Senegal gay men jailed for eight years

Last December 2008, police in the predominantly Muslim nation of Senegal raided a private home, where a dinner party was being held, and arrested nine gay men, all under 30 years old, for sodomy.

While the prosecutor in the case had asked for the maximum sentence for such a crime in Senegal of five years, the judge this week added three years to the sentence, saying the men were also members of a criminal group.

Most of the convicted worked for AIDES Senegal, an organisation providing HIV prevention services to men who have sex with men.

Pinknews reports that Muslim organisations in the African country had "warned against 'enemies of the faith and of morality.'"

Well, what to say. Yet another religious endorsement of homophobia. I'm glad in Canada we have the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69, promoted by then Minister of Justice and future Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who once told reporters that "there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation...what's done in private between adults doesn't concern the Criminal Code."

For the gay Senegalese unfortunately, the eyes of Islam are all over the place, and if they can't get into your bedroom, they'll spot you at a dinner party.

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