Zimbabwe’s LGBT+ community is celebrating the end of President Robert Mugabe’s 37-year rule—a leader who described homosexuality as “inhuman”.
GALZ—an organisation of LGBTI people in Zimbabwe—has released a statement saying it received the news of Mugabe’s resignation “with much jubilation”.
“Former President Robert Mugabe repeatedly fuelled public prejudice against LGBTI individuals through public statements that endorsed abuse of LGBTI people in Zimbabwe,” the GALZ statement reads.
“LGBTI people were subject to abuse and harassment on account of their real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.
“In many cases, the state had been an active sponsor of homophobia in Zimbabwe by subjecting individuals suspected of being gay or lesbian to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”
In 1995, after seeing a GALZ stall at a book fair, Mugabe said he found it “outrageous and repugnant to my human conscience that such immoral and repulsive organisations, like those of homosexuals, who offend both against the law of nature and the cultural norms espoused by our society, should have any advocates in our midst and elsewhere in the world.”
Over 20 years later, GALZ has continued to be a target of authorities. In August 2012, the organisation's office in Harare was raided by police who confiscated documents and computers from the organisation. Human Rights Watch commented at the time that the raid showed the “government’s intolerance of the rights of Zimbabwe’s sexual and gender minorities”.
Mugabe has also been quoted as saying gay people are “worse than pigs and dogs”. Under his rule, same-sex sexual activity for males continued to be criminalised. In 2006, a law that banned same-sex kissing, hugging or hand-holding was introduced.
Until Zimbabwe has a leader who will recognise the rights of the LGBT+ community, I am always going to feel like an alien in my own country.
GALZ has warned that Zimbabwe’s new leadership should not repeat the “intolerance and discriminatory politics” of Mugabe.
“GALZ hopes that the incoming commit to upholding constitutional obligations to protect the rights of all people, including LGBTI people.”
Queer Zimbabwean writer Joyline Maenzanise has written on Pink News that she’s sceptical that LGBT+ rights will improve even though Mugabe’s rule has come to an end.
“As a queer person based in Zimbabwe, I would be lying if I said I share the same excitement that has been exuded by fellow countryfolk,” she writes, adding she’s worried that “one homophobe will be replaced with another”.
“Until Zimbabwe has a leader who will recognise the rights of the LGBT+ community, I am always going to feel like an alien in my own country; a part of me will always feel caged even as I have accepted my queerness.”
