How a lesbian couple from Cameroon escaped to San Francisco
Gertrude, left, and Carine play with their baby daughter in San Francisco, where they've moved after receiving death threats in their native Cameroon.
"In Cameroon you have to hide who you are. People can go and make a denunciation and the police will come and arrest you," says Carine. For safety reasons, they've asked to only be identified by their first names. Carine has friends in Cameroon who were jailed for being gay, so she and Gertrude hid their relationship. But Gertrude was an activist in Cameroon — raising awareness about HIV and AIDS in their country — and she made a bold move: she appeared in a documentary called “Born This Way.” It’s about Cameroon’s small gay rights community.
In one scene, Gertrude talks about how she was gang raped for being gay. The film wasn’t supposed to be seen in Cameroon. But bootleg copies were circulated throughout the country — just as anti-gay activists gained strength. Carine remembers how her family reacted when they found out she was gay. "The family used to say, 'Why are you saying that you’re homosexual? What do you want to prove? You have to stay in the dark.' They say that is something that comes from Occident, from Europe, from America.”
When Gertrude went to LA last year for a screening of the documentary, the situation came to a head. Carine called from Cameroon with bad news: There had been death threats and one of their friends had been murdered for his activism. So Gertrude stayed in California, and Carine was recently able to join her with their baby daughter. The three of them are now living in a homeless shelter in San Francisco's Tenderloin district — one of the city's roughest neighborhoods. But in the US, they explain, they are able to live their lives openly. Carine and her girlfriend Gertrude, who were persecuted for being gay in Cameroon, push their daughter down the street in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. The two women have been granted asylum in the US.
Carine and her partner Gertrude, who were persecuted for being gay in Cameroon, push their daughter down the street in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. The two women have been granted asylum in the US.
"We kiss in public. I take her hand. We walk together. That was impossible in Cameroon," Carine says. "When you see your baby smiling in the morning, it's like a beautiful day." Gertrude gave birth to their daughter, using donated sperm. They know not everyone gets the chance to start over. "Gertrude and their family, in some ways, are actually quite lucky compared to many other asylum seekers. They were gotten out, and gotten out fast. Most other cases are left in limbo for months or for years," says Leila Roberts with the Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration in San Francisco. But she also points out that people like Gertrude and Carine can face extra hurdles once they’ve landed here. "If you’re an LGBT refugee or asylum seeker, you’re not going to come in with a ready-built community, because you cannot turn to your fellow country people," she says.
More at: http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-03-06/how-lesbian-couple-cameroon-escaped-san-francisco
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Posted on March 14, 2014 by Colin Stewart
A team of African and American activists traveled last month to homophobic Cameroon to plead for tolerance, justice and improved health care for LGBT people and others.
Maxensia Nakibuuka (seated), leader of a gay/straight health coalition in Uganda and new leader of the AIDS program for the Roman Catholic diocese of Kampala, chats after her presentation at the Sixth Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights in Yaounde. (Photo courtesy of Maxensia Nakibuuka)
They raised their voices at a health conference, in prison, at the U.S. Embassy, at the office of the Vatican’s representative to Cameroon, and in meetings with local activists. This is their report on that trip:
A delegation from St. Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation traveled to Cameroon in February 2014 at the invitation of the foundation’s partner organization, the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS (Camfaids), which works for LGBT rights and against AIDS. The trip was scheduled to allow St. Paul’s members and allies to make presentations at the African Conference on Sexual Health and Rights, which was held in Yaounde on Feb. 5-7. Other objectives of the trip, which included African and American activists, included advocacy for tolerance, justice and improved health care for LGBT people in homophobic Cameroon.
Health-care professionals, the staff of the Papal Nuncio and the U.S. Embassy, LGBT prisoners, and other LGBT rights activists were among those with whom they shared their concerns, details of emerging programs and collaboration and unmet needs, as well as hearing messages of support from the delegation.
In an exhausting schedule full of meetings and visits, the activists reached many key people in Cameroon with their message that the nation’s gay-bashing must stop, both for the sake of human rights and as a strategy for curbing the spread of AIDS. There was also a need to document the seminal local prison outreach program and the stories of LGBT people, which are not well known in the West.
more at: http://76crimes.com/2014/03/14/pleas-for-justice-and-health-in-gay-bashing-cameroon/
