Gays and lesbians demand recognition
April 28, 2009
President Robert Mugabe
By Our Correspondent
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s reclusive homosexual community has demanded that its rights be recognised and enshrined in the new Constitution currently being drafted.
“The purpose of a Constitution is to protect vulnerable and marginalised minorities,” the Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe, GALZ, said in a statement to The Zimbabwe Times.
“Most gay and lesbian people in Zimbabwe live in fear and are driven underground. This is blatant discrimination against a group of people whose only difference from the majority is in who they are attracted to sexually.
“And homosexuals do not choose to be homosexual just as heterosexuals do not choose to be heterosexual. Choosing to be gay or lesbian in Zimbabwe would be lunacy given the levels of disapproval shown by many elements of society.”
The most vocal opponent of the homosexual community has been Zimbabwe’s aging head of state. President Mugabe described homosexuals as “worse than dogs and pigs” about a decade ago when they attempted to assert their rights and highlight widespread homophobia in the country.
Keith Goddard of GALZ
That statement, reported around the world, still reverberates in the country, casting a long shadow over the exercise of sexual freedom. The polarisation between Mugabe and the Zimbabwean gay community was exacerbated by the standoff between the President and renowned gay equality campaigner, Peter Tatchell.
Tatchell, an Australian-born British human rights activist, gained international recognition for his attempted citizen’s arrest of Mugabe in London and Brussels in 1999 and 2001 on charges of torture and other human rights abuses.
Under Zimbabwean law homosexuality as such is not illegal. But sodomy – narrowly defined as anal sex between men – is. Yet, in subtle ways, things are also changing. Intolerance, particularly at the official level, seems to have mellowed into indifference. The random and all too frequent arrest of gays appears to have ceased.
They have even been allowed to set up their own stand at the annual Zimbabwe International Book Fair.
Ironically, the impetus for such transformation was the sensational sodomy trial of Zimbabwe’s first post-independence president, the late Canaan Sodindo Banana, in 1998.
Testimonies during the 17-day court proceeding revealed the ex-President as a closet homosexual who abused male subordinates while in State House. Banana was subsequently convicted of sodomy and jailed for a year. In November 2003 he died – a publicly disgraced figure. Mugabe staunchly refused to allow the interment of his remains at the Heroes Acre.
Late President Canaan Banana
The gay community in Harare says although Banana’s trial was more about abuse than the pursuit of sexual freedom, “it went a long way to convince people that being gay is not a white-imported thing”.
Buoyed by a new-found confidence, the gay community is now pushing for greater recognition by society.
GALZ said the drafting of a new national Constitution must be a people-driven process.
“However, although democracy is about the rule of the majority, the majority does not have unlimited power,” says GALZ, which is headed by Keith Goddard.
The organisation is estimated to have over 400 members throughout in Zimbabwe, a country with a population of 13 million.
“A democratic Constitution must incorporate various fundamental rights in order for it to be democratic and this includes the right to one’s sexual orientation whether this be homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual,” said GALZ.
The GALZ statement says discrimination against gays and lesbians was unhealthy for society.
“An excellent illustration of why comes from the Zimbabwe National AIDS Council Strategic Plan 2006 – 2010,” says GALZ. “In relation to gay men, it points out that whilst sexual conduct between men ‘remains illegal in Zimbabwe, there can be no doubt that there are men who have sex with other men [MSM]. They are at risk of HIV infection and passing on the virus to their partners, including female partners.
Furthermore, international experience has shown that ignoring this group or adopting punitive approaches will only serve to drive MSM underground and reduce opportunities to dialogue with this group.
“On the other hand,” says the GALZ statement, “whilst sexual conduct between women is not criminalised in Zimbabwe, the mere fact that there is no specified protection for lesbians under our present constitution makes them equally vulnerable to discrimination as their male counterparts, perhaps even more so, given their status as women who are generally not recognised as having the right to their own sexuality.
“There is need, therefore, to include specific mention of sexual orientation in Zimbabwe’s next Constitution and the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) appeals to all Zimbabweans including government and civic organisations to support this call,” said GALZ.
In 1999 when the government attempted to write a new constitution, GALZ again pushed for the inclusion of a sexual orientation clause. This was resisted and the government’s draft constitution was itself rejected in a referendum, albeit for totally different reasons, by a conservative Zimbabwean electorate. At a time when his popularity was on the decline his relentless campaign against GALZ’s challenge of institutionalized homophobia remained one of the few issues on which Mugabe drew support across the political divide.
Ironically, one of the most repressive laws to be put on Zimbabwe’s books – the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act of 2002 – protects the sexual orientation of citizens. But in a country where the law is often applied selectively, homosexuals wonder if it’s not just meant to shield those high up in government.
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@hombarume
My sexuality is not about you and dont want to make you feel like anything. I am a gay man I was born gay and I am very proud of it. I am NOT interested in your bible ramblings they dont interest me. I personally feel that the church should be banned and it`s leaders should be put on trail for crimes against humanity for what it has done to gay people for 2000 years. I will never forgive the church for teaching you and the rest of humanity hatred.
Although people can do and write as they will, the truth will not change, it will remain the TRUTH. If the MDC made promises to these groups in exchange for support, those are the MDC’s promises, not ours. Our war against this and many other threats continues into the future; we will never falter. Never in Zimbabwe.
To all the people who have expressed concern that Mugabe might latch onto this issue to get votes, get over it. Let him. George Bush used the same tactic in the USA, and his arrogance and intolerance only hastened his defeat.
Let us ‘Live and let live’ To all the people who are unhappy in their own lives and feel the need to dictate how other adults live theirs, get a life. You may want to work on your own life and your own relationships.
To the people who are opposed to protection of the rights of gays and lesbians (and woman, and handicapped people, and people of all religions, and tribal and ethinc minorities), go ahead and vote for Mugabe.
To gaurantee the failure of both the constitutional draft as well as that of the MDC at the polls, let Tsvangirai or any of his officials openly promote the GALZ madness. Zimbabweans just don’t tolerate this nonsense. My bet is if MDC openly supports this issue while Mugabe opposes it going into elections, Mugabe will surprise many by winning easily.
@Matt “we will never falter,never in Zimbabwe” Please you make me laugh..have a look around you in Zimbabwe. You have already faltered big time.
The intolerance from people who expect others to tolerate them is quite frightening.
Scarface, in commenting on the other pressing issues, mentions AIDS. How is the world, including Zimbabwe, to effectively eradicate AIDS without ensuring the eradication of homophobia.
While we peddle our “culture” and “moral uprightness” that will “not allow homosexuality in Zimbabwe”, we are not ridding Zimbabwe of homosexuality. In fact, we are driving them into the closet, and the closet is a very dangerous place – what will happen when one partner in a “happily heterosexual marriage” stumbles upon the discovery that their partner is in a homosexual relationship.
Or, they may not discover that at all, but find themselves with some disease that could have been prevented if we were to uphold the human rights of all.
Zimbabweans are tolerant people and would not deny the gays and lesbians their human rights. They have rights just like any one of us and what they do in the confines of their homes is their business. Please leave them alone.
To all gays on this forum
It is our individual rights to refuse gays also. So why lament at the institutions like NCA, ZANU or MDC. they are a representation of the will of Zimbabwe.
Everyone has got a belief which guides him/herself. So the majority of Zimbabweans believe homosexual is not right. So democratically that what will stand. The number of homosexuals is less, so when it comes to voting they wont win.
In effect, just like any other institution, let them take the streets and demonstrate with placards. Let’s see what will be the response.
@hombarume….you have no rights and your vote means nothing.
stephen kay
Seems @ stephen kay thinks only his views should be consumed and not those of @hombarume etc. In one of your posts stephen, you indicated that for over 2000 years, gays have been denied their RIGHTS; wonder why? Zimbabweans find homosexuality incompatible with their culture and all. Try as you may, this will be a hard sale for as long as we are talking about Zimbabwe.