US threatens to undermine Africa’s LGBT gains

Defending LGBT rights can be dangerous in Africa, where many countries have laws against homosexuality. But in recent years activists have stepped out of the shadows, empowered by the support of the Obama administration and the international community. Now many fear the Trump administration will undermine those gains, and that their exposure could make them more vulnerable if support fades. ‘I have so many worries with the new administration,’ said Cameroonian gay rights activist Joseph Achille Tiedjou. Graeme Reid, director of Human Rights Watch's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Programme said LGBT groups around the world ‘could absolutely rely on the moral and, indeed, material support that came from the US government and that made a huge difference’. A report on the News24 site notes that the US recently joined 12 other countries to vote against a UN Human Rights Council resolution that urged countries not to use the death penalty for specific forms of conduct, including consensual same-sex relations. The report notes that same-sex acts are illegal in more than 33 African countries and can lead to death sentences in parts of at least four, including Mauritania, Sudan, northern Nigeria and southern Somalia.