Gay man in danger - part 1

My name is Herve, but a lot of people in England call me Aimee. I never expected to find myself living in the UK, a country very different from my home – which was Cameroon.

Four years ago I was living a busy life, running my own business. Now I am in the UK, waiting to hear the result of my asylum case. The reason for my altered situation is that in my home country there is a lot of prejudice and harrassment of people who are gay. It is illegal to have a homosexual relationship, and sentences range from a fine to five years imprisonment.

But as you can imagine, it is not always possible to be completely discreet – and one day the people that lived near me, found out that I was having a relationship with another man. When they found out, they started to call us names and to throw stones at us. We were both very afraid and my partner ran away.I went back into my house and did not dare to come out, but hoped that after some time, the situation might calm down. My brother had to bring me food and I could not go to work.After about two months I felt I really needed to go to church, so I thought I would venture outside. I went to the church, which was about ten miles away, and was on my way back again, when some people stopped me and began shouting out that I was gay. They said that they wanted to kill me. Other people saw what was happening and joined the crowd. Some people threw stones, beat me, tore off my clothes and said they were going to cut off my penis. Someone had a knife and managed to cut my penis. Because I was defending myself, my hand was also cut.

Suddenly the police arrived and asked what was going on. When the people told them I was a gay man, they said 'How can one man go with another man ?' Instead of dispersing the crowd and protecting me, they began to join in, punching me all over my face and kicking me all over my body.

At this point I lost consciousness.