News
Cameroonian LGBT rights advocate murdered
The State Department described Eric Ohena Lembembe’s death as a “terrible act”
Human Rights Watch said advocates found Eric Ohena Lembembe’s body on his bed in his home in Yaoundé, the country’s capital, after they were unable to reach him for two days.
One of Lembembe’s friends told Human Rights Watch that his neck and feet “appeared to be broken.” An iron was also reportedly used to burn Lembembe’s face, hands and feet.
Lembembe, who was the executive director of the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS, worked with Human Rights Watch and two other LGBT advocacy groups in the country — Alternatives-Cameroun and the Association for the Defense of Homosexuals — to document anti-gay persecution in the nation. He also contributed to Erasing 76 Crimes, a blog that chronicles efforts to report on efforts to decriminalize homosexuality around the world.
“Eric was an inspiring activist whose work was deeply appreciated by human rights activists in Cameroon and around the world,” Neela Ghoshal, a researcher for Human Rights Watch’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program, said. “Advocating for equal rights in Cameroon, where LGBTI people face severe discrimination and violence, takes tremendous courage. Eric’s activism paved the way for a society based on equality and nondiscrimination.”
State Department spokesperson Marie Harf also condemned Lembembe’s murder.
“We condemn this terrible act in the strongest terms and urge the Cameroonian authorities to thoroughly and promptly investigate and prosecute those responsible for his death,” she said in a statement issued late on Tuesday.
Lembembe’s death comes against the backdrop of ongoing anti-gay persecution and violence in the country.
Cameroonian authorities since 2010 have prosecuted more than 30 people under the section of the country’s penal code that imposes a sentence of up to five years in prison and a roughly $400 fine against anyone convicted of same-sex sexual activity.
Police in Yaoundé in March 2011 arrested Jean-Claude Roger Mbede after sending a flirtatious text message to another man. Authorities later that year arrested Jonas Kimie and Franky Ndome outside a nightclub in the Cameroonian capital and charged them under the country’s anti-homosexuality law.
A judge sentenced Kimie and Ndome to five years in prison, but an appellate court in January released them. The Washington Blade’s attempts to interview the men earlier this year were unsuccessful because they had gone into hiding.
Human Rights Watch said a group of unidentified assailants torched Alternatives-Cameroun’s headquarters in the city of Douala on June 26. The organization noted burglars took legal files and a laptop from the Yaoundé office of Michel Togué, a lawyer who represents gay men charged under the country’s anti-homosexuality law, when they broke into it 10 days earlier.
Togué said during a forum at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights in D.C. in February that he moved his family to Maryland because of death threats he and his colleagues received.
“Gay people are not seeking everyone to approve of their behavior,” he said. “They are seeking freedom.”
The State Department and Amnesty International are among the government agencies and human rights organizations that have criticized Cameroon’s LGBT rights record in recent years.
President Paul Biya told journalists in January after a meeting with French President François Hollande that attitudes towards gay Cameroonians are changing.
Ghoshal and other human rights advocates continue to urge Cameroonian authorities to publicly condemn Lembembe’s murder and arrest those responsible for his death.
“We don’t know who killed Eric Lembembe, or why he was killed, but one thing is clear: the Cameroonian authorities’ utter failure to stem homophobic violence sends the message that these attacks can be carried out with impunity,” Ghoshal said. “The police should not rest until the perpetrators of this horrific crime are brought to justice. President Biya should break his silence on the wave of homophobic violence in Cameroon and publicly condemn this brutal attack.”
Congress
Sens. Butler, Smith introduce Pride in Mental Health Act to aid at-risk LGBTQ youth
Bill is backed by Democrats in both chambers
U.S. Sens. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) introduced the Pride in Mental Health Act on Thursday, legislation that would strengthen resources in mental health and crisis intervention for at-risk LGBTQ youth.
“Accessing mental health care and support has become increasingly difficult in nearly every state in the country,” said Butler, who is the first Black LGBTQ senator. “Barriers get even more difficult if you are a young person who lacks a supportive community or is fearful of being outed, harassed, or threatened.”
“I am introducing the Pride in Mental Health Act to help equip LGBTQ+ youth with the resources to get the affirming and often life-saving care they need,” she said.
“Mental health care is health care,” said Smith. “And for some LGBTQ+ youth, receiving access to the mental health care they need can mean the difference between living in safety and dignity, and suffering alone through discrimination, bullying, and even violence.”
The Minnesota senator added that data shows LGBTQ students are experiencing “an epidemic” of “anxiety, depression and other serious mental health conditions.”
For example, a 2023 study by The Trevor Project found that 54 percent of LGBTQ youth reported symptoms of depression, compared to 35 percent of their heterosexual counterparts.
Joining the senators as cosponsors are Democratic U.S. Sens. Ed Markey (Mass.), Bob Casey (Penn.), Peter Welch (Vt.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Cory Booker (N.J.), and Tammy Baldwin (Wis.). Baldwin was the first LGBTQ woman elected to the House in 1999 and the first LGBTQ woman elected to the Senate in 2013.
Leading the House version of the bill are LGBTQ Democratic U.S. Reps. Sharice Davids (Kan.), Eric Sorensen (Ill.), and Ritchie Torres (N.Y.), along with 163 other House members.
Organizations that have backed the Pride in Mental Health Act include the Human Rights Campaign, GLSEN, American Academy of Pediatrics, National Education Association (NEA), National Center for Transgender Equality, Seattle Indian Health Board, PFLAG National, The Trevor Project, American Psychological Association, Whitman-Walker Institute, InterACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, National Alliance on Mental Illness, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Mental Health America, and Center for Law and Social Policy.
District of Columbia
D.C. mayor honors 10th anniversary of Team Rayceen Productions
LGBTQ entertainment, advocacy organization praised for ‘vital work’
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser today issued an official proclamation declaring Monday, March 18, 2024, as Team Rayceen Day in honor of the local LGBTQ entertainment and advocacy organization Team Rayceen Productions named after its co-founder Rayceen Pendarvis.
“Whereas Rayceen, along with Team Rayceen Productions co-founder, Zar, have spent 10 years advocating for the Black LGBTQI+ community using various forms including in-person events, social media, and YouTube,” the proclamation states.
The proclamation adds that through its YouTube Channel, Team Rayceen Productions created a platform for “Black LGBTQIA+ individuals to discuss various topics including spotlighting nonprofit organizations and small businesses, voter registration and participation, the state of LGBTQIA+ rights and resources in D.C, gender equality and equity, and the amplification of opportunities to bring the community together.”
It also praises Team Rayceen Productions for its partnership with the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs in helping to produce “exciting events like the District of Pride talent showcase held each June and the iconic 17th Street High Heel Race celebrated in October.”
“Whereas I thank Team Rayceen Productions for its vital and necessary work and am #DCProud to wish you all the best as you continue to support Black LGBTQIA+ residents across all 8 Wards,” the proclamation continues.
“Now, therefore, I, the Mayor of Washington, D.C., do hereby proclaim March 18, 2024, as TEAM RAYCEEN DAY in Washington, D.C. and do commit this observance to all Washingtonians,” it concludes.
“We thank Mayor Bowser for this special proclamation, which highlights where it all began, with the Black LGBTQIA+ community of Washington, D.C,” Team Rayceen Productions says in a statement. “Starting with The Ask Rayceen Show, Reel Affirmation, and events with D.C. Public Library to Art All Night, Silver Pride by Whitman-Walker, and events with the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, we are #dcproud of what we have accomplished in the Nation’s Capital,” the statement says.
“For TEAM RAYCEEN DAY, we thank the diverse group of individuals who have made everything we have done possible by volunteering their time and talents over the past decade – as online co-hosts, event staff, performers, DJs, photographers, and more,” says the statement.
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court declines to hear case over drag show at Texas university
Students argue First Amendment protects performance
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a First Amendment case over a public university president’s refusal to allow an LGBTQ student group to host a drag show on campus.
The group’s application was denied without the justices providing their reasoning or issuing dissenting opinions, as is custom for such requests for emergency review.
When plaintiffs sought to organize the drag performance to raise money for suicide prevention in March 2023, West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler cancelled the event, citing the Bible and other religious texts.
The students sued, arguing the move constituted prior restraint and viewpoint-based discrimination, in violation of the First Amendment. Wendler had called drag shows “derisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny,” adding that “a harmless drag show” was “not possible.”
The notoriously conservative Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who former President Donald Trump appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, ruled against the plaintiffs in September, writing that “it is not clearly established that all drag shows are inherently expressive.”
Kacsmaryk further argued that the High Court’s precedent-setting opinions protecting stage performances and establishing that “speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend” was inconsistent with constitutional interpretation based on “text, history and tradition.”
Plaintiffs appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is by far the most conservative of the nation’s 12 appellate circuit courts. They sought emergency review by the Supreme Court because the 5th Circuit refused to fast-track their case, so arguments were scheduled to begin after the date of their drag show.