The general treatment of the LGBTQ community in Africa is usually laced with stigmatization. From verbal and physical abuse to some governments clamping down hard on their activities, some, out of fear for their lives have had to flee and seek refuge in countries where their sexuality is respected.
Currently, the majority of the continent’s 54 countries has criminalized the activity, and while others have no law against it, there is high intolerance. Many Africans and their governments argue that homosexuality is a foreign import from the West – that is, the practice is “un-African.”
In October, Ugandan authorities were criticized for their re-proposal of a controversial anti-gay bill which sought to impose prison or death sentences on people caught engaged in homosexual activities.
Fully supported by president Yoweri Museveni, the “Kill the Gays” bill, as it is known, was re-proposed five years after it was overturned by the Ugandan Constitutional Court on the basis of technicalities.
With the stigmatization not cooling off any time soon or maybe never, we highlight two African homosexuals who out of fear for their lives have had to flee their home countries and seek refuge elsewhere.
Scroll through to read about them:
