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The position of lesbian and bisexual women
Fadzai Muparutsa, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ)
Extracted from Galzette, January 2008

Since 1995, discrimination against homosexuals in Zimbabwe has received widespread coverage and attention but specific forms of exclusion experienced by lesbians and bisexual women are often obscured by talk of the general oppression facing both sexes. Although homosexual men (including transgender men) are spurned by society, they still maintain the privileges that automatically accrue to them as biological males. By contrast, lesbian and bisexual women suffer multiple forms of oppression, some of which relate to their sexuality but most of which relate to the general position of women in society.

It is not possible to generalize about Zimbabwean culture but, on the whole, Zimbabweans of both sexes are expected to follow the predetermined path of marriage and the production of children. For both lesbians and gay men, whose relationships are not recognized, this often poses a serious barrier to freedom of choice. Nevertheless, the position for men is made significantly easier: men enjoy much greater access to public space and, both before and after marriage, are able to move freely in society and socialize. This advantage is automatically extended to gay and bisexual men simply because of their biological sex. With freedom of movement, gay men are at an advantage when it comes to identifying and establishing relationships with other gay men and seeking support without the knowledge of or interference from their families and heterosexual friends. They have better access to conducive environments where their sexuality is affirmed and where they can take control over the processes of coming to terms with their sexuality and coming out.

Women, on the other hand, are generally protected behind the chastity belt of the home and most are not at liberty to mix with whom they please and establish unsupervised relationships. This makes it more difficult for lesbian and bisexual women to meet with others like themselves whilst keeping their sexuality hidden from their families. Those who do come out are either extremely brave and highly determined or economically independent and belonging to those few families that are more tolerant of sexual difference.

Gay men enjoy greater opportunities to work and be economically independent: a large number of women rely exclusively on their families to survive. Women who do generate income often have their money controlled by men. This impacts more seriously on a married lesbian or bisexual woman than on a married gay or bisexual man. With control of the purse strings, a gay man is in a better position to survive the ordeal of being outed to his family; should a lesbian woman's sexuality be discovered, she may lose her family, including her children, and be returned to her rural home.

Understandably, lesbian and bisexual women are more visible in urban areas where they stand a better chance of enjoying greater economic independence and access to public space. In the rural areas lesbian and bisexual women remain firmly silenced. With no support network and no information, these women are far more likely to internalise their oppression and believe that they should conform to cultural norms of heterosexual marriage and the bearing of children. Although these women may outwardly concur with their position, they are still forced to accept a lifestyle, which runs entirely contrary to their emotional and psychological needs.

Although spaces for lesbians and gay men remain limited, men are once again at an advantage. Whilst gay men are generally more accepting of lesbian and bisexual women as social equals and do not view women as sex objects, many still carry with them unconscious prejudices of heterosexual socialisation. For example, gay men can often hide their sexual relations with women, lesbian women may fall pregnant which has led to accusations of some women being 'false lesbians', traitors to the cause or women trying to cash in. Even in cases where gay men are known to have children, this is considered a lesser crime simply because children are seen as appendages to women and not to men. Bisexual men who self-identify as gay are accepted and tolerated; bisexual women who identify as lesbians are viewed with suspicion.

Lesbian women with children are often turned into apologists for choices that they make concerning their rights to bear children. Discussions around sexual rights relating to the right to bodily integrity, the right to choose one's sexual identity, the right to all safe and consensual sexual activity with other adults (even if this seemingly conflicts with one's sexual identity) and the right to bear children are still very much in their infancy within the African lesbian and gay discourse.

Another potential source of sanctuary for lesbian and bisexual women is the women's movement but, in Zimbabwe, this is deeply divided by conflicting ideologies. Many organisations are linked to government and have entrenched themselves in nationalist thinking around feudalism, patriarchy and hierarchy which are viewed by them as authenticating and reclaiming African culture. There exists no room within this framework for tolerating difference and it promotes the exclusion of those who are viewed as such. This invented African culture is highly oppressive to women and prevents them from discussing issues of paramount importance to them because, from a cultural perspective, such discussions are considered taboo. The lesbian or bisexual woman cannot hope to find solace here.

For women in general, there are few acceptable places in society for them to fill. One space sanctioned by men is the church where men feel that women will be protected in loco parentis. The conservative wing of the women's movement is, therefore, also heavily influenced by fundamentalist Christian thinking which finds no room for the inclusion of lesbians.

As a major strategy for the recognition of women's rights, the women's movement has adopted the majoritarian argument that women form over 50% of the population. In a heavily heterosexualised culture, lesbians are too small a minority to consider important and, in fact, sexual difference may even be perceived as a threat since many organisations fear to associate with those unpopular both with government and the Christian church. This is very different from the HIV and AIDS movement where homosexual men have gained greater acceptance through the acknowledgement that men have sex with men.

It is generally agreed that lesbians are at least risk of contracting HIV if they remain within exclusively lesbian relationships. However, because of gross generalisations within the HIV and AIDS movement relating to lesbian sexual behaviours, African lesbians are placed on the lowest rung when it comes to risks associated with acquiring or transmitting the HIV virus. For lesbian women who are exclusively WSW, this is undoubtedly true, but most women in Africa do not enjoy that luxury of choice and certainly most who do want children do not have access to expensive technologies for artificial insemination. In Zimbabwe, where women do not enjoy control over their bodies or their sexuality and are forced into marriages and into having children, lesbians are put at the same high risk of contracting HIV as their heterosexual counterparts. Not only is this threat to their health entirely unnecessary, every sexual act performed upon them can be interpreted as rape. So, although great strides have been made by international HIV/AIDS service organizations through the adoption of the apolitical term MSM that includes non-gay-identified men and avoids politicised labels, lesbian women remain excluded in both heterosexual and homosexual interventions.

Sex between men is criminalized in Zimbabwe, no law exists here which prohibits sexual relations between women: but, by the same token, protection of the rights of women to bodily integrity and ownership of their own sexuality is minimal. This means that, although richer lesbian women may be in a better position to buy their freedoms and independence, those who are poorer are still required to subjugate themselves to the control of men and poorer lesbian women, who tend to be less aware of their rights and whose position depends on the sanction of men, have fewer choices still.

A woman is not thought of as owning a sexuality independent of the needs of men and the idea of sexual expression not involving penetration is entirely alien to the machismo mentality. For these reasons and others related to the general invisibility of lesbian and bisexual women in public spaces, the majority of Zimbabweans believe that it is illogical for lesbians to exist in African cultures. Those who profess to be lesbian are simply not believed. Women who claim to be independent of men, even for sex, arouse intense anger in those men with deep-seated insecurities about sexual rejection and the need to control. In more traditionally conservative circles, homosexuality may be thought of in terms of illness brought on by demon possession. The cure for a man is exorcism but often the cure for a woman is to subject her to enforced sexual relations with a man.

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