Gay.com > Election News > New laws in Africa further restrict gays -- As many Western countries continue to expand rights for gay men and lesbians, many African nations are going the opposite direction with legislation to further curtail their already restricted rights. Now, in Zimbabwe, an intimate hug, kiss or even h

As many Western countries continue to expand rights for gay men and lesbians, many African nations are going the opposite direction with legislation to further curtail their already restricted rights. Now, in Zimbabwe, an intimate hug, kiss or even h

You are seeing this message because you are using an older or unsupported browser, or because your browser does not recognize stylesheets.

Gay.com is best experienced with one of the following browsers:

For Windows 98, NT, XP & 2000:
Internet Explorer 6 | Navigator 7.1 | Mozilla 1.0
For Macintosh (OS 9, OS X):
Navigator 7.1 | Mozilla 1.0 | Safari
News
Channels
Gay.com News - Election
 Gay.com Home News Election
New laws in Africa further restrict gays
by Larry Buhl
PlanetOut Network

spacer
 MORE NEWS

spacerGateses vow $287 million for AIDS
spacerWash. justices to rule soon on marriage
spacerNew laws in Africa further restrict gays
spacerKy. school OKs gay-straight alliance
spacerProtests, dialogue mark Iranian teen deaths

promo


  Search News
Search by keyword(s):

e.g. domestic partnership, San Francisco,
gay youth
Sort by keyword(s):

As many Western countries continue to expand rights for gay men and lesbians, many African nations are going the opposite direction with legislation to further curtail their already restricted rights.

Now, in Zimbabwe, an intimate hug, kiss or even hand-holding between men may be a crime under dramatic changes in the country's new criminal law.

According to Newzimbabwe.com, the changes, which create 15 new crimes, were passed by parliament without opposition two years ago but took effect July 8.

The changes expand the scope of sodomy -- previously considered as only anal sexual intercourse between males -- to include any act involving physical contact between males that would be "regarded by a reasonable person as an indecent act."

Lawyers, judges and law enforcement officials complain that they were not adequately trained or informed about the new reforms in the time between their passage and adoption. The expansion of the sodomy law was pushed by President Robert Mugabe, who once called homosexuals "worse than dogs and pigs."

The new law doesn't ban hand-holding and kissing per se, but, since no law enforcement officials can get a copy of the new law, many think it means that most physical forms of male bonding could be curbed, said Cary Alan Johnson, senior coordinator for Africa for the International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Coalition.

"There is a culture of 'homo-sociality' that is traditionally celebrated there, and you will see (straight) men in villages holding hands," Johnson told the PlanetOut Network. "I don't think the law will be used to punish that kind of activity, but will be used to blackmail and scare young men and women in cities who are just trying to live their lives."

Johnson said the changes to the law are an attempt by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to further scapegoat gay men and lesbians and divert attention from the dire economic conditions in the country.

Mugabe "is importing Western-style homophobia and imposing it on the culture," Johnson said. "He wants to paint everything British or American as bad and a reason for their problems, such as their 400 percent inflation rate."

Although Zimbabwe has the highest literacy rate in Africa, at 90 percent, the life expectancy for men is 37 years, and 34 years for women, the lowest in the world.

"The Mugabe regime is unpopular, but he still has a core of supporters which he has been able to mobilize around homophobia in the past," Scott Long, director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights project at Human Rights Watch, told the PlanetOut Network.

"While the scope of the new legislation is shocking and horrifying, I think the intent is for show," Long continued. "Nevertheless, it's a police state and what concerns us is that the law sends a signal to police to crack down on gays and lesbians or anyone else who looks different."

Elsewhere in Africa, there are efforts to further restrict LGBT rights, including new legislation in Nigeria to prohibit same-sex marriages.

A bill proposed in January by Nigerian Minister of Justice Bayo Ojo, the "Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act," was recently approved by the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria and will be submitted to the national assembly in August. The bill calls for five years imprisonment for any person who "goes through the ceremony of marriage with a person of the same sex," "performs, witnesses, aids or abets the ceremony of same-sex marriage," or "is involved in the registration of gay clubs, societies and organizations." It prohibits any public display of a "same-sex amorous relationship," as well as adoption by lesbians or gay men.

The legislation, which is likely to pass, is yet another effort to institutionalize homophobia, Johnson said. "Same-sex marriage bans in Africa are a way to further entrench discrimination since, there is no interest at all in same-sex marriage in the emerging gay and lesbian movement," he said.

In March, a coalition of 16 human rights organization sent a letter to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo urging him to withdraw the legislation.

Homosexual activity is banned in most African countries. In Cameroon, it is punishable by up to five years in jail. Nigerian law has a 14-year prison sentence for homosexuals, but in Muslim northern Nigeria, it is punishable by death. Only South Africa -- whose Constitution upholds equal protection for gay people -- Mali and Burkina Faso are considered gay-friendly countries. In most of the continent, meeting places for gays are kept secret, and gay society is underground.

Despite the human rights violations and new government legislation, there are glimmers of hope for LGBT rights in some African societies, Zimbabwean gay rights activist Keith Goddard told the Daily Mail & Guardian of South Africa.

Many Zimbabweans have "embraced and generally accept homosexuality," Goddard said, and, though much work remains to be done, Goddard admitted to finding allies in unusual places, even among the police.

"Sometimes the police give us tips on how and where to hold meetings without seeking police approval, as is required by the law," he said.

Posted July 20, 2006

Next: Ky. school OKs gay-straight alliance
Previous: Wash. justices to rule soon on marriage