EDGE on the Net

President Barack Obama’s trip to Africa next month may result in a stark juxtaposition between the growing power of the gay rights movement in the U.S. and the criminalization of homosexuality throughout the African continent.

Lawmakers in Nigeria passed a bill Thursday banning gay marriage and outlawing anyone from forming organizations supporting gay rights, setting prison terms of up to 14 years for offenders.

A Moroccan court has convicted two men of homosexuality and public indecency, and sentenced each to four months in prison, in the latest case against gays in this North African nation.

Suspected homosexuals in Cameroon say they have been tortured and raped in prison, according to a report released Thursday by Human Rights Watch and three local organizations.

According to a gay group in the East African country of Somalia, a gay teen was stoned to death there by a group connected to Al Qaeda because of his perceived sexual orientation, but a gay website disputes the account.

LGBT activists may be raising concern over Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson, who a leading candidate to replace Pope Benedict XVI, as he’s voiced his support for anti-gay bills in Africa.

The Canadian government is reviewing humanitarian funding for an evangelical group that works in Uganda and has described homosexuality as perverted and sinful.

French military were able to free two Mali men before they were executed for allegedly having gay sex.

A British theater producer just missed spending two years in a Ugandan jail after a court dismissed charges against him for staging a play about gay life in the homophobic East African country.

After vowing to pass Uganda’s controversial anti-gay law, the country’s Parliament speaker was blessed by Pope Benedict XVI when she went to Rome to attend a human rights conference.