23 Global News Post 1

https://globalvoices.org/2021/05/31/two-transgender-women-in-cameroon-sentenced-to-five-years-in-jail-for-attempted-homossexuality/  By Leocadia Bongden

This article talks about two transgender women in Cameroon named, Njeukam Loïc Midrel ( Shakiro) and Mouthe Roland ( Patricia) and how they were sentenced to five years in jail for “attempted homosexuality, indecent dressing and lack of identification papers.” The article also goes in-depth to explain Cameroon’s laws on same-sex relationships; ” which outlaws sexual relationships between same-sex people , and only if caught in the very act of committing the deed” Article 37. We can see in this article that these women were being wrongly punished because what they got arrested for , does not break the laws of Cameroon.

As a record of this, in 2016 Cameroon tightened their law by criminalising homosexuality and enforcing that,” the police can debase the dignity of LGBTQ+ people” by doing forced examinations with the objective of trying to see if there’s been any thing going on.  This article showed how LGBTQ+ community aren’t as accepted in other continents as they are in the U.S. The article also touches base on how after the arrest of the two women, most of the LGBTQ+ community in Cameroon went into hiding for fear of being arrested. They say,” We are exposed to insults, violence and deprived of free movement, making life difficult for us. We are not as joyful as before, we are hiding.”

This article caused a lot of other countries to tune into what was going on with this case because those two women had a very strong social media presence as well. To conclude, as stated before, Cameroon and most African countries aren’t as accepting of LGBTQ+ people as much as the rest of the world is; But with this situation I hope they are able to see how it is hurting a community that’s part of the country as well.