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| "Paying one's sexual orientation with one's life" |
The debates that have raged around gay marriage in Western Europe and North America might have overshadowed the lack of basic rights afforded to gay and lesbian citizens in other countries. We look at where imprisonment is still a penalty for homosexual acts and where anti-discrimination laws serve to protect individuals.
Death penalty
Only in Africa and Asia do individuals risk paying for their sexual orientation with their lives. In five countries, legislation remains in place that punishes homosexuality with the death penalty - Mauritania, Sudan, Iran, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. In parts of Nigeria and Somalia too, the murder of gay and lesbian individuals is practised and not prohibited in state legislation.
But national legislation doesn't quite capture the full picture - in many places homosexuals are murdered by vigilantes while the state turns a blind eye. In Jamaica, where homophobia is deep-seated, Dwayne Jones, a "cross-dressing" 17-year-old was "chopped and stabbed to death" by a mob according to local media reports. Incitement to hatred based on sexual orientation is only prohibited in 26 countries.
Life sentences
The statistics on imprisonment further demonstrate the extremes in the protection of gay rights. In ten countries, the punishment for 'homosexual illegal acts' is a sentence anywhere between 14 years and life. In a further 55 countries. homosexuals can face imprisonment for up to 14 years - 27 of those countries are in Africa.
With a few notable exceptions such as South Africa, most African countries from Algeria to Zimbabwe had some form of legal persecution against homosexuals. Reading the text of the laws themselves, most sentences are accompanied by considerable fines to be paid to the state.
Source: DataBlog, October 15, 2013
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