A bill in Kenya that was quickly dubbed the "Stone the Gays" when it was introduced late last week was reportedly quickly rejected by parliament's legal affairs committee.
The bill prohibits all forms of same-sex relations and called for "public stoning" of LGBT foreigners and life imprisonment of LGBT Kenyans. Homosexuality is already criminalized in the country's penal code that carries sentences between five and 14 years in prison.
The Bay Area Reporter attempted to confirm the status of the bill, but not even Kenyan LGBT activists who were gathering for a strategy meeting last week could confirm the reports.
The draft bill was introduced by the Republican Liberty Party's legal secretary Edward Onwong'a Nyakeriga in the name of protecting children. He said that the bill would also protect "the cherished culture of the people of Kenya," against the "attempts of sexual rights activists seeking to impose their values of sexual promiscuity on the people of Kenya," he said in a statement when introducing the bill.
LGBT Kenyan activists have been anticipating this bill since the beginning of the year after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed that country's anti-gay bill into law. That law was recently struck down on a technicality by Uganda's constitutional court. Uganda's attorney general threatened to take the issue to the Supreme Court, but has since dropped the appeal, reported the Wall Street Journal.
Following the introduction of the bill in Kenya, Eric Gitari, director of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission there, threatened to file a lawsuit, catching many Kenyan LGBT activists off guard, reported BuzzFeed.
All Africa reported that Kenya's parliament recently formed an anti-gay caucus. The purpose of the caucus is to fight against the "gay lifestyle" and would "seek measures to deal with it," such as introducing new laws against homosexuality, according to media reports.
Yet, due to the stoning clause in the bill, the anti-gay caucus has attempted to distance itself from Nyakeriga's proposed bill, according to media reports.
Valentine Njoroge was critical of the bill in an editorial in All Africa. He called upon Nyakeriga to know the laws before proposing new ones. He pointed out that there is already a law protecting children from pedophiles.
Denis Nzioka, a Kenya gay rights activist, called the draft bill and the anti-gay caucus a "wake up call" for the East African country's LGBT community, reported Gay Star News.
At one time he thought that Kenya was one of the safest countries for LGBTs outside of South Africa, but now he's not so sure.
There's growing anti-gay sentiment in Kenya.
"We have seen a lot of anti-gay sentiment being brought out by people, politicians, [and] religious leaders," said Nzioka. "People want to go the Ugandan way, Nigerian way."
He warned that while the latest law was rejected this time, it doesn't mean that political leaders won't attempt to introduce a new anti-gay bill.
South African lesbian found brutally raped and murdered
Gift (Disebo) Makau was found raped and strangled to death in the northwest province of Ventersdorp in South Africa on August 15.
A 24-year-old man was arrested in connection with the murder and was scheduled to appear in the Ventersdorp Magistrate's Court this week, according to media reports.
Makau's body was discovered in the Tshing location with a running hose shoved down her throat and into her stomach, reported Mambagirl.com. She was allegedly raped and then strangled with a shoelace and a wire that was found around her neck.
There were conflicting accounts of her age, which ranged from 18 to 24.
Phumzile Van Damme, the Democratic Alliance's national spokesperson, announced that when the Parliament reconvenes this week, the party will request a debate about protecting and strengthening LGBT rights in response to Makau's murder.
Makau is the latest in a growing list of so-called corrective rapes that end in murders of lesbians in South Africa. The term refers to people who are raped because of their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.
Duduzile Zozo, 26, was found dead in Ekurhuleni near Johannesburg with a toilet brush rammed up her vagina in July 2013. Noxolo Nogwaza, a 24-year-old lesbian activist, was found allegedly raped and murdered with her face seriously disfigured in the Kwa-Thema township in Gauteng in 2011. Lesbian footballer Eudy Simelane, 31, was found in a creek in a park in Kwa-Thema township in Gauteng on the outskirts of Johannesburg in 2008. She had been gang-raped, beaten and stabbed 25 times in the face, chest, and legs. Zoliswa Nkonyana, 18, was gang-raped by an estimated 20 young men and murdered close to her home in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape in 2006.
To date, Nkonyana and Simelane are the only two murders whose assailants were sentenced.
Makau's family is devastated. She was out to them and they believe that she was killed because she's a lesbian.
"She was a cool girl who was never violent. She enjoyed playing and refereeing soccer games in the neighborhood," her cousin Lucky Gaorongwe told Times Livesthat.
Two men hanged in Iran for alleged 'consensual sodomy'
Abdullah Ghavami Chahzanjiru and Salman Ghanbari Chahzanjiri were hanged August 6 in southern Iran, allegedly for "consensual sodomy."
It is unclear if the men were hanged because they were gay. Reports about the execution are vague and only state that they were hanged for their "immoral villains," reported the Daily Beast.
Iran has instituted a wave of executions this year. There have been more than 400 executions during the first half of 2014 alone, according to Iran Human Rights.
Iran's human rights record, particular in regard to LGBT rights, is dismal.
Homosexuality is a crime punishable by imprisonment, corporal punishment, or execution in Iran.
Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at 00+1-415-221-3541, Skype: heather.cassell, or [email protected].