Mali: The Malian HIV warrior presidents can’t say no to

Shortly after Michel Sidibe became executive director of the United Nations’ AIDS prevention agency, a court in Senegal sentenced nine gay men, all AIDS educators, to eight years in prison for 'unnatural acts'. Sidibe flew to Senegal to ask its aging president, Abdoulaye Wade, to pardon the men. Sidibe, the son of a Muslim politician from Mali and a white French Catholic, asked the president – who is married to a white Frenchwoman – if he had ever suffered discrimination. 'Oh, Sidibe, you have no idea,' came the reply. 'And for not marrying a Muslim.' 'Then, Uncle,' Sidibe said, 'why do you accept that men here are put in jail for eight years just for being gay?'