Ethpia Gay Library | RelignLk

Contents:

• GAY ETHPIA?
• ALL POSTS TAGGED "ETHPIAN GAY"
• ETHPIA RELIG ANGER OVER US GAY TOUR PLAN
• ISRAELI, ETHPIAN AND GAY
• ETHPIA GAY LIBRARY

GAY ETHPIA?

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. Given that a volunteer who, say, dar to hand out lubrint to gay men uld face imprisonment and jeopardize his or her groups' larger-sle work, anizatns have cid 's not worth the risk.

Gays are persecuted Uganda, but that untry's health mistry recently admted that specialized clics for LGBT people have helped bat HIV rat; Dr. 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.

ALL POSTS TAGGED "ETHPIAN GAY"

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. "Feelg God's HateMost Ethpians sist that homosexualy is a Wtern disease, says Mercy, a 28-year-old LGBT activist who fled to Washgton, D. A 26-year-old Ethpian who currently studi Boston and go by the name Happy on Facebook said that he grew up thkg was a "Wtern thg" to be gay.

ETHPIA RELIG ANGER OVER US GAY TOUR PLAN

"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. "Last year's anti-gay nference and others like are anized and fund by Uned for Life Ethpia, an anizatn that receiv fundg om the U.

ISRAELI, ETHPIAN AND GAY

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. " Uned for Life Ethpia's print, Seyoum Antoni, has ma clear that he won't qu anti-gay advocy until Ethpia adopts the ath penalty.

But no one n rell any takg place after last June, when a documentary lled No Silence – About the 666 Satanic Act of Homosexualy Ethpia ma natnal headl.

ETHPIA GAY LIBRARY

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.

"The natnal mpaign agast sexual mori has gaed "extraordary momentum" the past five years, says Dagmawi Woubshet, a gay Ethpian English profsor at Cornell. 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.