Real men don’t drink Bailey’s Irish Cream. At least that’s the going assumption in Cameroon, where imbibing the sweet cordial brands you as a “homosexual.”
From the Mirror:
A man who loved drinking Bailey’s Irish Cream was convicted by a Cameroon judge for ‘being a homosexual’.
Having same sex relations has been illegal in the African country since 1972 and anyone accused of doing so can be fined and even handed a prison term as long as five years.
A Cameroonian human rights lawyer by the name of Michel Togue is attempting to expose the country’s reliance on stereotypes to convict people presumed to be gay. One of his clients was arrested on the basis of displaying “feminine mannerisms.”
Togue insists hardly anyone is caught in the act of actually having sex, adding that accusations of homosexual behavior are often leveled by disgruntled neighbors. In a statement to reporters, Togue said:
To catch people having sex, to catch them in the act, you have to break the law. You have to violate their privacy, which is an offense.
But the police will not focus on the offense of breaking the privacy of someone, but they will focus on the fact that they saw two people of the same gender having sex.
Cameroon’s laws on homosexuality, while severe (a conviction for homosexuality can result, as noted, in a lengthy stretch in the slammer), are not the most repressive on the African continent. In Sudan, Nigeria, Mauritania, and Somalia, those found guilty of homosexuality can face the death penalty.
