Following on the heels of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s threat to “cut off the head” of any homosexual the government catches, police in the West African nation arrested two Spanish men May 30 for allegedly propositioning two male taxi drivers.

Reports said the drivers feigned interest in the come-ons and lured the tourists to a rendezvous point while surreptitiously contacting police, who arrested the men when they arrived at the location.

The men were released after five days in jail and left Gambia, the Spanish Embassy said.

Speaking on television May 15, Jammeh vowed to enact anti-gay laws “stricter than those in Iran” (which punishes sodomy with the death penalty) and said homosexuals should leave Gambia immediately.

He called homosexuality sinful and immoral, and said any hotel or lodging tolerating the presence of a homosexual would be closed down and the landlord punished.

Current law punishes gay sex with up to 14 years in prison.

After marching inside a fenced-in park last year, Pride celebrants took to the streets of downtown Riga, Latvia, May 31 for a real parade this year.

About 300 marchers and 400 anti-gay demonstrators turned out for the festivities. Four counterprotesters and one marcher were arrested.

Police blocked the street at both ends of the march as well as streets that intersected the route. At the parade’s end, the marchers left in buses.

A day earlier, Latvian President Valdis Zatlers had urged tolerance for GLBT people.

“I think that the main thing for people is not only to stop being intolerant, but also to understand others,” he told local media. “We are talking only about tolerance, but we seldom talk about trying to form an understanding and comprehension vis-à-vis any minority group, no matter what kind.”

Zatlers also expressed support for granting spousal rights to same-sex couples.

“If some people have a common household and … the common life of a single gender, then we certainly need to resolve these aspects of social privileges – inheritance, the right of the spouse to enjoy certain privileges and so on,” he said. “That is what needs to be done, and it would be a gesture of understanding, comprehension and good will.”

Last year, armed with a court ruling that the ban on the 2006 parade was unconstitutional, more than 500 GLBT people marched inside Vermanes Park under heavy police protection.

In 2006, after the City Council banned the parade, organizers held a service at a church and meetings at a hotel. The attendees were attacked by Christian, ultranationalist and neo-Nazi protesters who pelted them with eggs, rotten food and feces.

In 2005, about 150 marchers attempted to march in the streets. They were outnumbered by around 1,000 anti-gay protesters who hurled insults, bottles and eggs; blocked the street; and forced the parade to be rerouted. The protesters chanted “No sodomy” and “Gays fuck the nation.”

A Cairo appeals court on May 28 upheld the three-year prison sentences of five men arrested in a crackdown on people thought to be HIV-positive.

Four other HIV-positive men have been jailed for a year as a result of the campaign targeting the crime of “habitual practice of debauchery” and at least three other men were arrested, then released months later when they were found to be HIV-negative.

“To send these men to prison because of their HIV status is inhuman and unjust,” said Joe Amon, director of the HIV/AIDS program at Human Rights Watch. “Police, prosecutors and doctors have already abused them and violated their most basic rights, and now fear has trumped justice in a court of law.”

All 12 men were force-tested for HIV and subjected to anal probes to “prove” they had engaged in sodomy. Those who tested positive were later chained to hospital beds for months.

Faced with Mayor Yuri Luzhkov’s ban on Pride activities for the third year in a row, about 35 Moscow activists misled police into going to the wrong location and then successfully staged two surprise actions May 31.

As city police and riot police blockaded City Hall, activists pulled off a demonstration nearby at the Tchaikovsky statue outside the Moscow Conservatory.

They unfurled a banner and flags, spoke with trusted journalists who accompanied them to the location, and chanted, “Tchaikovsky was also gay,” “No to homophobes” and “Equal rights for LGBT.”

The 12:45 p.m. action lasted about 15 minutes, after which the group staged a brief march down the street, then dispersed before police could arrive.

At 1:15 p.m., a second action began across the street from City Hall, where activists blockaded themselves inside a third-floor apartment and draped a large banner above the street that read, “Rights for gays and lesbians – homophobia of Moscow mayor should be prosecuted.” They also released 250 balloons from the apartment’s windows.

Anti-gay protesters threw garbage and eggs at the apartment balcony and at least 36 of them were arrested, police told Interfax.

At about 1:45 p.m., police began threatening to break down the door to the apartment.

Nearly eight hours later, they forced the door open and arrested four people inside, charging them with taking part in an unsanctioned demonstration and disobeying a police order.

“Breaking the door was an illegal action as the police did not carry an order signed by the court,” said Pride organizer Nikolai Alekseev. “This was a violation of private property.”

The four individuals were held overnight, taken to court, then released.

If found guilty when the case resumes, the activists likely will be fined.

“We wanted to make this Pride different from the last two years,” Alekseev told the Moscow Times. “We didn’t want to have any more beatings in the street. We just want to show everyone that we are normal people.

Assistance: Bill Kelley