LGBTIQ+ FACTS AND HISTORY YOU SHOULD KNOW.

"Homosexuality was made a crime in Cameroon by an ordinance of the First President of the Republic Ahmadou AHIDJIO signed in September 1972. It is necessary to recall that the first Penal Code adopted in 1965 did not criminalize homosexuality.

• In Northern Nigeria, the Sharia law is harsh and provides verdicts such as stoning to death persons having sexual relations with the same sex.

• In recent years, Botswana, Angola, Mozambique and the Seychelles have legalized same-sex relationships, joining Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Lesotho.

• In South Africa, same-sex marriage was legalized in 2006, a first in Africa.

• Half of LGBT people (52 per cent) said they’ve experienced depression in the last year.

• Almost one in four LGBT people (23 per cent) have witnessed discriminatory or negative remarks against LGBT people by healthcare staff.

• One in twenty LGBT people (five per cent) have been pressured to access services to question or change their sexual orientation when accessing healthcare services. While one in five trans people (20 per cent) have been pressured to access services to suppress their gender identity.

• One in seven LGBT people (14 per cent) have avoided treatment for fear of discrimination because they’re LGBT.

• More than a third of trans students (36 per cent) and seven per cent of lesbian, gay and bi students who aren’t trans faced negative comments or conduct from university staff because they’re LGBT

• The number of LGB people who have experienced a hate crime or incident in the last year because of their sexual orientation has risen by 78 percent since 2013

• One in ten LGBT people have experienced anti-LGBT abuse online directed towards them personally in the last month. This increases to one in four for trans people directly experiencing trans-phobic abuse online in the last month

• In more than half the world, LGBT people may not be protected from discrimination by workplace law

• Most governments deny trans people the right to legally change their name and gender from those that were assigned to them at birth

• Between 2008 and 2014, there were 1,612 trans people were murdered across 62 countries - equivalent to a killing every two days.

By WFW CMR