Mozambique LGBT activists move on to next battle after anti-gay law scrapped | Mozambique | The Guardian

Contents:

• MOZAMBIQUE CRIMALIS GAY AND LBIAN RELATNSHIPS
• MOZAMBIQUE LGBT ACTIVISTS MOVE ON TO NEXT BATTLE AFTER ANTI-GAY LAW SCRAPPED
• GAY MOZAMBIQUE

MOZAMBIQUE CRIMALIS GAY AND LBIAN RELATNSHIPS

Gay Marriage⚭✖ UnregnizedCensorship✔ No censorshipNon-bary genr regnn✖ Not legally regnizedDiscrimatn✖ Illegal some ntextsEmployment Discrimatn✖ Sexual orientatn onlyHog Discrimatn✖ No protectnsConversn TherapyAmbiguo. Current statSce Jun 30, 2015Legal Although not explicly mentned the penal , the jtice mister clarified that homosexualy is not an offence Mozembique. Image source, AFPImage ptn, Rights activists have mpaigned across Ai for greater regnn for same-sex relatnshipsMozambique has crimalised homosexualy s new penal , makg one of a few Ain untri where same-sex relatnships are revised , force om Wednday, drops a lonial-era clse outlawg "vic agast nature" were no prosecutns unr that clse but rights activists have said this change is a symbolic as other Ain untri have moved to tighten anti-gay Nigeria, a law that me to force last year banned same-sex public displays of affectn and troduced a possible 14-year prison sentence for gay sex.

A study released on Tuday found that 87% of Nigerians supported a ban on same-sex Uganda, the ernment has pledged to troduce a new rtrictive law after the last law which crimalised homosexualy was succsfully challenged the nstutnal source, AFPImage ptn, Activists hope that the change Mozambique uld have an impact on other untriAnalysis: Milton Nkosi, BBC NewsMozambique's move to crimalise homosexualy looks step wh recent chang elsewhere, such as Ireland and the Mozambique is also followg the lik of neighbourg South Ai, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast and others, where is not a crime to be gay.

MOZAMBIQUE LGBT ACTIVISTS MOVE ON TO NEXT BATTLE AFTER ANTI-GAY LAW SCRAPPED

The change then is a small step forward for Ai's lbian and gay many plac, whether homosexualy is legal or not, the real qutn is about ordary people's attus to gay people, which n still be hostile. "I am sure that Ain untri will look at their old laws and see that this is an important step to guarantee that society is ee and equal, " Danilo Da Silva, head of the Mozambin gay rights group Lambda, told the BBC.

Historilly Mozambique has seen ltle vlence towards gay and lbian people, BBC Mozambique analyst Zenaida Machado, she adds, same-sex relatnships are still a divisive subject a untry where most people are eher relig Christians or people may be relaxed about homosexualy, many see promotg gay rights as an attack on cultural and relig practic, she on this storyRelated Inter LksThe BBC is not rponsible for the ntent of external s. When Mozambique’s human rights rerd was reviewed before the Uned Natns Human Rights Council Geneva this week, the ernment’s nsistency on homosexualy was full view.

Havg taken the cisn to crimalize homosexualy the ernment should now end the unjtified terference wh the right to eedom of associatn for LGBT people. A penal that me to force on Monday erased Portugue lonial laws datg back to 1886 that uld nmn anyone “who habually engag vic agast nature” to three years’ hard move was largely symbolic sce there have been no known prosecutns for homosexualy sce Mozambique gaed pennce 40 years ago last week.

GAY MOZAMBIQUE

“We do wele but we don’t actually see as somethg that will brg a change for how LGBT people live Mozambique, ” said Cara Cape, spokperson for the untry’s only gay rights anisatn, Lambda, which lobbied for the group has been fightg for seven years for official regnn om the ernment. Anti-gay statements om polil lears are mon Mozambique’s neighbours Zambia and LGBT anisatns have recently sred legal victori allowg them to register Botswana and Kenya, and last year the Ain Commissn on Human and Peopl’ Rights passed a rolutn llg on natnal lears on the ntent to rpect the human rights and digny of LGBT Reid, director of the LGBT rights programme at Human Rights Watch, said: “We’ve seen small cremental steps towards greater equaly sub-Saharan Ai.

”Peter Tatchell, a veteran human rights and gay rights mpaigner, said of the Mozambique law: “It’s a wonrful velopment amid the often regrsive anti-gay measur beg taken by some other Ain untri like Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda and the Gambia.

Mozambique has taken a first step the same directn but most other Ain untri still crimalise same-sex relatns and often ignore homophobic, biphobic and transphobic vlence.

And Augt, lawmakers proposed a bill (still unr review) so extreme that simply sayg you are gay or lbian uld land you mandatory nversn therapy or prison for up to 10 years. Same-sex nduct is not illegal  Rwanda, but thori there round up and arbrarily taed people regard as socially unsirable, cludg over a dozen gay and transgenr people, sex workers, street children, and others the months before a planned June 2021 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetg. It is an odd irony of history that Mozambique was led for centuri by harsh and reprsive Portugue regim durg which slavery thrived and btaly was wrought upon the native people—but homosexualy was handled lightly.

The specific reasons are embedd plex psycho-relig-polil history but the bottom le is that homosexualy was not as highly stigmatized, nmned or ma sful by the Catholic Portugue here as other Euro-imperialist loni elsewhere Ai. ” Instead of namg homosexual acts as illegal (‘rnal behavr agast the laws of nature’ claimed the Brish), the laws here scribed ‘vic’ agast nature, which was terpreted as referrg to btialy rather than human sodomy. The rultg effect for morn-day gays Mozambique is that homosexualy is still handled somewhat ‘lightly’—certaly not openly accepted but also not celly or vengefully persecuted as currently done Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Congo and across most of this ntent of 54 untri where gay people face harassment, jail and vlence.

“Sharia law is not accepted here pl the Anglins are most morate here—unlike central Ai where they are jt bonkers agast homosexualy, ” explaed Carmen, a pretty lbian member of LAMBDA who joed for dner one eveng at the Jaranda rtrant central Maputo. “Bishop Akola (Anglin bishop of Uganda) has ma himself famo and notor over his rabid anti-gay statements that have tapped to the ignorance people have about homosexualy. Perhaps bee of the relative ‘lightns’ of beg gay and due to the general absence of vigoro persecutn of gays, no signifint LGBT anizatn was formed until 2006 (although there is certaly gay stigma om the current homophobic ernment).

Their missn wh LAMBDA is: “to foc on lobbyg for the repeal of homophobic legislatn whilst the public awarens mpaign will raise the profile on the rights of the LGBTI muny Mozambique. The Brazil-led 2007 UN effort urgg member natns to crimalized homosexualy was signed by many natns, mostly European but not signed by Mozambique who abstaed.