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SOMEWHERE IN THE WORLD: President Obama Urges Gay Rights In Africa During Trip To Senegal

President Obama Senagal

Is the whole of Africa ready for Gay Rights? The answer is a BIG No since we are unable to enforce and respect the basic rights we currently have.

Nevertheless, Gays have rights too just that Africa seems not ready to go that way (give constitutional backing to such rights)—YET.

This has not stopped President Obama from asking….

According to BBC;

US President Barack Obama has called on African governments to give gay people equal rights by decriminalising homosexual acts.

Mr Obama made the comments in Senegal after meeting President Macky Sall on the first leg of his African tour.

Mr Sall said Senegal was a “very tolerant” country but it was “not ready to decriminalise homosexuality”.

Homosexual acts are still a crime in 38 African countries, where most people hold conservative religious views.

In 2011, the US and UK hinted that they could withdraw aid from countries which did not respect gay rights.

Mr Obama said at a news conference that the issue did not come up in his discussions with Mr Sall.

‘Not homophobic’

Nevertheless, he believed that while different customs and religions should be respected, the law should treat everybody equally, he said.

Mr Obama welcomed the US Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday to strike down a law that denied the recognition of same-sex marriages.

The ruling was a “victory for American democracy and a proud day for equal rights”, he said

Mr Sall said Senegal was still not ready to change its laws, but that “does not mean we are homophobic”.

This is Mr Obama’s third visit to Africa since he became president in 2008.

He is also due to travel to South Africa and Tanzania.

Africa had made “amazing” strides in achieving democracy, Mr Obama said.

Senegal, a mainly Muslim country which has never been hit by a coup, was one of America’s “strongest partners” on the continent, he added.

“It’s moving in the right direction with reforms to deepen democratic institutions and as more Africans across this continent stand up and demand governments that are accountable and serve the people, I believe Senegal can be a great example,” Mr Obama said.

Mr Obama, along with his wife Michelle and children, is due to travel by ferry to Senegal’s Goree Island, a memorial to Africans who were caught up in the Atlantic slave trade.

The visit is expected to be emotional because Mr Obama is the son of an African and Michelle Obama is a descendant of slaves, correspondents say.

“A visit like this by an American president, any American president, is powerful,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

“I think that will be the case when President Obama visits and I’m sure particularly so, given that he is African American.”

On Sunday, Mr Obama is expected to visit Robben Island, where South Africa’s first black president Nelson Mandela was jailed for 18 of the 27 years he spent in prison, on the second leg of his African tour.

However, it is unclear whether the visit will take place because of Mr Mandela’s deteriorating health, correspondents say.

Mr Obama is due to end his African tour with a visit to Tanzania, where he will pay his respects at a memorial outside the US embassy in the main city, Dar es Salaam, in honour of 11 people killed in a bombing by al-Qaeda in 1998.

He has excluded from his itinerary Kenya, where his father was born, and Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer which has been hit by an Islamist insurgency.

US officials reportedly said the indictment of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at the International Criminal Court on charges of fuelling violence after the 2007 election, which he denies, made it politically impossible for Mr Obama to visit the country.

map showing gay rights in africa

 



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8 thoughts on “SOMEWHERE IN THE WORLD: President Obama Urges Gay Rights In Africa During Trip To Senegal”

  1. for me i dont care …..we live in a free world…For me i am not going to encourage this stupidity …Since i am not God , we should allow them …if they think they think they will like to marry the same seks instead of the opposite seks fair enough…..that is what they want so i dont blame them or blame PREZ.. Obama. he is a president for all… he has no choice..we should wait till God comes to judge……

    Reply
  2. Prez Obama i love you and all, but dont force Americas wayward behaviour on Africa, we may be poor and not developed but at least we have our costums and traditions

    Reply
  3. Mr Obama pls dis one di33 mind ur own business…africans dont need ur advise or input..do whatever u want in the states but pls live africans alone..

    Reply
  4. Look, I’m a Christian & I believe that homosexuality is a sin. However, I think that it’s equally wrong for people to beat up gays & try to pass laws to kill them. Is that what Jesus taught us in the Bible? Jesus rather embraced prostitutes and people like that while helping them to turn from their sins. And besides, from a Christian viewpoint, it’s hypocrisy of the highest degree to say that we should kill gays but see no problem with fornication & all the men who have 2 to 3 girlfriends. That is a double standard. So either we criminalize all sexual sins or we don’t criminalize them & rather advise people to stop.

    Reply
    • @Ama, I very much agree with you although homosexuality is very wrong. Other sins are equally wrong and we as christians must try to show them the light.

      Reply
  5. Africa has pressing issues of which homo****** is not one of them..98% of Africans are heterosexual….i am wondering if Obama will put the same pressure on Saudi Arabia……please speak to us and not at us…that is why China is more welcome…they invest and don’t promote bizarre cultures …..

    Reply
  6. Omama sorry i mean Obama you better not step in Ghana for this ideology..

    You are one of the greatest in the world though but ,please i dont agree with you this time

    Reply

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