Malay gay man gets death threats

Pro-gay politician gets death threats

A Memphis council woman who proposed an LGBT law got a dead cat and death threats.

American Apparel: ‘Legalize Gay’ T-Shirts Provoked Vandalism, Threats

SILVER SPRING, Md. – An American Apparel store’s decision to prominently display a pro-gay T-shirt has resulted in vanadalism and death threats, a spokesperson for the chain told ABC 7 News. Vandals smashed the windows at the Silver Spring American Apparel store, apparently upset over a display of T-shirts that read: “Legalize Gay” “Repeal Prop 8 Now!”. The message refers to California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state.

The broken store windows in Silver Spring were discovered Monday morning.

On Tuesday, the Georgetown American Apparel received a threatening phone call related to the T-shirts See American Apparel: ‘Legalize Gay‘ T-Shirts Provoked Vandalism, Threats

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Gays under threat in Senegal

DAKAR, Senegal — A mob gathered near a mosque outside Dakar. They were there to hunt down and kill nine men accused of homosexual acts.

Earlier this week the nine Senegalese AIDS activists were freed from eight-year-prison terms for alleged homosexual acts, but they went into hiding because of death threats from Muslim religious leaders and the general population.

“The homosexuals will not escape lynching. They will be fish food,” Dakar newspaper L’Observeur quoted a local youth leader as saying.

“Gay men will never be free in Senegal. They expose us all to danger,” said Imam Mbaye Niang, a prominent religious leader and member of parliament. “The judges should understand that Senegalese people need to protect their children, their families from homosexuality.”

In Senegal — where 95 percent of the population is Muslim — homosexual acts are punishable by fines and up to five years in prison. In January, the nine men received the harshest sentence yet for such an offense in Senegal, getting the maximum of five years and an additional three for criminal conspiracy.

Though widely supported in Senegal, the conviction was condemned by international human rights groups and foreign governments, most notably France.

“They were judged and condemned very severely, surely on the basis of public outcry, therefore the justice was neither objective nor founded in law,” said lead defense attorney Barim Sassoum Sy, who called the initial ruling hasty and emotional.

A Dakar appeals court overturned that decision Monday, citing violations of legal protocol.

Acting on an anonymous tip, police had arrested the men — most of whom do HIV prevention work in the “men having sex with men” community — in December at the home of a prominent gay activist. But the police did not have a search warrant, nor did they catch the men in the act, which is required by the Senegalese law prohibiting “indecent acts against nature.” The judge hearing the appeal therefore declared their convictions null and void, Sy said.

Yet even as smiling attorneys and supporters celebrated in the packed courtroom Monday and exchanged congratulations, plans were already in place to get the freed men into hiding outside Dakar.

“The first judge sentenced them to eight years,” said Imam Niang. “He had the courage to say it. The judge that let them go was much less courageous. He yielded to international pressure.”

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Gays under threat in Senegal

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Iraqi gay men face ‘lives of hell’

Grainy footage taken on a mobile phone and widely distributed around Baghdad shows a terrified young Iraqi boy cowering and whimpering as men with a stick force him to strip, revealing women’s underwear beneath his dishdasha (Arab robe).

“Why are you dressed as a girl?” roars one of the men, brandishing his stick as the youth removes his brassiere.

The sobbing boy, who appears to be about 12, tries to explain that his family made him do it to earn money, as they have no other source of income.

The scene, apparently filmed in a police post, reinforced reports of a campaign against gay men in Iraq which activists say has claimed the lives of more than 60 since December.

In the latest manifestation of the campaign, posters have appeared on walls in the poor Shia suburb of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, listing alleged homosexuals by name and threatening to kill them.

Those named have gone underground, while gay men throughout the city and in some other parts of the country also live in fear.

See Iraqi gay men face ‘lives of hell’

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Video: C-SPAN Vignette: US Army Patrol in Diyala Province, Iraq C-SPAN Video: C-SPAN Vignette: US Army Patrol in Diyala Province, Iraq C-SPAN

Fresh Anti-Gay Death Threats In Iraq On Top Magazine

Iraqi Gay Murders Surge; World Finally Takes Note Gay City News

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Death threats against gay lawmaker following Iowa ruling

(Des Moines, Iowa) Police in Des Moines, Iowa are investigating death threats against openly gay state lawmaker Sen. Matt McCoy (D).

McCoy met with the Iowa State Patrol at the Capitol but declined to give specifics to the media except to confirm he had been threatened with death.

“That’s all I can …

Lawsuit over gay-marriage speech at LA City College spurs reactions

Protesters back the student who claims his professor reacted badly to his religion-related stance against same-sex unions; a gay unity club forms; a New York man gets misdirected death threats.

By Gale Holland
March 3, 2009

Ruben Rivera was dropping off papers to charter a new gay unity club at Los Angeles City College one recent day when he spotted half a dozen middle-aged people milling around the campus quad.

“God Hates Gays,” their signs read. Memories came flooding back of fleeing New Jersey after his mother discovered his sexual orientation and threw him out of the family.

“I was almost transported to my adolescence in Vineland, N.J., feeling less than, feeling unworthy, feeling ashamed,” said Rivera, 36, of Los Feliz.

The protesters appeared in support of Jonathan Lopez, a Christian student who has sued the Los Angeles Community College District, alleging that an instructor kept him from finishing a classroom speech about his religious beliefs and opposition to same-sex unions. Lopez has said he was discriminated against because of his religious views.
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