Sudan - Ethpia: Sexual Mory Rourc - Gay, Lbian, Bisexual, MSM, Homo-Sex

Contents:

• ETHPIA GAY LIBRARY
• ALL POSTS TAGGED "ETHPIAN GAY"
• ETHPIA RELIG ANGER OVER US GAY TOUR PLAN
• ISRAELI, ETHPIAN AND GAY
• WISNS MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATUR 'THIS BOOK IS GAY' LIBRARY, STIRRG ONLE OUTRAGE
• GLOBALGAYZ: THE BOOK

ETHPIA GAY LIBRARY

A ld tile floor and threadbare ts have never seemed so the gigglg, affectnate men acted this way – unabashedly, stereotypilly gay – on the streets of Ethpia's pal, they uld be expelled, beaten up, fired, disowned, or jailed. Unlike Mrania, Sudan, and Northern Nigeria, Ethpia don't mandate the ath penalty for same-sex sexual acts, but thanks to dranian laws that forbid activism while allowg Wtern evangelils to promote homophobia, Ethpia is on track to jo their many untri, 's gettg better for the LGBT muny.

Ketebirhan Admasu, the Ethpian Mister of Health, would only tell Newsweek that homosexualy is unlikely to be crimalized " the near future, " although any person "n accs any type of servic regardls of their sexual orientatn. State Department "livers this msage" is by pyg and pastg the same two paragraphs year after year s Ethpian Human Rights Report, which briefly not "some reports of vlence agast lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) dividuals" while acknowledgg that "reportg was limed due to fear of retributn, discrimatn, or stigmatizatn. "Lears of Ethpian Mlims, heads of the Orthodox, Prottant and Catholic church, ernment officials, members of the Ethpian Parliament, lears of polil parti, and youth anizatns routely put their differenc asi to attend nferenc on the "gay problem" – one last year, entled "Homosexualy and Its Associated Social Disastro Consequenc, " was held the Ain Unn headquarters Addis Ababa.

"Ethpians do not need their inty to be dictated for them om outsi no matter how wealthy or powerful the forc applyg the prsure, " Abune Plos, the former head of the Ethpian Orthodox Church, told nference goers last, while Ethpia prohibs foreign LGBT-related activism, wel ternatnal relig groups that preach homophobia. In May 2013, Uned for Life Ethpia hosted a workshop durg which police told ernment officials, relig lears and health profsnals that "homosexual fay members and neighbors" were likely to sexually abe children. A reprentative om the Ethpian Inter-Relig Council Agast Homosexualy announced that the uncil was makg "promisg" progrs nvcg the ernment to troduce the ath penalty to punish "homosexual acts.

ALL POSTS TAGGED "ETHPIAN GAY"

Still, the party-goers who were outed by the unrver meramen had to go to hidg, pecially after newspaper articl alleged that homosexualy was a ntag disease and the moral equivalent of child rape. A man named Solomon Negsie posted a ment wonrg "what I n do as an Engeer to eradite the people (I mean gays and lbians) om Ethpia or generally om the face of earth next to prayg to God to give me the wisdom to produce a mache or vis that will kill or make them straight (like normal people!

Durg a vis to the Holy Try Church, tour gui and longtime teacher Gete Thome said the church had relaxed s stance on ntraceptn but that LGBT rights were "unthkable" – even discsn was "highly nmned, " sce gay people would "brg doom to the whole earth. Youth lear Hezkias Tale, 24, champned his generatn's "openns" at November's Internatnal Fay Planng Conference Addis but said he didn't want to talk or even thk about homosexualy, and claimed that his peers natnwi felt the same.

Selamaw Tsegaye, a 25-year-old graduate stunt at Addis Ababa Universy rearchg homosexualy Ethpia, said that her human rights classmat "thk homosexuals are ls of a human and they serve to die; some even say very proudly if they meet one gay man they would kill that person. Ethpian relig lears were enraged when they learned that Ain Men for Sexual Health and Rights (AMSHeR), a ntental gay rights lobby group, planned to discs LGBT-related issu, and quickly lnched a text-msagg mpaign that led to wispread protts and a meetg wh Mistry of Health officials.

ETHPIA RELIG ANGER OVER US GAY TOUR PLAN

-based NGOs foced on HIV preventn and the founr of Rabow Ethpia, the only LGBT anizatn the untry – vertly distributed ndoms and safe sex rmatn to gay men – he was ved to a prenference, and his photo appeared the prs.

C., where, he believ, the Ethpian ernment is still monorg regularly updat Rabow Ethpia's webse and Facebook group and says his goal is to "spread news of what 's really like to be gay Ethpia" – but 's hard to get U.

Mercy is an "ambiguo character, " says Happy, who morat two popular gay Facebook groups: Ethpia Gay Library, which tracks media verage, and Zega Matters, a fom on which more than 700 people discs LGBT issu.

ISRAELI, ETHPIAN AND GAY

The few Ethpian lbians who post on Zega Matters told Newsweek they don't have any gay female iends off the Inter, so 's fortg to share awful experienc, like when Dondo, 24, was acced of "displayg affectn" on her llege mp wh a woman, taken to the police statn, and nearly two dozen well-ted, middle-class 20-somethg Ethpian men have formed an timate clique both on and offle. " The Facebookers knew of starved, homels sex workers who would sleep wh anyone – young teenagers ignored by thori, even when asslted, unls they were willg to "nvert" to heterosexualy – and married men who allegedly had affairs wh other men, but they didn't know any gay Ethpians who weren't ashamed or persecuted.

Their only proud and out role mols were om mastream Wtern pop culture, which explas why their weekend get-togethers remble the sassy PG-rated sleepover party of a Bravo executive's dreams: Many LGBT people fd those stereotyp limg, but for the Facebookers, they're says the movie Boat Trip (2002), about two straight men who get stuck on a gay cise (Roger Ebert said the film was so bad that "not only do offend gays, offends everyone else") changed his life; another Facebooker says Get Real (1998), a crilly acclaimed Brish film about a gay teenager, was a revelatn. They text each other of the men have two Facebook acunts: a straight one for fay and old iends, and a gay one unr fake nam like "Lucy Fur" or "Ben Dom" (the latter remd the er of a Greek godss).

"I do a lot of snappg, " he jok, dog jt that wh his well-manicured nails and a sly I ask if 's not obv to strangers that they're gay – a du-only crew of super stylish, impecbly groomed guys fted leather jackets who all yelp and shimmy when the DJ plays Lady Gaga – they tell me they often get spic looks but ually nothg that's bee they don't ph . I n't take their photos, or e their real nam, or even scribe any of the spots where they like to drk or dance bee then they'd be danger – they've already had to abandon a few hangouts that beme known as gay when the Facebookers are together, they're too blissed out to re about the risks they take, like teenagers that heady, social butterfly phase of middle school.

WISNS MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATUR 'THIS BOOK IS GAY' LIBRARY, STIRRG ONLE OUTRAGE

They're BFF Facebookers help each other out tim of need, too, like when a iend was kicked out of his parent's hoe after his sister acced him of beg a pedophile, or when two gay stunts were outed and spend om their universy. Dabir's not que mellow enough to gel wh the group, but I soon realize he's not timid, jt paranoid: He's more terted revolutn than Project the next few days, Dabir, a tirels overachiever who excelled at universy and has worked as a teacher and an tnal nsultant, shows me the streets where gay teenagers who are kicked out of their hom search for rich tourists to sleep wh exchange for b fare, and the bars where 's too dangero to pick up guys the bathroom. " That's partially bee he ed to be one of them, although by choice: when he moved to Addis after llege om his hometown a few hundred away, he had to "do so much stuff to survive" – stuff he'd rather not talk about on the has big plans to build a shelter and muny center for gay kids who lack the physil and mental rourc they need to survive, partially fund by Pla Romeo, a popular gay datg se wh a foundatn that backs LGBT projects disadvantaged regns around the world.

Neher of them know he's gay, Dabir says, and neher of them would accept him if they afternoon, Dabir v me over to his home for ffee and khat, a leafy stimulant that's illegal most untri but sold on every street rner Addis.

GLOBALGAYZ: THE BOOK

Other than a su hangg on the wall that his sister paid for by sellg ffee beans for a year and his dad's py of Das Kapal, most of them volve shirtls men and are a folr on his watchg a clip of Wentworth Miller g out as gay – a "huge al" for Ethpian fans, Dabir says – and a bizarre gay parody of Katy Perry's "California Gurls, " we settle to watch Prayers for Bobby, a Lifetime ma-for-TV movie starrg Sigourney Weaver, based on a te story of a gay teenager who killed himself bee his fay wouldn't accept him. I know plenty gays people and outsi of Addis, pecially around Piazza, Arat Kilo, Ambassador Theatre hoe, provce Bahar Dar, Awasa, Nazareth, Dera Dawa, there are many plac that you fd gay people. “Y, when I me to South Ai I was thkg that homosexualy is as a disease or abnormaly, but now I unrstand that is natural, so each and every person mt unrstand as this is a part of nature.

The maximum sentence n also be applied when the victim is subjected to acts of celty or sadism; when the offenr transms a venereal disease although fully aware of beg fected wh ; when an adult is charged wh mtg homosexual acts wh persons unr 15 years of age; or when distrs, shame or spair driv the victim to mtg suici. Berhane Mkel Abebe, the Ethpian reprentative on the UN Commtee on Non-Governmental Oganisatns, said his untry voted agast ILGA january bee homosexualy is a crime punishable by imprisonment Ethpia. Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, The Toto Tours erary clus the ancient church of LalibelaEthpian church groups have lled on the ernment to block a planned vis to the untry by a US-based pany that anis tours for gay groups were particularly angry that the erary published by the Toto Tours pany clus relig Ethpians are eply relig and disapprove of homosexualy, which is also prohibed unr the owner of Toto Tours told the BBC the pany had received threats and hate msag on social media.