Ethiopia’s former Mr Gay World contestant on being an LGBTIQ asylum seeker
Robel Hailu, the man who represented Ethiopia in the Mr Gay World contest in Johannesburg in 2012, has spoken out in a video about his struggles as an LGBTIQ asylum seeker. Without any formal backing from his country, Hailu that year became one of the first two black African men to take part in the […]
World Cup | FIFA fines Mexico “inconsequential” $10,000 over homophobic chant
FIFA on Wednesday handed down a US $10,400 fine to the Mexico Football Association for “discriminatory and insulting chants” during a World Cup game against Germany. Mexican fans reportedly chanted the homophobic slur on Sunday while German goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, was preparing to take a goal kick. Football fans in Mexico often use the slur to […]
DA says ACDP’s sentiments threaten to incite anti-gay violence
The DA in the Western Cape says that the ACDP’s support for anti-gay comments made by the mayor of George is a violation of the party’s “moral obligation to create a tolerant post-apartheid South African society.” Last week, Mayor Melvin Naik – who is himself from the DA – went on to local Christian radio […]
Coming out the high school closet: ‘Love, Simon’
Trying to find love while hiding your sexual orientation can be quite complicated. Like for 17-year-old Simon Spier (played by Nick Robinson), who is yet to tell his family and friends that he is gay and finds himself falling in love online with a classmate whose identity he doesn’t know, in gay romcom, Love, Simon. […]
Grahamstown teen launches youth inclusivity campaign after anti-gay sermon
A Grahamstown teenager has created an empowerment campaign to raise funds for his Equality Court case against a preacher who told school pupils that homosexuality is wrong. In April, 17-year-old Geir Wilson, a matric pupil at St. Andrew’s College, spoke out after Theuns Pauw, from the African Enterprise international ministry, addressed pupils on “the trappings […]
Angola registers its first LGBT+ affirming civil rights group
Earlier this month, the Iris Angola Association (Associação Íris Angola) became the first civil rights organisation that advocates for LGBT+ rights to be legally registered by the Angolan government. Mambaonline reached out to the association’s director, Carlos Fernandez, to find out more about the country’s historic moment. Established in 2013, the association is part of […]
Book Extract: Africa’s Future Has No Space For Stupid Black Men (in As You Like It)
Pwaangulongii Dauod’s Africa’s Future Has No Space For Stupid Black Men was this year’s winner of the Gerald Kraak Award. The “queer Afro-modern” piece highlights the plight of those who are marginalised based on their gender and sexual orientation in Nigeria and on the continent. The essay is included in the new queer anthology book, As […]
The economic cost of homophobia to anti-LGBTQ nations
A new report has revealed that the more than 70 countries that criminalise homosexuality suffer significant economic disadvantages as a result, thereby hampering their development and prosperity. These costs include lost tourism revenue, lost inward foreign aid and investment and lost talent and skills as LGBT+ people flee abroad. The human rights abuses meted out […]
“They hate God”: Cape Town’s anti-gay pastor at it again
It appears that Cape Town hate pastor Oscar Bougardt cannot stop himself from continuing to attack the LGBTQ community, despite the threat of jail. In May, the preacher was again found guilty of making comments that are “discriminatory or incite hatred or harm on the grounds of sexual orientation.” This was in connection with his violating a […]
US pulls out of UN Human Rights Council
Accusing it of being a hypocritical “protector of human rights abusers,” the US has withdrawn from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). On Tuesday, Nikki Haley, the US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, made the announcement in a scathing press conference in Washington, DC. “For too long, the Human Rights Council has been a […]