by Christopher Cappiello

Outrage over sentence for Senegal AIDS activists

The sentencing of nine AIDS activists to eight years in prison on charges of “indecent and unnatural acts” and “forming associations of criminals” has sparked an outpouring of condemnation from LGBT and civil rights groups.

The men were arrested on Dec. 19 at the home of Diadji Diouf, a leading gay activist, the New York Times reports. According to Human Rights Watch, police burst into the private home outside the capital city of Dakar around 11 p.m. and arrested all of the men present. Condoms and lubricants used by the men in their HIV-prevention work were confiscated and reportedy used as evidence of homosexual activity in the subsequent trial.

“There have been pretty consistent human rights violations [in Senegal],” said Cary Alan Johnson, of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, to the BBC. “But the extremity of this sentence [and] the rapidness of the trial really shock us in a country which has been moving so positively towards rule of law and a progressive human rights regime.”

The arrests came just days after Senegal hosted the 15th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa, where efforts to reduce infection rates among men who have sex with men were highlighted.

“There’s both a movement towards progressive and inclusive culture but at the same time very, very strong movements toward oppression,” Johnson told the BBC.

Senegal’s penal code calls for imprisonment of one to five years for anyone who “commits an improper or unnatural act with a person of the same sex.” In the case of Diouf and his associates, the judge added three years for “criminal association.” The largely Muslim west-African country has a reputation for liberalism but has become increasingly intolerant, the New York Times reports.

“This is the first case that we've heard of in Senegal where people actually got sentenced,” Joel Nana, Africa research and policy coordinator with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, told MSNBC.

Fired lesbian teacher in Chile files suit

More than a year after losing her job because she is a lesbian, high school religion teacher Sandra Cecilia Pavez Pavez has filed a suit with the Inter-American Human Rights Court to reclaim her job at a public school in San Bernardo, Chile.

Under Chilean law, Roman Catholic religion classes can be taught in public schools, but teachers must qualify for certification from church officials. Pavez was certified 12 times and taught religion for 23 years in San Bernardo, according to the Valparaiso Times.

In 2007, however, Pavez revealed to church authorities that she is a lesbian. San Bernardo Bishop Juan Ignacio González Errázuriz promptly revoked her certification and called for psychological counseling for the veteran teacher.

Pavez brought her case to a local court at the time and lost. An appeal to Chile’s Supreme Court also lost. Now she takes the case to the international court.

“Sandra’s case demonstrates how sexual minorities do not have rights in the eyes of this country’s judicial system,” said Rolando Jiménez, president of the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, at a press conference announcing the suit.

“If there is no guarantee of my rights as a citizen in this country, then what kind of citizen am I?” Pavez asked at the same event. “A third or second class citizen? Maybe I don’t even have a category in my country.”

Transgender Swiss woman wins court battle over payment

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Switzerland’s Federal Insurance Court violated the human rights of a transgender woman when it refused to hear her case against an insurer that would not reimburse costs for her gender reassignment surgery, AFP reports.

Nadine Schlumpf, 72, underwent her surgery in 2004, at the age of 67. Schlumpf was born male, was married to a woman for many years, and only pursued a sex change after her children were grown and her wife died of cancer in 2002.

SWICA, the insurance company, refused to pay for Schlumpf’s November 2004 surgery because of a two-year waiting period required by Swiss law. Schlumpf took her case to the Federal Insurance Court, claiming that medical experts had determined that a two-year waiting period was an obsolete idea and that her advanced age called for an exception. The court refused her case, leading her to the Strasbourg-based European court.

In a 5 to 2 decision, the international court determined that “a fair balance had not been struck between the interests of the insurance company and those of the applicant.”

Schlumpf was awarded almost $20,000 in damages and more than $10,000 in costs and expenses.