Namibia Gay Rights Newswire - EIN Prswire

Contents:

• 'SEND-CLASS CIZENS'? NAMIBIA L AGAST GAY UPL
• NAMIBIA GAY RIGHTS NEWSWIRE
• ‘WE’RE SRED’: NAMIBIA’S NEW GAY RIGHTS ARE ALREADY AT RISK

'SEND-CLASS CIZENS'? NAMIBIA L AGAST GAY UPL

Homosexualy⚢✖ Male illegal, female legalGay Marriage⚭✖ Foreign same-sex marriag regnized onlyCensorship✔ No censorshipChangg Genr✖ Legal, but requir surgeryNon-bary genr regnnUnknownDiscrimatn✖ Illegal some ntextsEmployment Discrimatn✖ Sexual orientatn onlyHog Discrimatn✖ Sexual orientatn onlyConversn Therapy✖ Not banned. Homosexual activy Namibia is male illegal, female illegal, female legal Not enforced (crimalizatn pendg)Same-sex marriage Namibia? Foreign same-sex marriag regnized only Namibian state do not perform same-sex marriage, however numero s foreign same sex marriag have been regnized and parental rights have even been granted to gay upl lookg to adopt.

Namibia don’t explicly outlaw homosexualy but a lonial-era “sodomy law” crimalis sex between men. While the 16 May lg only appli to limed s and do not legalise gay marriage, Digashu’s lawyer, Carli Schickerlg, se as “the start of real change” lg that the ligants’ “rights to digny and equaly” were vlated, the supreme urt nced “a major prciple on which we will argue many s the future”, she the uple filed their se 2017, after Digashu’s visa was nied, was the first se 17 years to be brought to the urts over LGBTQ+ issu, acrdg to Schickerlg. In 2001, the untry’s foundg print, Sam Nujoma, lled for homosexuals to be arrted, triggerg a wave of attacks.

NAMIBIA GAY RIGHTS NEWSWIRE

Photograph: Chris Beer-ProcterA 2019-2021 study by the Aobarometer work has sce ranked Namibia as the third most tolerant of homosexualy on the ntent, after Cabo Ver and South Ai. Photograph: Chris Beer-ProcterVan Reenen -found Equal Namibia 2021, mobilisg support of a gay uple whose South Ain-born children were not allowed to the untry. “We advote for an enactment of an act of parliament to explicly prohib the practice of homosexualy Namibia, ” says the prott’s lear, Shirley Magazi, chair of the Christian Coaln of ernment says is “nductg a legal asssment” of the lg’s implitns “before termg the appropriate urse of actn wh the available nstutnal parameters”.

In WhatsApp groups wh hundreds of members, cludg church lears and high-profile policians, angry members mand the “beheadg” of gay people, llg them “mons” and “un-Ain” backlash me as a surprise for many, who thought Namibia more tolerant. It echoed rhetoric most recently heard Uganda, where last month the print signed to law one of the harsht anti-gay bills the world.

1 This note provis an asssment of the general suatn for gay men, lbians, bisexuals, trans and tersex (LGBTI) persons, as well as those perceived as such.

‘WE’RE SRED’: NAMIBIA’S NEW GAY RIGHTS ARE ALREADY AT RISK

In October 2021, a tt se the High Court termed that the son of a gay uple born via surrogacy South Ai 2019, is a Namibian cizen by scent (see Legal ntext, Government polici and programm. The 2019 Aobarometer survey found that 64% of Namibians qutned would like or ‘not re’ if their neighbour were gay, an crease om 54% 2017 (see Public opn, Relig groups’ attus, statements and actns and Prevailg cultural and fay attus). 16 Some LGBTI persons have faced harassment when tryg to accs public servic, wh reports of discrimatn, stigma, and hostily om healthre practners, sometim due to the mistaken belief that beg gay self is illegal or due to their own moral valu (see Healthre, genr re-assignment and hormone replacement).

‘In nsirg the meang of “fay” the Namibian Constutn, the Frank se… terpreted the wordg of Article 14(1) the Namibian Constutn to mean that “marriage is between men and women – not men and men and women and women”; stated that homosexual relatnships, “whether between men and men and women and women, clearly fall outsi the spe and tent of Article 14.