By Christopher Cappiello

Acquitted Gays Still Held in Cameroon

Nine men arrested in Cameroon on charges of homosexuality almost a year ago are still being held in jail despite their April 21 acquittal, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission reports. Homosexual activity is illegal in the African nation, and punishable by up to five years in prison.

“You arrest people unfairly, violate their rights for almost a year, and then refuse to release them–this constitutes an abuse of power,” defense attorney Duga Titanji told the IGLHRC. “With no new arrest warrant being served, this is now a blatant case of arbitrary detention."

The men were arrested during a May 21, 2005, police raid of a nightclub believed to be a popular gathering spot for gays and lesbians. Seventeen men were initially arrested, but six were released early on. The remaining 11 were too poor to hire lawyers, IGLHRC reports, and most were abandoned by their families following publicity about the arrests.

After being held in prison for 10 months, a trial date was set for March 17, 2006. According to the IGLHRC, the prosecution had no witnesses and no case, but a judge agreed to postpone the trial rather than dismiss the case. On April 21 the trial was convened, but with no witnesses and no evidence, the judge declared the men innocent of all charges.

“We will work with Cameroonian activists to confront this brazen abuse in the courts and at the national and international diplomatic levels,” said Cary Alan Johnson, IGLHRC's senior coordinator for Africa.

Rights Groups Report Violence Against Iraqi Gays

In the increasingly chaotic situation in Iraq, gays and lesbians are being targeted by religious extremists for persecution and even murder, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission reports. On May 4 the London-based gay rights group Outrage! accused Iraqi police of executing Ahmed Khalil, a 14-year-old boy believed to be gay.

“Ahmed was, in fact, a victim of poverty,” Ali Hili, an exiled gay Iraqi working with Outrage!, told the UK Gay News. “He sold his body to get money for food to help his impoverished family survive.” Witnesses claim four uniformed police officers dragged Khalil from his house and shot him in the head at point-blank range.

“According to our contacts in Baghdad, the Iraqi police have been heavily infiltrated by the Shia paramilitary Badr Corps,” Hili said. “They are seeking to impose a fundamentalist morality on the people of Iraq.” Iraq's leading Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani, issued a death fatwa against lesbians and gays last year.

On April 20 the IGLHRC wrote a letter to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice urging the United States to use its power and influence to condemn and prevent such violence against LGBT Iraqis.

“We believe it is the responsibility and obligation of the United States, considering its present involvement in Iraq, to protect and support the most vulnerable and marginalized populations being targeted for this violence,” said Paula Ettelbrick, IGLHRC's executive director, in a statement. “Whenever public leaders–whether political or religious–espouse homophobia one can expect an increase in violence against our community.”

Guilty Verdict in Murder of Jamaican Gay Activist

A Jamaican Supreme Court judge found Dwight Hayden guilty of the 2004 murder of the Caribbean island's prominent gay rights activist Brian Williamson, The Associated Press reports. As the May 3 verdict was announced, Hayden's lawyer requested psychological testing before the scheduled May 19 sentencing.

Williamson was found dead in his ransacked apartment on June 5, 2004, having been stabbed repeatedly with an ice pick. Because a safe had been stolen, authorities were treating the crime as a robbery-related murder, but human rights groups have said the incident might have been a hate crime. Gays are frequently harassed in Jamaica, where anti-sodomy laws still make sex between two men a crime. Activists have long claimed that police indifference contributes to harassment.

Williamson founded the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays, or J-FLAG, the conservative former English colony's only prominent gay rights organization. He was one of the first–and at the time of his death still one of the only -- public voices speaking out against discrimination against LGBT Jamaicans and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Study Shows Differences in Lesbian Brains

A new study shows that the brains of lesbians and straight women react differently to sex hormones, possibly providing evidence for a physical basis for same-sex attraction, The Associated Press reports.

The study, conducted by the Stockholm Brain Institute and published in the May 9 edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the brains of lesbians and straight men reacted similarly to the scent of female sex hormones thought to be pheromones, or chemicals that scientists believe contribute to the attraction between sexual partners. Whereas straight women found male and female pheromones equally pleasing, straight men and lesbians preferred the female pheromone, according to the AP. Similarly, straight men and lesbians found the male hormone more irritating than the female.

The study monitored the brains of the three 12-member groups -- lesbians, straight women and straight men -- while they sniffed a range of odors. In addition to odorless air and four common scents, the odors included androstadienone (AND), believed to be a male pheromone, and EST, believed to be a female pheromone.

The researchers found that straight women experienced a rush of activity in the anterior hypothalamus, an area of the brain related to sexual stimulation, when sniffing the male hormone. Conversely, lesbians processed the male hormone in the piriform cortex and amygdala, areas of the brain used to process any common odor, London's Guardian newspaper reports.

“[The study] shows sexual orientation may very well have a different basis between men and women,” said Sandra Witelson, an expert on brain anatomy and sexual orientation from McMaster University, who was not involved in the study. “The important thing is to be open to the likely situation that there are biological factors that contribute to sexual orientation.”