Life Imprisonment for Being Gay

Being gay in Zanzibar may be about to get a lot more dangerous: the government is looking at legislation which, if passed, would impose a sentence of life imprisonment for any men who engage in gay sex. Technically, that only really means 25 years. Lesbians, though, would only serve 7 years in prison.

GayWired reports:

A semi-autonomous region within the Tanzania Republic, Zanzibar's main religion is Islam, and religious leaders exert considerable power over the government. Although homosexuality is already a crime in the country, the Indian Ocean island has become popular with gay tourists mainly from South Africa, despite its lack of gay clubs. Gays and lesbians on the island are closeted and most are in heterosexual marriages. But, its growing popularity with tourists has resulted in a backlash.

I wonder how/why such a repressive country would become popular with gay tourists? It's very strange and it's also rather sad that this popularity would lead to greater repression of local gays - I'm sure that the tourists never intended anything like that. I also wonder if the government intends to impose such sentences on tourists - they might find themselves under a lot of international pressure if they try. This might also find tourism (and income) dropping off considerably.

Read More:

• Ethics of Gay Marriage
• Separation of Church and State 101
• Religious Right
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