Gambian President Declares a “WAR” On Visiting Homosexuals

Gambian Leader Yahya Jammeh has warned that any gay or lesbians found in his country will “regret” being born.
The Gambian President who has been at the helm of Gambia for 18 years since a bloodless coup in 1994, is known for being very vocal about homosexuality.
According to Gambia’s Freedom Newspaper- the President’s latest rant came during a speech on March 28 at the opening of the country’s parliament. During this gathering President Jammeh also called for continued peace in his country and allegedly promised to root out criminal activity and warned “homosexuals” to stay out of the region or suffer consequences.
“Homosexuality is anti-humanity. I have never seen homosexual chicken, or turkey,” Jammeh said.
Jammeh added in his speech that homosexuality is anti-god, anti-human, and anti-civilization and that homosexuals were not welcome in the Gambia and If they were caught they would regret the day they were born.
“If you are convicted of homosexuality in this country, there will be no mercy for offenders,”he said.
His comments come as no surprise as in April 2012, the leader opened the legislative year by maintaining no foreign aid incentives would ever cause him to change his mind on homosexuality, a criminal offense in the country that is predominantly Muslim.
“I have buffalos from South Africa and Brazil and they never date each other. We are ready to eat grass but we will not compromise on this. Allowing homosexuality means allowing satanic rights. We will not allow gays here,”he said.
“Let me make it very clear that, if you want me to offend God for you to give me aid, you are making a great mistake; you will not bribe me to do what is evil and ungodly.”
Despite Jammeh’s anti-gay stance, the United States still maintains an Embassy in the country. Having lifted sanctions in 2002, the U.S still provides humanitarian, democracy-building and education assistance, as outlined on the U.S Embassy website.
Research that has been conducted in the Gambia has suggested that Anti-gay rhetoric is also a developing public health issue as HIV prevalence in the country is relatively high.
According to one Dr. Stefan Baral, a public health specialist and human rights advocate who has studied Gambia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population said that President Jammeh is not just a “talking head” and that Gambians don’t ignore pronouncements like this especially with the backing of the country’s powerful Imams.
“The people the government should be supporting are the people it is discriminating against the most,”Baral said.
“Countries like the U.S. might consider this a human rights issue but Jammeh’s attitude is the LGBT community is not human,” Dr Baral added.