ANOTHER BLOW TO AFRICAN GAY RIGHTS: GAMBIA PLANS ANTI-GAY BILL

The Gambian government is working on a new bill that will further outlaw gay people and will ban groups lobbying for African gay rights.

On Sunday, the Gambia Consultative Council reported that the country’s Secretary General and Minister for Presidential Affairs Momodou Sabally confirmed plans to submit the bill to parliament.

It will ban all gay rights and homosexuality in the country and strengthen efforts to ward off any attempts to “promote” homosexuality, as well as drug abuse and other crimes.

Sabally said that, “Gambia will not import any western culture into the country in exchange for foreign aid.”

Homosexuality is already illegal in Gambia under British colonial era laws; those found guilty of “unnatural offenses” face up to 14 years in prison.

It’s likely that Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh will fully endorse the proposed new legislation. Over the years he’s revealed an obsessive hatred towards gays and lesbians.

In February, he said: “We will fight these vermins called homosexuals or gays the same way we are fighting malaria-causing mosquitoes, if not more aggressively.”

He also stated that “LGBT can only stand for Leprosy, Gonorrhoea, Bacteria and Tuberculosis; all of which are detrimental to human existence.”

Speaking at the UN in New York in September last year, Jammeh said that homosexuality was amongst the biggest threats facing the world and was “more deadly than all natural disasters put together.”

In 2008, Jammeh – who has been president of Gambia since 1996 – infamously gave gays and lesbians 24 hours to leave the country or face having their heads cut off.