African Lesbian Coalition Urges End to Homophobia  | News | Advocate.com

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February 28, 2008
African Lesbian Coalition Urges End to Homophobia

The Coalition of African Lesbians will host a conference for the people of Mozambique to discuss topics of discrimination and injustice toward LGBT people, specifically lesbians, Reuters reported Tuesday.

In certain areas in Africa, death by stoning is an accepted punishment for those sentenced for having consensual gay sex. In April 2007, the International Lesbian and Gay Association reported that 38 of the 85 U.N. members opposed to rights for LGBT people are from Africa.

Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe has been quoted as calling gays "worse than dogs and pigs." And while South Africa legalized same-sex marriage in 2006, many in the coalition say that LGBT South African residents often encounter intense discrimination.

"People are facing detention and arrest, three lesbians were brutally murdered in South Africa, and several others in Sierra Leone," coalition director and spokeswoman Fikile Vilakazi said to Reuters. "We want to get Africans to start talking openly about sexuality in their own way." (The Advocate)

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