SAME-SEX SEXUALITY CONFERENCE UNDERWAY IN PTA

An international conference on same-sex sexuality and gender diversities in Africa is underway in Pretoria. The event takes place in the midst of growing anti-gay sentiment and oppressive legislation in many countries across the continent.

Homosexuality is outlawed in at least 38 out of the 54 counties in Africa, with Mauritania, Sudan, and northern Nigeria allowing for execution as punishment.

This month Malawi added lesbianism as a crime to its penal code, which already criminalises male homosexuality, while legislation introducing the death penalty in certain case of homosexuality remains pending in Uganda.

The aims of the African Same-Sex Sexualities and Gender diversities (ASSSGD) conference, which began on Sunday and continues till Wednesday, are:

To promote understanding and further the study of male and female same-sex sexual practices, identities and communities, including expressions of gender diversity, in Sub-Saharan Africa.

To promote understanding of social and structural prejudice towards sexual and gender diversity and strategies to address this prejudice.

To explore how social and structural factors affect the well-being and health of persons engaging in same-sex sexual practices or with gender diverse backgrounds and identify ways of enabling the social environment and reducing vulnerability.

To support capacity building in research and advocacy and to strengthen the development of MSM (Men who have Sex with Men)/WSW (Women who have Sex with Women)/transgendered communities.

“We need more conferences like these in different African countries to increase visibility of lesbian and gay people in Africa. Even if they kill us they can’t make us disappear because every day a gay is born in Africa,” Togo’s Christian Atato told Behind The Mask.

“It is time to bring about change to make things happen so that Africans know that homosexuality is not something we have learnt from the western countries but it does exist in Africa,” he said.

Key speakers at the conference will include Human Science Research Council’s Professor Vasu Reddy, Paul Jansen from the Dutch development agency Hivos, David Kuria from the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALK), Monica Mbaru of the International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and Theophile Habonimana from HUMURE, Burundi’s LGBT rights group.

For more information, visit www.asssgd.org.za.