Activists in Nigeria claimed that about dozens of gay men are being rounded up by the police after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan signed into law the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act last January 7, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Human rights activists are alarmed by the arrest and said there will be more in the coming days. Under the new law, people of the same sex who are married can get penalized and be jailed for 14 years. Any person found to be a member of gay organizations or those encouraging others to join or start gay clubs, societies and organizations will suffer 10 years imprisonment.
The Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, more popularly labeled as 'Jail the Gays' law in Nigeria, criminalizes people and groups who support gay activities in the country. A person or group who favor "the registration, operation and sustenance of gay clubs, societies and organizations, processions or meetings in Nigeria," can be subjected to criminal proceedings. Those convicted under the 'Jail the Gays' law will spend 10 years behind bars.
Human rights activists together with two international organizations - U.N. agency to fight AIDS and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria - have expressed concern that the new law will discriminate against the services they provide for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
UNAIDS said the new law could harm Jonathan's own presidential initiative to fight AIDS that started a year ago, the report said.
The U.N. agency said that Nigeria has the second largest HIV epidemic worldwide with an estimated 3.4 million people with HIV. According to UNAIDS, gay Nigerian men are affected more than heterosexual men. A 2010 statistics that estimated the national HIV prevalence showed that 4 percent of heterosexual men have HIV while 17 percent of those with HIV are gays.
Dorothy Aken'Ova, activist and executive director of Nigeria's International Center for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights, said the new legislation will endanger and even criminalize programs fighting HIV-AIDS in the gay community.
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