A man who was observed drinking Bailey's Irish Cream, the delicious Irish whiskey and cream based liqueur, has been convicted by a Cameroon judge for 'being a homosexual.'
Same sex relations have been illegal in the west African country since 1972 with fines and even prison terms as long as five years being handed down.
This week a Cameroonian lawyer exposed the country's outrageously anti-gay legal system to the Daily Mirror, to underline his growing disgust at having to defend dozens of people he claims were accused of homosexuality.
Lawyer Michel Togue said that because very few people are even actually caught in the act of having gay sex, police are forced to offer bizarre evidence based on anti-gay stereotypes to convict them.
In one case a client was accused by police of having 'feminine mannerisms.' To support the charges against him Togue claims a judge convicted the man on the basis that he regularly drank Bailey's Irish Cream, which police officers and the judge felt was a woman's drink.
Many of the accusations of homosexuality are fabricated by neighbors, family members or even scorned former lovers with scores to settle, 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," Togue told the press.
“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.”
He says most of the stigma around homosexuality is driven by religious leaders in the community.
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