Mindelo (Cape Verde) (AFP) – With his striking looks, dressed in a pink top and short shorts, makeup artist Leonardo is wholly absorbed in perfecting a singer’s makeup amid the bustle of a music video shoot — free to be himself and live openly in his hometown of Mindelo in Cape Verde. In an Africa marked by increasingly repressive anti-LGBTQ laws, the island nation has become a haven of tolerance, but it hasn’t been without a struggle. “Now we’re living in almost a paradise here, but it was the result of a lot of hard work,” says Walter Pires. “Society is opening up, but there’s still a lot more to go.”
