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E tu Tsvangirai!
Miles
March 30, 2010

After having been stabbed several times in a conspiracy attack, in William Shakespeare-s Julius Ceaser, Ceaser felt the deepest wound was the one inflicted by the person he counted on, Brutus. Thus on seeing Brutus stab him too he is shocked and cries E TU..BRUTE!

For many people in the LGBT community who had cast their hopes on Morgan Tsvangirai as some kind of a human rights messiah, whom having gone through so much persecution and experienced so much hate speech himself, his homophobic utterances came as a biggest blow.

The Prime Minister had always been mum about his stance on gay and lesbian issues. Although the MDC was often labeled as apologists of the west and supporters of gay and lesbian rights the party had for a long time managed to be tight lipped on the issue.

However it all started when The headline 'Gay Rights Furore- appeared in the state controlled Sunday Mail. It was reported that the MDC was advocating for gay rights and gay marriages to be incorporated in the new constitution. This was another ploy by the ruling party to gain political mileage by diverting people-s attention from the real bread and butter issues affecting their lives.

The MDC hastened to release a press statement in which it denounced the report as 'malicious and false. The party openly and for the first time broke the silence when it stated that it there was nowhere in the party-s principles where reference was made to lesbian and gay rights. To me the fact that the MDC denied supporting gay and lesbian rights yet argue that they however support human rights for all was just vague and a matter of trying to either convince or confuse people. This approach of 'seating on the fence- might have been a strategic move, either not to betray the MDC gay, lesbian supporters, the western world or not to appear as 'advocating for immorality back home-.

All hell broke loose last Wednesday when during Women-s Day Commemorations rally, the President who has a record of verbally attacking gay and lesbian people struck again. He Described homosexual people as "insane, mad and destroying nationhood adding that such an issue will not be discussed during the constitutional review process as it would even upset the dead forcing them to resurrect."

Sheepishly the Prime Minister Tsvangirai openly declared that he supported the President on the issue of gay rights adding that he saw no need for men to breath in other men-s ears when the nation had a shortage of men since women make up 52 percent of the population. "President mataura nyaya yema gay rights, yevamwe varume vanofemera munzeve dzevamwe varume.Bodo, apowo handibvumirane nazvo.Unogodirei kutsvaga mumwe murume yet vakadzi make up 52 perecent (of the population) varume titori vashoma."

Like the proverbial first cut, this was indeed the deepest for many in the LGBT community of Zimbabwe. After years of dithering on the issue, the Prime Minister who has a record of crying foul every time something is reported about him in the press, was on national TV spewing homophobic hate tirades.

I am not aligned to any political party myself, but am sure this was the greatest betrayal for my fellows who had hopes that the MDC was some kind of a party of people who know what it feels like to be oppressed, to be vilified, crucified and be subjected to all forms of inhuman treatment.

Although there is so much hate carried in both the principals- messages, I also realised that there was a high degree of intolerance. I wonder if its genuine or deliberate ignorance on LGBT issues by people in positions of authority, which makes them, assume that gay and lesbian rights are all about sex.

The effects of such statements and state-sponsored homophobia can not be over looked, as this perpetuates violence against LGBT people as well as driving them underground.

Meanwhile, for the LGBT community the future looks bleak as it remains to be seen whether the platform at a national level to at least hear LGBT issues before dismissing them will be created.

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