By Tabora Bojang
National Assembly members yesterday agreed to a proposal to make same sex relations an offense punishable by a jail term of five years minimum.
The Assembly is currently considering the 2020 criminal offences bill where this provision is contained.
The bill initially provided that ‘any person who engages in a sexual act with any person against the order of the nature or engages in a sexual act with an animal or permits any person to engage in sexual act with him or her against the order of nature commits a misdemeanor and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for two years.’
However following a careful consideration yesterday, the Assembly proposed that such offences are “aggravative” and require “rigorous imprisonment.”
Same sex is an uncomfortable subject for many religious societies in Africa including The Gambia. Successive governments in many countries have put in place laws prohibiting it much to the annoyance of many human right advocates.
