Ethiopia proposes to make homosexual acts a non-pardonable offense

[William769]

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Lawmakers in Ethiopia are expected to pass into law a bill that would make same-sex acts a non-pardonable offense.

Ethiopia’s Council of Ministers last week endorsed the measure that would amend the country’s Pardon and Amnesty Law that lists homosexuality along other offenses as a non-pardonable.

According to local sources, a vote will be called upon bill in parliament as early as next week, and normally bills endorsed by the Council are passed.

The bill aims to curb the president’s power to pardon prisoners who committed certain “crimes,” including those imprisoned for homosexuality acts. Other offenses included in the list are corruption, human-trafficking, smuggling, rape and terrorism.

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2014/03/ethiopia-proposes-to-make-homosexual-acts-a-non-pardonable-offense/

[joeybee12]

1. Yup, terrorism, human smuggling and homsexuality are apparently the same

thing in their tiny little minds...fuck them...this shit needs to stop.

[shenmue]

2. Oh great, another fucking embarrassment to the human race

What is this shit? Can't people just leave people alone?!?

[seveneyes]

3. Either ignorance or malice

It's hard to believe someone in a position of power can even suggest such an action.

[NuclearDem]

4. Fuck that.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. And one more country falls.

I know this sounds paranoid, but I am wondering if other countries will follow suit in other places. I am honestly concerned about Latin and South America. We have seen these evangelicals spreading their poison in the most creative of ways.

[theHandpuppet]

9. An unholy alliance

http://www.newsweek.com/ethiopias-war-homosexuals-224457

Leaders of Ethiopian Muslims, heads of the Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic churches, government officials, members of the Ethiopian Parliament, leaders of political parties, and youth organizations routinely put their differences aside to attend conferences on the “gay problem” – one last year, entitled “Homosexuality and Its Associated Social Disastrous Consequences,” was held in the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa. “Ethiopians do not need their identity to be dictated for them from outside no matter how wealthy or powerful the forces applying the pressure,” Abune Paulos, the former head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, told conference goers last year....

[Cha]

6. So tragic what's happening in Africa.. :( is it those

missionaries again?

[CJCRANE]

7. What's happened to African notions of tolerance and hospitality?

What business is it of the government (or anyone else) what consenting adults do in private?

[theHandpuppet]

8. It's really bad there.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dan-littauer/uganda-anti-gay-law_b_4851882.html

(excerpt)
...Ethiopia has already a harsh anti-gay law which punish same-sex acts with up to 15 years imprisonment.

In addition, under its anti-terrorism law anyone who states what the government deems terrorism (which can include human rights criticism) can be imprisoned for 20 years, without a warrant.

Ethiopia's anti-advocacy law bars charities and nongovernmental organizations that receive more than 10 percent of their funding from abroad from participating in activities that advance human rights and the promotion of equality.

Essentially these three laws taken in total make it impossible for any health-services, charity, advocacy or even clubs or bars to openly support or cater for Ethiopia's LGBT population.... MORE

[theHandpuppet]

10. Ethiopia's War on Homosexuals

Newsweek
Ethiopia's War on Homosexuals
By Katie J.M. Baker
Filed: 12/13/13 at 12:42 PM

http://www.newsweek.com/ethiopias-war-homosexuals-224457

(excerpt)
A Society Eviscerated

Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism law allows the government to hand down 20-year sentences to anyone who “writes, edits, prints, publishes, publicizes, [or] disseminates” statements that the government considers terrorism – meaning, essentially, that the police can search and arrest anyone they please, from reporters to activists, without a warrant. The country’s anti-advocacy law bars charities and nongovernmental organizations that receive more than 10 percent of their funding from abroad from participating in activities that advance human rights and the promotion of equality. The latter measure is both cruelly specific – children and the disabled are two examples of many marginalized groups that can’t be protected – and vague enough to scare nearly everyone.

As a result of these laws, both adopted in 2009, there are no health centers, charities, publications or even nightclubs that expressly serve Ethiopia’s underground LGBT community – the few reputable organizations that once existed have been shuttered or forced to remove any mentions of human rights from their mandates. Given that a volunteer who, say, dares to hand out lubricant to gay men could face imprisonment and jeopardize his or her groups’ larger-scale work, organizations have decided it’s not worth the risk.

Prominent international financing organizations like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which has convinced repressive governments to devote funds to educating and treating MSM (men who have sex with men), have had no luck in Ethiopia, which refuses to fund or even permit any MSM-targeted HIV prevention, treatment or care programming. Gays are persecuted in Uganda, but that country’s health ministry recently admitted that specialized clinics for LGBT people have helped combat HIV rates; Dr. Kesetebirhan Admasu, the Ethiopian Minister of Health, would only tell Newsweek that homosexuality is unlikely to be decriminalized “in the near future,” although any person “can access any type of services regardless of their sexual orientation.” More than two dozen gay and lesbian Ethiopians interviewed by Newsweek said that’s a sick joke; the community is terrified to seek care...

...Last year’s anti-gay conference and others like it are organized and funded by United for Life Ethiopia, an organization that receives funding from the U.K. and U.S. In May 2013, United for Life Ethiopia hosted a workshop during which police told government officials, religious leaders and health professionals that “homosexual family members and neighbors” were likely to sexually abuse children. A representative from the Ethiopian Inter-Religious Council Against Homosexuality announced that the council was making “promising” progress in convincing the government to introduce the death penalty to punish “homosexual acts.” United for Life Ethiopia’s president, Seyoum Antonius, has made it clear that he won’t quit anti-gay advocacy until Ethiopia adopts the death penalty. One of his rallying cries is, “Africa will become a graveyard for homosexuality!” MORE

[theHandpuppet]

12. Here are some of the "friendly" links posted at United for Life Ethiopia

http://www.unitedforlife.com/links.html

[mythology]

11. Well this is certainly a stupid law