Two Gay Guys Acquited Of Being Gay In Cameroon

(Xtra) — A Cameroonian court has overturned the conviction of two men who were sentenced to five-year prison terms after they were found guilty of “homosexual behaviour,” The Associated Press and 76crimes.com report. Police arrested Singa Kimie (also known as Jonas Singa Kumie) and Ndjome Francky (also known as Franky Djome) outside a nightclub in the capital Yaoundé in July 2011. They were subsequently sentenced to jail because of the clothes they were wearing (considered not masculine enough), their “feminine” speech and for drinking Baileys, perceived as a gay man’s drink.

Here’s the thing: I don’t think being gay should be illegal. But if a law is on the books then it’s on the books. In Cameroon one of those happens to be that you can’t be a gay. Like I don’t necessarily think that brutally murdering somebody who doesn’t say “God bless you” after you sneeze should be illegal in America, but it is. So I don’t do it.

Singa and Ndjome broke the law. They’re gay. Straight dudes don’t do a few things. They don’t wear popped colors. They don’t tilt their heads with gay little smirks in pictures. They don’t have alternate names like Jonas and Franky. They definitely don’t drink straight Baileys. So as much as I’d hate to say it the courts really screwed the pooch on this one. Let guilty men walk straight out their doors, free to bang dudes to their hearts content. Haven’t seen the ball dropped this badly since that lady whose name I can’t remember that killed her kid.

PS – don’t have to tell me that I’m lucky to live in the USA. In Cameroon, remarkably fashionable men who think Taylor Swift is the songbird of our generation get sent to prison long before they’re lucky enough to get their hands cutoff with a machete.