In ivory coast if you are gay you have to be hidden if you want to live

Anna Sylvestre-Treiner's article published on the Liberation website (France) on November 18, 2016, free translation by Marco Galvagno

In Ivory Coast (Africa) two men were sentenced to three months of detention for homosexuality, applying for the first time a law issued twenty years ago. This country deemed progressive is no longer a refuge for gays in Africa.

It was a voice that everyone whispered in Daphpadou, a small southwest town of the Ivory Coast. They thought Pierre was strangely effeminate, in the evening after his vigilante work in an Hevea plantation, they said he attended men.
Then when he began to go out with Franck, the latter's uncle did not digest the thing and went to report them. Despite the pressing questions of the police and the judge, the two suspects have never recognized their alleged homosexuality, but have not been convincing.
On November 3 (2016) were sentenced to three months of detention for "Public outrage to modesty, deeds impudent against nature with an individual of the same sex", As reported by the Variana news agency. Suspicions were enough to send them to prison.
"Women, devils, perverted"On the coast of ivory many gays are insulted and stigmatized. "But this first condemnation for homosexual practices is a terrible regression " He regretted, worried, Drissa Traoré, vice -president of the International Federation of Human Rights "It is a dangerous point that has been overcome, because this decision could create a judicial precedent".

Inconceivable

Until now, the Ivory Coast was considered a progressive country on the subject, this law had never been applied that penalized homosexuality, issued twenty years ago. A reflection has been underway for several months to cancel it from the penal code. Claver Touré, head of the Alternative NGO, who defends GLBT rights in the country, suffocates while talking: "I am shocked, but not surprised, this sentence is the outlet of a slow degradation of our situation, which occurred in recent years".
In 2013 the launch of the French law on marriage for everyone accentuated the tensions. In the Ivory Coast, many were afraid that a similar law was imposed. In mosques and churches they started to report the "followers of Satan"Who behave"as animals".
"In this country, still very religious, the marriage between two people of the same sex remains an inconceivable act for many. Some began to violently express their homophobia"Claver continues, nicknamed"The President of the Fags"From various Ivorian newspapers, unfortunately he knows well of what he speaks.
From then on, dozens of aggression against gays have been surveyed, but for fear of being marked to the finger, the victims who denounce the violence are rare and even more are the violent who are judged. Some then in the end give way.
Five years ago, to put an end to the questions and tease and no longer be marginalized by the family and society, Issa preferred to get married. At thirty years this beautiful and muscular man was not married and had no children: “For mine it was an incomprehensible thing, they started asking me questions, to spy on me. Then just a girl seemed interested to me, I asked for her hand ". Issa now has two children and "We are all unhappy" He says. "By now if they hear that you have a slightly too acute voice or even a little bring you before the judge ". Rachid, a gay from Abdjan, who prefers to remain anonymous, summarizes this malaise in a few words "We walk back to the walls. To live as gay, we are hidden ".

Hate

Moussa, he arrived in Abdjan a year ago to escape the persecutions he suffered in Nigeria. While for two thirds of African countries, homosexuality is a severely punished crime, the Ivory Coast was a refuge for numerous gays and lesbians from that geographical area.
But a few days ago as he came out of his Ababo apartment, a popular neighborhood in the north of the economic capital, the young man was apostrophized by two men "You fags that you live here, we will kill you one by one"And then they stabbed it. Moussa is now in the hospital, her health conditions are serious. "We hope that the decisions of a judge will not incite the most fanatics to give free rein to his hatred," he sighs one of his friends.

Original text: En côte-d'ivoire, "pour vivre gays, vivalum approx"