by Heather Leslie

Laws outlawing homosexual relations exist on all continents. At least 70 countries have entered the 21st century with laws prohibiting same-sex relations, according to Amnesty International records.

In some countries, consensual sex between adults of the same sex is outlawed as sodomy, crimes against nature or unnatural acts. In others, vague phrases such as immoral acts or public scandal are used to criminalize different expressions of homosexual identity.

Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for human rights. It works toward the observance of all human rights and it aims to educate and push for the ratification and implementation of human rights treaties.

Jamaica
Four men were arrested near the airport in Kingston, Jamaica in 1996 and charged in gross indecency, according to an Amnesty International report. The men were forced to remove their clothing and were held naked in public view at the airport police post until the following day. Police drove the four to the Rape Unit were they were sexually assaulted and made to clean other inmates’ cells and toilets with their bare hands, according to the report.

This is one of many reports received by Amnesty International. Most reports are anecdotal and anonymous because individuals fear reprisals if they complain, according to reports.

In Jamaica, consensual sex between men remains punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment with hard labor and is considered buggery – anal intercourse between a man and a woman, or between two men, according to Sodomy Laws Around the World’s Web site.

Malaysia
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad dismissed former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim amid accusations of sexual misconduct, corruption and threatening national security. Three weeks after Ibrahim had been arrested, the prime minister publicly branded Ibrahim a “sodomist, unfit to rule the country.”

Ibrahim went on trial in 1999 on charges of sodomy. In August 2000, he was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison, according to Amnesty International. Appeals still are pending.

In the Malaysian Penal Code, “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” is punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment and whipping, according to Sodomy Laws Around the World’s Web site.

“Flogging? You mean someone is going to cane the gayness out of me?” said Carlos Obarrio, an international business student at Florida International University in Miami. “How exactly does that work?”

Malaysia is not the only country where corporal punishment can be applied by law as a sanction for same-sex relations. In April 2000, The Associated Press reported that a Saudi Arabian court had sentenced nine young men to prison sentenced and up to 2,600 lashed each for “deviant sexual behavior,” apparently because of their sexual identity, according to an Amnesty International report (pdf).