Gambian President: I will slit the throats of gay men
“If you do it [in the Gambia] I will slit your throat — if you are a man and want to marry another man in this country and we catch you, no one will ever set eyes on you again, and no white person can do anything about it.”
–Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, in a speech during a tour of his country.
In a translation obtained by Vice, the dictator, who seized power in a military coup in 1994, cemented his homophobic status while seeming to bait Western politicians who have been critical of his views. In 2008, he held a political rally in which he gave the gay and lesbian population 24 hours to leave the country, promising “stricter laws than Iran” and saying he would “cut off the head” of any gay person.
In 2013, he gave a speech at the U.N. in which he criticized nations that support gay rights.
“Those who promote homosexuality want to put an end to human existence,” he said. “It is becoming an epidemic and we Muslims and Africans will fight to end this behavior. Homosexuality in all its forms and manifestations which, though very evil, antihuman as well as anti-Allah, is being promoted as a human right by some powers.”
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