60-Year-Old Patson Manyati Reflects On Beg Gay In Zimbabwe

Contents:

• GAY ZIMBABWEANS FIGHT STIGMA, HARSH LAWS
• WORSE THAN DOGS AND PIGS: LIFE AS A GAY MAN ZIMBABWE
• GAY ASSOCIATN ZIMBABWE HAS 400 MEMBERS
• 60-YEAR-OLD PATSON MANYATI REFLECTS ON BEG GAY IN ZIMBABWE
• CULTURE, LAW, AND DISCRIMATN AGAST GAY AND LBIAN LEARNERS ZIMBABWE
• GAY ZIMBABWE: ARRTS, LIMED ACCS TO HEALTH CARE

GAY ZIMBABWEANS FIGHT STIGMA, HARSH LAWS

GALZ is a membership-based associatn that promot, reprents and protects the rights of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and tersex (LGBTI) people Zimbabwe. In the first half of 2021, there has been a spate of murrs of young gay men and an outcry om the LGBTI muny for the ernment, media and public to take hate crim more serly. This helped to secure US$ 2 ln for programm that serve gay men and other men who have sex wh men, the largt vtment ever an HIV and sexual and reproductive health rponse for the muny.

WORSE THAN DOGS AND PIGS: LIFE AS A GAY MAN ZIMBABWE

Homosexualy⚢✖ Male illegal, female legalCensorship✔ No censorshipNon-bary genr regnn✖ Not legally regnizedDiscrimatn✖ Illegal some ntextsEmployment DiscrimatnAmbiguoHog DiscrimatnAmbiguoConversn Therapy✖ Not banned. Homosexual activy Zimbabwe is male illegal, female illegal, female legal Fe and up to 10 years prison (crimalizatn pendg)Same-sex marriage Zimbabwe? The thor Masiiwa Ragi Gunda* reviss the subject of homosexualy Zimbabwe, a subject that attracted the attentn of the ternatnal muny om 1995 when Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the Print of Zimbabwe scribed homosexual persons as “worse than dogs and pigs”.

The book highlights the ternnectn between homosexualy, relign and the soc-enomic and polil challeng om the 1990s, and rais cril qutns about the wispread selective-leral appropriatn of the Bible, a practice that ignor the soc-historil ntext of the Bible.

GAY ASSOCIATN ZIMBABWE HAS 400 MEMBERS

In the crowd streets of Harare’s central bs district, Mojalifa was for a taxi to take him to the Gays and Lbians Associatn of Zimbabwe (GALZ) office for a aln meetg for LGBTQI+ anizatns and activists. Mojalifa Ndlovu is an openly gay man livg Zimbabwe, and an LGBTQI+ rights activist at the center of the Natnal Democratic Instute’s (NDI) work, supported by the Uned Stat Agency for Internatnal Development (USAID), to build and promote a strong aln of LGBTQI+ groups on electoral reform. “My mom was like, stg on the floor wh rat poison her hand, cryg and sayg, ‘I am gog to kill myself, sayg, I will not have a gay son, I am gog to kill myself' that's how I was outed, ” she said.

“So they went and told my iend, ‘We don't want to see him this neighborhood, and the next day that we are gog to see him, we are gog to put wire on fire for three days and that's what we are gog to e to beat him up until the gay uld get out of him. Homosexualy is outlawed 35 Ain untri and punishable by ath two untri, Mrania and Sudan, as well as areas of Somalia and Nigeria, acrdg to Amnty Internatnal U.

“There are a few thgs that make people own upon homosexuals, the ma one beg people do not unrstand how a man or a woman is pable of beg sexually attracted to someone of the same genr, ” he said. HARARE (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - Print Robert Mugabe says people like Takunda Ama are “worse than dogs and pigs” - so daily life as a gay man Zimbabwe was never gog to be 24, Ama has already been chased om his fay home, forced to marry - twice - and fathered three children who ask him tough qutns about sex and has been vilified the natnal prs - snapped at a gay party - and rejected as a disgrace by his parents. “I’m a sgle father of three and a male sex worker, ” Ama told the Thomson Rters also chairs Male Sex Workers Zimbabwe, a lobby group wh 300 members that helps enomilly disadvantaged gay has no such need as he boasts a huge ctomer base and says he do not need to vis nightclubs or roam the streets for work; his clients simply phone him when they want a good day, Ama said he mak $150, wh most of his clients employed as bs and legal said he was forced to take up sex work as Zimbabwe’s actured enomy had renred so many young men prostutn is not whout risks.

60-YEAR-OLD PATSON MANYATI REFLECTS ON BEG GAY IN ZIMBABWE

“I have always known that I was different, but I didn’t really know that I was gay; at the age of 11, that’s when I knew that I was attracted to other boys. At first I thought I was alone, but my other iends gave me a clear picture of who really I was - gay, ” Ama was 2011 when his secret me out, after Ama’s father ught his son and then-lover together at a party. They (my fay) thought I had a spirual challenge, ” said photographs of Ama at a gay party appeared the lol prs a year later, his father uld take no was thrown out of the fay home disgrace - a fate typil for many gays and lbians nservative Zimbabwe.

CULTURE, LAW, AND DISCRIMATN AGAST GAY AND LBIAN LEARNERS ZIMBABWE

“Most fai are not yet acceptg siblgs or children or other fay members who are attracted to the same sex due to strong cultural and relig beliefs, ” Sylvter Nyamatendza, of the Gays and Lbians of Zimbabwe, an anizatn that advot for equal group lnched 27 years ago wh some 70 members. Now has about 7, 120, acrdg to s director, Chterfield SPOTLIGHTRearchers say Zimbabwe’s media fuels homophobia, echog Mugabe’s belief that homosexualy “gras human digny.

GAY ZIMBABWE: ARRTS, LIMED ACCS TO HEALTH CARE

“The state media particular, which publish stori of the anti-gay lg party policians often attackg and stigatg gays, has ma life miserable for gays and lbians, who then nsequently suffer at the hands of policians’ anti-gay rhetoric, ” said Mlondolozi Ndlovu, a rearcher media and society studi at Zimbabwe’s Midlands State Universy. Zimbabwe’s 2013 nstutn prohibs same-sex marriage but is silent on gay crimalisg homosexualy Zimbabwe rry penalti of up to three years jail, and police often arrt gays, then set them ee whout brgg WIFE? Fearg victimizatn, they hi their sexualy, though he says is harr to keep secret om his young children, who watch rtoon gays and lbians picted on televisn.

This wispread belief that scripture is herently homophobic don’t hold up when you look at the text s entirety and wh an open md, ” said Brian Pellot of Relign News and Relign News Foundatn South Ai, which tracks spirual and ethil news now, discrimatn is the norm for men like Ama, a natn where gays are pared unfavourably to farm animals.