to Niggeria.
AS IF we’d ever step foot in one of these third-world piss-holes in the first place.
Threatening to jail people who want to come to the country to do business, well, that will help their economy
What some of you fail to realize is that we have no control over a country that is not ours. Our government wont care about another country and what they are doing to their people unless it effects our country. We have our own problems, look at our economey.
We used to use blacks as slaves, and we didnt have any country from Africa (or any country from around the world for that matter) starting a war with us, or cutting off our trade routes because of us not giving blacks the same rights. We had to have a civil war to end this discrimination. In other words Nigeria will have to learn and mature to realize that everyone deserves equal rights, Just like how we had to. America still has to mature even today with the LGBT rights, and hopefully we dont have to go through another civil war to get them.
There is enough discrimination and hatred in other parts of the world without putting oneself in the position of travelling to a country like Nigeria where human rights abuses are so rampant. One cannot begin to imagine the atrocities carried out towards gay people, your heart prays for a way out to freedom for our brothers and sisters.
This sad PERIOD! I feel for the GLBT peps in Nigeria and in Africa.
NIgeria, Jamaica etc. should be avoided by GLBT. No travel dollars – nothing. The only language these ignorant leaders know is the universal language of CASH!