A group in Cameroon on Wednesday took to the streets of Yaounde,
the nation's capital, to celebrate “Day Against Homosexuality.”
According to the AP, more than 100 members of the Association for
the Cameroonian Youth participated in the event.
The demonstrators fanned out in different directions, posting
anti-gay signs on bars suspected of being friendly to gays. They
also targeted school buildings, placing signs which read “Homosexuals
Forbidden” and “No Gays in Cameroon.”
A pamphlet being distributed by the group read in part: “A
society without morals and ethics is a lost society. What's accepted
in the West is not necessarily good for everyone. Homosexuality is a
crime against humanity and a serious violation of human rights.”
Organizer Sismondi Barley Bidjocka told the AP that his group
wanted authorities to increase the maximum sentence for homosexual
acts from five years in prison to twenty.
“It is a struggle to push the authorities to clearly assert our
rejection of homosexuality as a nation, and to increase the
punishment,” Bidjocka.
(Related: U.S.
Condemns murder of Eric Lembembe, Cameroon gay rights activist.)