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)
