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The Banned Stand
Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ)
August 01, 2003

From left to right: Corina Straatsma (Executive Director, HIVOS), Keith Goddard (Director, GALZ), Dumisani Dube (Publications Officer, GALZ) at the 2003 ZIBF GALZ stand. Picture by Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi

In the first half of 1995, a small, unknown group of homosexuals calling itself GALZ hit the headlines in Zimbabwe and elsewhere when it applied for a stand at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) which had as its theme that year, 'Human Rights and Justice.' Government managed to ban the organisation from appearing that year and in his opening speech, the President uttered the first of his tirades against lesbian and gay people. Later that year, on Heroes Day he referred to gays and lesbians as 'worse than dogs an pigs' an epithet that has stuck with him.

GALZ's decision to enter the Book Fair stemmed from its inability to reach out to the LGBT community in Zimbabwe through press, radio and television. GALZ was unofficially banned from the electronic media in 1994 and the Herald refused to run an advert in the smalls column of the paper on the grounds that GALZ was running contact adverts for sex. Ironically, the attention afforded the organisation through sensational front-page newspaper reports and radio and television news items far outstripped the modest aims GALZ had to advertise its services. The black gay and lesbian community in particular flocked to the Book Fair to meet members of their community and gay rights was recognised locally and internationally as a human rights issue in Zimbabwe which attracted significant funding for its work.

GALZ again applied for a stand in 1996 but when government attempted to ban the association's appearance, GALZ took the Ministry of Home Affairs to court and won on the grounds that banning an organisation from having a stand at a public event had no foundation in law. Government appealed the decision in the Supreme Court where the previous ruling was upheld. GALZ's reasoning was that the illegal ban was similar to an apartheid government trying to ban a black organisation from appearing at a Book Fair simply because they were black and not because of the literature they were displaying. Despite the court ruling, government tried to give the impression that GALZ had been sacred away from the fair. On the last day, a mob travelled from the University to burn down the stand. GALZ had already given away virtually all its literature and on hearing of the approach of the mob, made a tactical withdrawal (i.e. we ran away).

Between 1997 and 2002, GALZ and the Book Fair agreed that GALZ would put its literature on the Human Rights Stand. The Book Fair continued to receive calls from the CIO regarding the association's presence and the Book Fair was able to claim that GALZ was not officially present. In 1998, a Herald reporter, trying to kick up a storm claimed that GALZ was distributing its literature to children which was not officially sanctioned by the Book Fair. GALZ's response was that children have the right to information and that descriptions of the trial of former President Canaan Banana appearing at the time on the front pages of the state-controlled newspapers were a great deal more prurient than anything the GALZ was handing out.

Although GALZ organised for other human rights groups to put their information on the Human Rights Stand, it was eventually staffed entirely by GALZ and the rules about distribution of literature were relaxed entirely. In 2001, President Mugabe passed the stand and inadvertently shook hands with the GALZ Publications Officer, Dumisani Dube. The plain-clothed policemen accompanying the President hurriedly turned the identification badge Dumi was wearing to avoid the President from being embarrassed. The event was recorded by Scott Long of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).

In 2002, it was clear that the Human Rights Stand was the GALZ stand in all but name. This year, 2003, the association applied to participate in its own name and was accepted without hesitation. After the dramatic campaigns of 1995 and 1996 where people flocked to the stand to see the homosexuals and pick up what they imagined was sordid literature, this year was an anticlimax. But that is what we want; to be able to appear in public alongside everyone else and without any fuss. That is the price and the nature of normalisation.

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