mugabe might be “repressed queen”

By Katherine Knowles (PinkNews.co.uk)

March 28, 2006: “I wouldn't be surprised if Mugabe is himself a closet, self loathing, repressed queen. He fits the archetype,” claims gay rights activist Peter Tatchell. “His demonstrative, ostentatious, anti-gay tirades, must lead us to question why he is so obsessed with homosexuality.”

In an interview to Pinknews, Tatchell said he suspected that the Zimbabwean president “could be one of Professor Adams’s 80% of homophobic men who are secret, repressed, self-hating fags.”

Professor Adams is the infamous research scientist who purported that, homophobic men might in fact be homosexuals, diverting their instincts. In an experiment at the University of Georgia, he split a group of 100% heterosexual men into two groups, one comfortable with gay people and one aggressively bigoted against gay people. He showed them gay porn videos, measured their arousal, and discovered that 80% of the homophobic men strongly responded to the stimulus.

Laughing, Tatchell described Mugabe as “mildly effeminate.” He said that “the way he holds his tea cup, his little pinky finger sticks out. When you meet him in person, he comes across a bit soft and quite pernickety, like a prissy queen.”

Despite his chuckles, Tatchell has had first hand experience of the dangerous nature of opposition to Mugabe.

In Brussels, Tatchell attempted a citizen’s arrest on Mugabe, but was knocked unconscious by his bodyguards. Perhaps as a response to this, the President recently claimed that Tatchell was plotting to stage a coup in Zimbabwe.

“The fact that it was gay people who have attempted to bring Mugabe to justice has resulted in many Zimbabweans rethinking their attitudes to homosexuality. I think our actions in defence of the Zimbabwean people have helped break down homophobia,” said Tatchell.