Dear Readers
While I stew over Russia's anti-gay hyper-religious laws, one country's radicalism has escaped my postings.
One of the reasons why I rag on Russia is because Russia is supposed to be civilized, a developed nation. Not Third World or even Second World (yes that is a term). It is supposed to be the Eastern equivalent to the US. In many ways it is, and in many oh so many ways it's not. So oppressive laws, overt in their language, coming out of Russia and the violence spurred there against the LGBT community is appalling and worth fighting against on both principle and as a fact that Russia, as a major world power, is meant to be setting a standard of sorts for human rights and progressiveness.
However, Nigeria has passed laws that go far beyond the disgusting oppressive (regressive) laws of Russia. Where Russia has acted to ban free speech on the matter of homosexuality, Nigeria has moved to make it out right illegal. Punishable by death. Many Nigerians that are of the LGBT community are afraid to leave their homes, to speak out against the law (especially because the laws against homosexuality also make it illegal to support homosexuality in any way).
From "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/13/nigeria-gay-marriage-_n_4590799.html"
"Nigeria's president has signed a law banning same-sex marriage as well as homosexual associations, societies and meetings, with penalties of up to 14 years in jail.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act on Monday signed by President Goodluck Jonathan and dated Jan. 7.
Any public show of love by people of the same sex is a new crime punishable by up to 10 years in jail. It is already a crime to have homosexual sex in the West African nation.
Operating or even going to a gay club, society or organization also becomes a crime.
Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States was "deeply concerned" by a law that "dangerously restricts freedom of assembly, association, and expression for all Nigerians."
"BAUCHI, Nigeria (AP) — Thousands of protesters massed outside the Shariah court in Nigeria's northern city of Bauchi, throwing stones into the building to demand the speedy convictions of seven men arrested for belonging to gay organizations.
Security officials shot into the air to halt the protest and the judge quickly halted the trial. He ordered the seven be returned to the safety of the prison.
The same court last week convicted a young man of sodomy and had him publicly whipped with 20 lashes. Though he was tried under Islamic law, his was the first conviction of a gay man in Nigeria since the president signed a bill that further criminalizes homosexuality under the penal code.
Bauchi state has both the Western-style penal code and Shariah, under which sodomy carries the death sentence."
"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/22/nigeria-gay-trial-protest_n_4645942.html"
Not only is homosexuality now barred by two separate legal systems, but one of the punishments is death.
This is a human rights travesty. Nigeria's President has institutionalized radical religious ideology mirroring the actions of one of humanities' greatest (yet evil) leaders of all time, Hitler.
It may seem cliche to compare a leader of a little known or country with little power taking radical actions to Hitler, but the comparison is valid. Hitler used radical religious rhetoric and laws to first ban Jews from working in Germany and Nazi controlled territory, then made them wear marks to identify them as Jews, regardless of if they were Jewish or Not. He held hearings to determine if people were Jewish or not. Sentenced many to imprisonment in internment camps, and then proceeded with genocide and the absolute persecution of those he found unworthy.
Nigeria is heading down a dark road we have already experienced and the US and the UN needs to act to squelch this discrimination before it balloons into a much bigger threat.
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