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Zimbabwe:
Homosexuals no longer "dogs and pigs"?
Inter Press Service (IPS)
May 23, 2004
By Wilson Johwa
"Worse than
dogs and pigs" is how Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe described
homosexuals almost a decade ago, when the gay community attempted
to highlight widespread homophobia in the Southern African country.
That statement, reported around the world, still reverberates in
the country, casting a long shadow over the exercise of sexual freedom.
Under Zimbabwean law homosexuality, as such, is not illegal. But
sodomy narrowly defined as anal sex between men is illegal. 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,
while the police's last raid of the Gays and Lesbians Association
of Zimbabwe (GALZ) office was in 1996.
"We have a good relationship with our local station," says Keith
Goddard, who heads the 400-member organisation. "They treat us with
great professionalism." Furthermore last July, after years of fighting,
gays were allowed to set up their own stand at the annual Zimbabwe
International Book Fair no small feat, considering that their
presence at the 1995 event caused a fiasco. "We thought it was a
positive development, and we can now put that whole campaign to
rest," Goddard told IPS. Buoyed by a new-found confidence, the gay
community is now pushing for greater recognition by society. "I
wouldn't say there is complete acceptance, but there is growing
understanding regarding what being gay, or lesbian, is about," Goddard
observes.
Ironically, the impetus for such transformation was the sensational
sodomy trial of Zimbabwe's first post-independence president, Canaan
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. Goddard says that 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."
Since then Goddard and several other high-profile GALZ members have
frequently been invited to address various groups. The organisation
itself conducts regular workshops on matters such as sexual identity
and the blackmail of gays - something that happily has declined
sharply. In its awareness and educational work GALZ focuses on the
younger generation, ignoring peers of the 80-year-old president.
The belief is that the minds of those individuals are set and that
nothing much can be done to change their views on homosexuality.
In 1999, when the government attempted to write a new constitution,
GALZ 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 different reasons. A GALZ representative
who calls himself Chesterfield participated in the process. One
of the first homosexuals to be open about his sexual orientation,
the 29-year-old says his family was confused and frightened by the
president's harsh statement. Fearing official opprobrium, his father
confronted him on the matter for the first time ever, and threatened
to report him to the police. Fortunately the older man has since
relaxed his position, and now even manages to enquire about Chesterfield's
partner of 10 years. The rest of the family also appears to have
developed greater understanding. "But it was different for my sister,"
Chesterfield remarks, "maybe because of the competition that I'd
snatch her boyfriends."
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, Goddard wonders
if it's not just meant to shield those higher up in government.
Since the 1990s GALZ's priority has been preventing the spread of
HIV/AIDS amongst the gays - this despite fears that a close association
with AIDS awareness efforts would cause the disease to be perceived
as a 'gay plague'. The group stepped into the fray because it was
concerned that information about preventing HIV transmission appeared
to be aimed at heterosexuals. "Our issue, the gay and lesbian issue,
is completely ignored," Goddard says. However, in 2000, the association
was pleasantly surprised to receive a small sum of tax payers' money
from the government-run National AIDS Council. An audit later found
that "we were one of the organisations which put the money to good
use," Goddard says.
At present, GALZ is one of the few lobby groups in Zimbabwe that
has got a treatment plan up-and-running for people with full-blown
AIDS. "We don't want our members to die of AIDS; they can die of
accidents," says GALZ health manager Martha Tholanah. Before the
end of the year, the association intends to make condom packs available
to gays and lesbians and to put up posters that warn people about
the ways in which gays might be vulnerable to AIDS.
Taking its agenda a step further, GALZ has also applied to present
a paper at the national AIDS conference scheduled for next month.
Chesterfield says awareness about homosexuality might have increased,
but that the subject still makes many Zimbabweans uncomfortable.
"People know, but don't want to be confronted with the 'in your
face visibility' of gay people," he told IPS.
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