The plight of gay people around the planet simply does not receive the proper attention it ought to from USA gay advocacy organizations. While LGBT political organizations in America remain woefully unconcerned and quiet about the human rights abuses our brothers and sisters face daily in far too many countries, I still want to throw a barrel-full of praise on the gay press here because a good number of American gay newspapers carve out editorial space to international LGBT people and issues.
That being said, here is some very depressing news, excerpted from the Agence France-Presse news service:
Eighteen men have been arrested in northern Nigeria for alleged sodomy, which carries the death sentence under Bauchi state's Islamic sharia law, the official NAN news agency reported Thursday.
Judge Malam Tanimu ordered the 18 remanded in prison until a further hearing on August 21 following their arrest on Sunday in a hotel in Bauchi city.
The court on Wednesday heard that the men, who were wearing female clothing, had come to the city from five neighbouring states to celebrate a gay "marriage".
Prosecuting police officer Tadius Boboi said the men's actions had contravened the sharia penal code adopted in Bauchi and other states in Muslim northern Nigeria eight years ago following the end of military rule . . .
In a Nigerian sharia state the governor must give his approval before punishments like death and amputation passed by sharia courts are actually carried out.
Click here to read the full AFP article.