--- title: Gambia Passes Bill to Imprison Gays for Life description: The measure now awaits the signature of the country’s fiercely anti-gay president canonical: https://time.com/3306370/gambia-passes-bill-to-imprison-gays-for-life/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-08T23:09:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:04:25.212Z article:section: World og:title: Gambia Passes Bill to Imprison Gays for Life og:description: The measure now awaits the signature of the country’s fiercely anti-gay president og:url: https://time.com/3306370/gambia-passes-bill-to-imprison-gays-for-life/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d10cd82abbf9e11/6986a272cd804db6a3cccaa9/rtx141wz.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President of Gambia Jammeh speaks during the United Nations 68th session of the General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Gambia Passes Bill to Imprison Gays for Life twitter:description: The measure now awaits the signature of the country’s fiercely anti-gay president twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d10cd82abbf9e11/6986a272cd804db6a3cccaa9/rtx141wz.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Gambia Passes Bill to Imprison Gays for Life  by [Denver Nicks](/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Sep 8, 2014 11:09 PM CUT  President of Gambia Yahya Jammeh speaks during the United Nations 68th session of the General Assembly in New York City on Sept. 27, 2013 President of Gambia Yahya Jammeh speaks during the United Nations 68th session of the General Assembly in New York City on Sept. 27, 2013Shannon Stapleton—Reuters  by [Denver Nicks](/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Sep 8, 2014 11:09 PM CUT Life for LGBT men and women in the West African county of Gambia just got significantly more difficult, as lawmakers [passed](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/gambia-lawmakers-pass-bill-jail-gays-life "undefined") a piece of legislation Monday that would impose terms of life in prison on people convicted of “aggravated homosexuality.” The bill defines aggravated homosexuality as “repeat offenders,” people with HIV/AIDS, and instances in which one of the parties is under 18, disabled, drugged or an authority figure over the other party, the Associated Press reports. The bill, which was passed by the National Assembly last month, amends a criminal code that already included a harsh penalty—up to 14 years in prison—for homosexual acts, applicable to both men and women. The bill now awaits the signature of autocratic ruler Yahya Jammeh, who came to power in a coup in 1994 and made headlines in 2008 when he publicly instructed gays to leave Gambia or face decapitation. \[[AP](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/gambia-lawmakers-pass-bill-jail-gays-life "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3306370/gambia-passes-bill-to-imprison-gays-for-life/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3306370/gambia-passes-bill-to-imprison-gays-for-life/"},"headline":"Gambia Passes Bill to Imprison Gays for Life","datePublished":"2014-09-08T23:09:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:04:25.212Z","description":"The measure now awaits the signature of the country’s fiercely anti-gay president","url":"https://time.com/3306370/gambia-passes-bill-to-imprison-gays-for-life/","keywords":["Homosexuality","gays","gay","Prison","Homophobia"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d10cd82abbf9e11/6986a272cd804db6a3cccaa9/rtx141wz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d10cd82abbf9e11/6986a272cd804db6a3cccaa9/rtx141wz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President of Gambia Jammeh speaks during the United Nations 68th session of the General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York","caption":"President of Gambia Jammeh speaks during the United Nations 68th session of the General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York","creditText":"Shannon Stapleton—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3306370/gambia-passes-bill-to-imprison-gays-for-life/","name":"Gambia Passes Bill to Imprison Gays for Life"}}]}] ```