Queers and homophobia in Africa and the diaspora

A couple of interesting stories. A Ugandan Minister of Education sounds the alarum over rapidly spreading homosex in boarding schools. Single-sex education rocks!

Elena Oumano writes an interesting piece in the Village Voice about homophobic dancehall music. Oumano notes: "mounting academic research suggests that the West's legacy to Africa is homophobia, not homosexuality. Yes, Buju, Beenie, and Bounty—gays, lesbians, and bisexuals lived comfortably alongside heteros in many African tribes, long before the white man."

Case in point, the recent statement by Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola, that justified his campaign against the ordination of same-sexers, at a time when war, AIDS, and other crises wrack the African continent. To whit: "I didn't create poverty. This church didn't create poverty. Poverty is not an issue, human suffering is not an issue at all, they were there before the creation of mankind."

Good to know he's got his priorities straight, pardon the pun.