Zimbabwe PM Tsvangirai Wants Homosexuality Decriminalised

Prime Minister Tsvangirai

On a visit to London last week, Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told the BBC that he would not object to the recognition of gay rights in the new constitution. This is a very different stance to the one he took in March 2010 where he sided with President Robert Mugabe’s hostile stance about LGBTI persons.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has performed a U-turn on gay rights, and now wants to see homosexuality decriminalised in a new constitution currently being drafted.

Only last March, Tsvangirai came out in support of President Robert Mugabe’s hostile stance on gays, charging: “Women make up 52% of the population... There are more women than men, so why should men be proposing to men?"

Homosexual acts are currently illegal in Zimbabwe. Mugabe once said gays were "worse than pigs and dogs", sparking international condemnation.

But on a visit to London last week, Tsvangirai sat down for an interview with BBC Newsnight, which was due to air on Monday night, in which he withdrew his objections to constitutional recognition of gay rights.

Admitting that homosexuality was a “very controversial subject in my part of the world”, Tsvangirai went on to say: “My attitude is that I hope the constitution will come out with freedom of sexual orientation.

“For as long as it does not interfere with anybody, who am I to define what individual opinion would be as far as their sexual preferences are concerned?”

Asked if he thought gay rights will be recognised in the new constitution, he replied: “I think it’s going to come out. Of course there is a very strong cultural feeling towards gays but to me it’s a human right. It’s something that individuals must be allowed to make a choice.”

In March 2010, President Robert Mugabe (Zanu-PF) and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T) came out strongly against including sexual orientation in the new Zimbabwe constitution at a belated Women's Day celebration.

A wave of hostility towards LGBTI persons started after Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) submitted a 15-minute documentary to Zimbabwe's Constitutional Select Committee in February 2010 advocating for the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in Zimbabwe's new constitution. At the time, GALZ organised an Indaba that resulted in a plan of action and draft resolution declaring that sexual orientation and gender identity are integral to every person’s dignity and humanity.

See Also:

• Zimbabwe's Chinamasa attacks Tsvangirai on gay rights, BBC News