(Photo Credits: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
It’s official, guys! It’s now illegal to discriminate against the LGBT community in Angola as the country had finally enacted their new law that bans discrimination against people due to their sexual orientation. Moreover, the country has also decriminalized gay sex and same-sex relationships not to mention that refusing to employ or provide services to LGBTQ Angolans today meant facing up to two years in jail.
The new law decriminalizing same-sex relationships was passed by their parliament on January 2019 but it was not until November 2020 that their president had signed it into law. The country has finally dropped the colonial era-provision on “vices against nature” that, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), is “widely interpreted to be a ban on homosexual conduct.”
It dates back to pre-1975, when the country was still under Portugal, and the provision has reportedly hindered the LGBTQ community’s access to “healthcare, education and obtaining employment.”
Angola’s Minister of Justice and Human Rights Francisco Queiroz, released a statement regarding the new law saying:
This is an act of sovereignty by the Angolan State which, after 134 years of being governed in the criminal and criminal fields, with a code that has been in force since 1886, from the colonial administration, now has the penal code totally inspired by political reality, legal, cultural and social Angolan. Therefore it is an aspect that must be underlined, this one of the consolidation of the national sovereignty.
Previously, being gay and having same-sex relations in Angola were punishable by imprisonment of up to 15 years. Read the story in full here.
Awesome.
All good. But don’t confuse BLM or communism with with Equality. America Had been the most open equal society on earth until the recent turn toward Racist ideology that has engulfed the Democrat Party. Today with rampant censorship and identity politics in the schools, workplace and government…Freedom here is unlikely to survive. History tells us that once Socialism consolidates power, all suffer; especially gay people. The Gay community is very mistaken to align themselves with the facists who have infiltrated the Democrat Party, national media and big tech. For those who aren’t paying attention ; Censorshio since the installment of… Read more »
When did being gay have anything to do with political parties? If someone had told me, in 1982 when I started coming out, that Angola would do this; I would have laughed or muttered, “No way.” This is a great thing. We should be happy about it. People will be less persecuted.
It’s about time!!! Glad it’s happening but look at how many have suffered and will continue to suffer…
The country is 75% Christian (that split roughly as half Roman Catholic and half Protestant). Maybe Christians aren’t as anti-gay as many in the Community insist.