Two gay
men
were arrested after neighbors told police they were living together in Dakar,
the capital of Senegal, in West Africa, according to the Associated Press.
After the two men
admitted to having sex with each other in court last Friday, Judge Racky Deme
sentenced them to six months under Senegal’s criminal code, which could lead to
sentences of up to five years and fines of up to $3,000 for committing “an
improper or unnatural act with a person of the same sex,” the AP reports.
Despite the sentencing, Senegalese
President Macky Sall insists that gay
people are only prosecuted if they break the law.
Last June, President Barack Obama
urged African leaders to treat the LGBT community equally during a press
conference at the grand presidential palace in Dakar.
“I want the African people just to
hear what I believe, and that is that every country, every group of people,
every religion have different customs, different traditions,” he said. “And
when it comes to people’s personal views and their religious faith, etc., I
think we have to respect the diversity of views that are there. But when it
comes to how the state treats people, how the law treats people, I believe that
everybody has to be treated equally. I don’t believe in discrimination of any
sort.”
Sall responded by arguing that Senegal
is “a very tolerant country which does not discriminate,” but that they are
“still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality.”
“[W]e have respect for the rights of
homosexuals — but for the time being, we are still not ready to change the
law,” he said.
Similar arrests have been common in Senegal
since 2008. Five suspected lesbians were arrested in the country in November
during a birthday party in Dakar’s Yoff district, which has been described in
the press as a meeting point for gays and lesbians, according to Ndeye Kebe,
president of the activist group Women’s Smile.
Thirty-eight African countries
outlaw consensual same-s*x acts.
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