US: National Organisation for Marriage most popular in Ethiopia
The Facebook page for the National Organisation for Marriage is more popular with Ethiopians than Americans.
The group, known for their views opposing rights for gay people and same-sex couples, have more followers from Addis Ababa than any US city.
The statistic, revealed by Good as You, suggests that despite having 47,100 fans on Facebook, the number of people genuinely engaged with the group in the US is likely to be far smaller.
The group has long fought a battle to keep the identities of its donors and members private, though last month an anti-gay rally held by NOM in D.C. failed to attract more than 2000 attendees.
The anti-gay group recently launched a boycott of bank JPMorgan Chase, after the bank asked employees if they were “an ally of the LGBT community” on a routine employee survey.
NOM has previously initiated boycotts against Starbucks and Mozilla. Neither produced any noticeable impact on the companies.
Same-sex sexual activity is already illegal in Ethiopia and can lead to 15 years in prison, or 25 years if HIV was transmitted during sex.
Despite popular support for an even harsher law, in April the country’s government backed away from even harsher penalties, claiming homosexuality is “not a serious crime”.
