14 Dec Thousands protest gay rights in Gambia
Thousands of Gambians on Tuesday (9 December) marched through the capital Banjul denouncing the EU for withdrawing foreign aid over the country’s new anti-gay law.
President Yahya Jammeh joined protesters, who held placards and banners reading, ‘Homosexuality is inhuman,’ ‘Even cows don’t do it!’ and ‘Homosexuality is forbidden in Islam.’
The European Union withdrew millions of euros in aid after the west African country passed a law to punish ‘aggravated homosexuality’ with life imprisonment in September.
A petition against homosexuality was read on behalf of the protesters by the permanent secretary at the ministry of lands and regional government, Saihou Sanyang.
‘As a country of religious people who live by the dictate of Allah as commanded in the religious preachings and their protractors, the stance on the principle of secularity in no way admits or accepts the principle to immoralities,’ it read.
‘Your Excellency Mr President, it goes without saying that our intolerance with the unnatural and abominable malpractices of homosexuality and lesbianism on the one hand, and the other, our government’s position are not negotiable.
‘It is on the basis of such religious, social, moral and ethical upbringing built on high moral grounds that we stand by our government’s position to zero tolerance to either homosexuality or lesbianism or both. There shall not be any turning point and that the people are ready for eventuals in good defence of the people and country’s independence.’
More than 95% of the population is Muslim.
Earlier this year, the notoriously anti-gay president said, ‘We will fight these vermins called homosexuals or gays the same way we are fighting malaria-causing mosquitoes, if not more aggressively.’
Source: Gay star news.