By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEW YORK (IDN) \u2013 Pride parades, gay friendly diners, movies, books and fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The gay life style is coming to town but the welcome mat is still far from ubiquitous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ethiopia, home to Abiy Ahmed, the \u201chugging president\u201d, has yet to come to terms with LGBT or Q. In fact, some Ethiopian bloggers have been openly unfriendly to say the least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Africa was once the place where alternative lifestyles might even land someone in jail. But Dan Ware, president of the U.S.-based Toto Travel, which organizes trips for gay and lesbian travelers, as well as close friends and family, was not deterred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ware, who was raised as a Pentecostal Christian before converting to the Baha\u2019i faith, now simply believes in what he calls \u201cthe power of love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he was taken aback by the comments of Dereje Negash, the president of a coalition of Ethiopian Orthodox church associations, when he told BBC Amharic that the government \u201cshould ban this group from entering the country and visiting the sacred sites\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey should not be allowed to leave their mark,\u201d Negash said. \u201cOur religion condemns this act, and it\u2019s disgraceful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Homosexuality is illegal in Ethiopia, he added, and the tour company should not be allowed to \u201cviolate the law of the land\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ware, who founded Toto Tours nearly 30 years ago when he left his job after co-workers learned he was gay, is undeterred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Toto\u2019s gay and lesbian customers have had good experiences, he said. The travelers have learned something new, as do the people they meet during the trips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen you go in a group to another culture, you learn, you\u2019re changed, your perspectives are altered,\u201d Ware explained. \u201cAnd the same happens with the people you visit. They go, \u2018Wow, we\u2019ve never met gay people before.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like we\u2019re ambassadors, and it has always been something positive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Toto\u2019s planned 16-day tour of Ethiopia, still shown on its website, includes visits to holy sites such as the ancient rock-hewn churches in Lalibela and the Debre Berhan Selassie church in Gondar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The website describes \u201ctwo exciting days\u201d exploring Lalibela and the chance to meet with clergy there to discuss the history of the churches. The country is described as the \u201cancestral home to all of mankind,\u201d noting its \u201cfascinating history stretching back more than 3,000 years to the fabled reign of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Angola and a number of other countries are updating their LGBTQ laws that prohibit discrimination against people on the basis of sexual orientation. Under the new law in Angola, anyone refusing to employ or provide services to individuals based on sexual orientation could face two years in jail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Parliamentarians for Global Action member Hon. Kilamba Kiuyima Van-D\u00fanem, declared: \u201cThe archaic criminalization of same-sex conduct was discriminatory in nature and contravened the inherent dignity and right to privacy of LGBTI people in Angola, contributing to stigma and ill-treatment against this community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI applaud the decision of Angola\u2019s Parliament to modernize our penal code by removing this harmful relic from our books. This is an important step towards equality and inclusion for all people in my country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other countries that have struck down anti-gay laws include Lesotho and S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe (2012), Palau (2014), Mozambique (2015), Belize, Nauru and Seychelles (2016) and, last year, India and Trinidad and Tobago. [IDN-InDepthNews \u2013 19 June 2019]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo: PGA member Kilamba Kiuyima Van-D\u00fanem, Member of Parliament from Angola. Credit: www.pgaction.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) \u2013 Pride parades, gay friendly diners, movies, books and fashion. The gay life style is coming to town but the welcome mat is still far from ubiquitous. Ethiopia, home to Abiy Ahmed, the \u201chugging president\u201d, has yet to come to terms with LGBT or Q. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,26,13,16,32,3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"category-culture-art-religion","9":"category-goal10","10":"category-news","11":"category-regions","12":"category-sdgs-2","13":"category-sdgs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6164,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6163\/revisions\/6164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}