Eric Ohena Lembembe was a prominent LGBT rights activist in Cameroon, where homointercourseuality is punishable by up to five years in prison. He was a fierce campaigner for equality when others fell silent and was among the first in the country to lead the fightback against a wave of homophobic prosecutions. And he was killed for it. Lembembe's body was found at his home in the capital Yaoundé on July 15. He reportedly hadn't showed up for a meeting he had scheduled two days earlier and was not answering his phone, so friends went in search for him. The front door was padlocked, but through a window his lifeless frame was visible on the bed. His neck and feet looked broken, one friend said to Human Rights Watch, and it appeared his face, feet and hands had been burned with an iron. The State Department condemned Lembembe's "brutal murder" and urged authorities to "thoroughly and promptly investigate and prosecute those responsible." That's unlikely: Under the government of President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, Cameroon has become increasingly discriminatory, with anti-gay prosecutions picking up speed since 2005. An Amnesty International report from earlier this year detailed the violence, arbitrary arrests and detention that many who allegedly engage in same-intercourse relations face. Victims of harassment or abuse rarely seek aid from police, who often take part in the discrimination. But Cameroon isn't alone. Gay rights face an uphill struggle throughout much of Africa, where many countries still have archaic, colonial-era anti-homointercourseuality laws on the books. Another Amnesty report says that 38 African countries criminalize homointercourseuality, with a majority of local publics backing these laws. And a Pew survey in June found that most people in some of Africa's most populous countries—Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda—think homointercourseuality is not societally acceptable. President Obama tried to encourage tolerance during his visit in Senegal last month, signaling it was high time for many African nations to decriminalize homointercourseuality. "People should be treated equally, and that's a principle that I think applies universally," he said. Senegalese President Macky Sall(http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&blog=19871253&post=94831&subd=timeglobalspin&ref=&feed=1)
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