DAKAR, Senegal - (AP) -- Laying bare a clash of cultures, President Barack Obama on Thursday urged African leaders to extend equal rights to gays and lesbians but was bluntly rebuked by Senegal's president, who said his country "still isn't ready" to decriminalize homosexuality.
Obama opened his weeklong trip to Africa one day after the U.S. Supreme Court expanded federal benefits for married gay couples. In In his first in-person comments on the ruling, Obama said the court's decision marked a "proud day for America." He pressed for similar recognition for gays in Africa, wading into a sensitive area in a region where dozens of countries outlaw homosexuality and a few punish violations with death.
"When it comes to how the state treats people, how the law treats people, I believe that everybody has to be treated equally," Obama said during a news conference with Senegalese President Macky Sall at the grand presidential palace in Dakar.
But Sall gave no ground. Senegal is "very tolerant," he assured Obama, but is "still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality." Sall said countries make decisions on complex issues in their own time, noting that Senegal has outlawed capital punishment while other countries have not -- a pointed jab at the U.S., where the death penalty is legal in many states.
Obama's trip, which also includes stops in South Africa and Tanzania, marks the most extensive visit to Africa by the first black U.S. president since he took office. Many Africans have expressed disappointment over Obama's lack of direct engagement with affairs on their continent -- particularly given that his father was Kenyan and he has many relatives living in Africa -- yet he was still enthusiastically welcomed.
The bureaucracy: the new fourth branch of government. The bureaucracy is permanent, unaccountable, unelected and choking us like a weed. The bureaucrat exists, generating nothing of value, using perceived problems to justify his existence.
1. Out of the 34 million HIV-positive people worldwide, 69 percent live in sub-Saharan Africa. There are roughly 23.8 million infected persons in all of Africa. 2. 91 percent of the world’s HIV-positive children live in Africa. 3. More than one million adults and children die every year from HIV/AIDS in Africa alone. In 2011, 1.7 million people worldwide died from AIDS. 4. Since the epidemic of HIV/AIDS, more than 60 million people have contracted the illness, and over 30 million have died from an HIV-related cause. 5. 71 percent of the HIV/AIDS-related deaths in 2011 were people living in Africa.
The bureaucracy: the new fourth branch of government. The bureaucracy is permanent, unaccountable, unelected and choking us like a weed. The bureaucrat exists, generating nothing of value, using perceived problems to justify his existence.
RIGHT'S RIGHT 
Print view
Fri Jun 28, 2013 7:50 am
reply
