XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.culture.canada   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: ghf@aol.com   
      
   AKAR, SENEGAL — A mob has ransacked the headquarters of Ivory   
   Coast's most prominent gay rights organization, underscoring the   
   dangers confronting such groups even in the few African   
   countries where homosexual acts are not crimes.   
      
   The violence followed days of anti-gay protests in Ivory Coast,   
   which is sometimes considered a safe haven for homosexuals   
   fleeing persecution elsewhere across the continent. It   
   contributed to a growing sense that activists championing gay   
   rights in Africa are under siege, with countries working to   
   strengthen existing laws that criminalize homosexuality. A new   
   law in Nigeria bans all gay associations, and lawmakers in   
   Uganda may well override their president's opposition and   
   approve a bill imposing life prison terms for consenting same-   
   sex partners who engage in repeated sexual acts.   
      
   Some human rights activists view the crackdown as a backlash at   
   pressure from the United States and European countries that say   
   they will use their leverage to promote the human rights of gay   
   people around the world. Britain has threatened to cut aid to   
   countries that outlaw homosexuality, and the Obama   
   administration two years ago instructed "all agencies engaged   
   abroad to ensure that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance   
   promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons."   
      
   In response, African governments say they will defend their   
   people's religious and cultural convictions that homosexuality   
   is evil and un-African.   
      
   The attack in Ivory Coast took place Saturday afternoon but was   
   not publicized until Monday. Nearly 200 people stormed the   
   offices of Alternative Cote d'Ivoire in an upscale suburb of   
   Abidjan, the commercial capital, flinging stones to shatter   
   windows and stealing computers, said Claver Toure, the group's   
   executive director.   
      
   Others heaved sacks of garbage over the property's exterior   
   walls and left trash and broken glass at the entrance. Signs   
   hung on walls demanded "Stop the homos!" and "Pedes get out!"   
   The word "pede" is short for pederast or pedophile, and is   
   commonly used in West Africa to insult gay men.   
      
   "Everything they could take was taken, and the rest was broken,"   
   Toure said, adding that a private security guard was   
   hospitalized with wounds to his face.   
      
   Toure criticized what he described as a deliberately slow   
   response by security forces, saying police did not arrive until   
   the French ambassador contacted government officials.   
   Ultimately, he said, about 10 officers came with a half-dozen   
   U.N. peacekeepers.   
      
   "When we call, the police need to come right away and protect us   
   because we are Ivorians," Toure said.   
      
   Interior Minister spokesman Bazoumana Coulibaly said the   
   government was not prepared to comment because it was still   
   collecting information.   
      
   The attack was not unexpected.   
      
   In a statement last Friday, the Ireland-based human rights   
   organization Front Line Defenders detailed what it described as   
   "coordinated" attacks against Toure's group last week. It warned   
   that "rumors are circulating that a more virulent attack is   
   envisioned" for Saturday.   
      
   On Jan. 20, neighbors gathered outside Toure's home to chant   
   anti-gay slogans and issue death threats against those inside,   
   Front Line Defenders said. Two days later, a mob targeted   
   Alternative's headquarters, placing signs demanding that the   
   organization leave.   
      
   Local media reports quoted residents last week expressing fear   
   that the presence of a gay rights organization would jeopardize   
   their children's safety, highlighting the widespread belief   
   throughout Africa that gay people target children for   
   recruitment.   
      
   Toure said his landlord confronted him on Jan. 5 after neighbors   
   complained that more than 20 people were staying in his home and   
   that "condoms could be found throughout the neighborhood each   
   morning" — accusations Toure denied.   
      
   U.S. Ambassador Terence P. McCulley said he was "shocked and   
   saddened" by Saturday's attack.   
      
   "Even if one is not in agreement with the point of view of an   
   organization or its people, we have an obligation in a democracy   
   to support the right of people to organize and express   
   themselves," he said in a statement posted Monday on the   
   embassy's Facebook page. "I hope that Ivorians will understand   
   that these attacks are not consonant with democratic values."   
      
   Violence targeting gays in Africa drew worldwide notice earlier   
   this month when President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria signed a   
   law banning gay associations and gay marriage. Dozens have been   
   arrested since then throughout Africa's most populous country.   
      
   The new law carries penalties of up to 14 years in prison. But   
   in some northern Nigerian states that also have Islamic Shariah   
   law, a homosexual can get the death sentence just for being gay.   
      
   Outside a courthouse in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi   
   this month, protesters tried to stone seven men accused of   
   belonging to a gay organization, demanding they be stoned to   
   death. A week before in Bauchi, a 28-year-old man was punished   
   with 20 lashes after pleading guilty before a Shariah court to   
   an act of sodomy committed seven years ago. He said he was led   
   astray by a high school principal.   
      
   Days after Jonathan signed the law, activists in the neighboring   
   country of Cameroon confirmed that a man once jailed for sending   
   a text message saying "I'm very much in love with you" to   
   another man died after his family removed him from the hospital   
   where he was seeking treatment for a hernia. The family said he   
   was a curse who did not deserve to live.   
      
   In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni has voiced opposition to a   
   bill approved by lawmakers last month imposing life imprisonment   
   for gay sex involving an HIV-infected person, acts with minors   
   and the disabled as well as repeated gay sex acts among   
   consenting adults. The bill, dubbed "Kill the Gays," initially   
   called for the death sentence.   
      
   But gay rights activists drew little encouragement from   
   Museveni's letter to legislators, in which he said homosexuals   
   are "abnormal fundamentally because the hormones malfunctioned."   
   And despite Museveni's stated opposition, parliament still could   
   muster enough support to make it law.   
      
   While the Ugandan bill criminalizes "promotion" of   
   homosexuality, the Nigerian law makes it illegal to have any   
   kind of gay meeting, potentially rendering illegal the work of   
   rights groups and organizations dealing with the epidemic of   
   HIV/AIDS among homosexuals. That would include programs funded   
   by USAID.   
      
   Ivory Coast is generally seen as more moderate on the issue, and   
   Alternative has worked increasingly closely with the government   
   on programs to combat HIV/AIDS.   
      
   But Matthew Thomann, an anthropologist at American University   
   who has worked extensively with Abidjan's gay groups, said it   
   would be "naive and dangerous" to portray Ivory Coast as an   
   oasis of freedom.   
      
   "We must remind ourselves that the lack of anti-gay legislation   
   in a country like Ivory Coast is not the same as LGBT   
   individuals having actual legal protection or recourse when   
      
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