Inside Out

The Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) was founded in 1990 to provide support services to lesbian and gay communities in Zimbabwe. Frustrated by the Zimbabwe government's attempts to silence the organization and prevent it from reaching out to potential members, GALZ was forced to transform itself into a human rights lobby group and to adopt a highly political profile. Although this change happened through interaction with international human rights bodies and other organizations, it was some time before GALZ began to be accepted by local human rights groups. Even today, many organizations--Zimbabwean and international--view the work of GALZ with suspicion.

Shortly after its formation in 1990, GALZ joined the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA). In 1992, representatives of GALZ attended an ILGA conference in Paris and made contact with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). However, GALZ found it difficult to convince international activists that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (lgbt) people in Zimbabwe faced problems: there was no evidence of the gay community being targeted for persecution and the government had no policy on the matter.

The climate changed in 1995. The state-controlled Sunday Mail carried a headline article in January ridiculing an independent initiative by the American gay activist, William Coursen, to take the Zimbabwean government to the African Court of Justice for abuses against the Zimbabwean lgbt community. Although the article contained useful ammunition for GALZ (it claimed that homosexuality was a foreign perversion being imposed on Zimbabweans by outsiders), Coursen's initiative backfired. GALZ asked Coursen to withdraw the legal case, but too late: the African court issued a damning statement that made it difficult to reopen the case at a later stage.

The book fair saga

Throughout 1995, the climate for lgbt people worsened dramatically. GALZ applied to participate at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF), the premier literary event in sub-Saharan Africa. An annual event, it had as its theme that year, Human Rights and Justice. GALZ's application was rejected, but its effort to be admitted received powerful support from South African publishers and others. Although GALZ did not participate, the organization learned, perhaps for the first time, that its concerns were legitimate and that pressure from outside Zimbabwe could be a powerful tool for lobbying. The campaign very nearly brought down the prestigious book fair.

The 1995 Book Fair saga and the first vitriolic speeches against the gay community by President Mugabe sent a clear signal to the international community that gay people in Zimbabwe were about to be targeted for persecution. Mugabe opened the fair with a speech that denounced gays and lesbians as "sexual perverts" who do not deserve to exercise their rights to free speech. At a subsequent political rally, he delivered his infamous "Dogs and Pigs" speech, saying of homosexuality: "its unnatural and there is no question of ever allowing these people to behave worse than dogs and pigs" His words launched the lgbt struggle in Zimbabwe. Now better prepared, GALZ repeated its attempt to participate at ZIBF in 1996, again provoking a strong negative reaction from the government and others. But this time, GALZ took the government to court and won the right to participate.

Mugabe's anti-gay rhetoric, supported by Parliament, created a climate of hysterical homophobia in this country. While it put the lgbt community at risk, there have been many positive outcomes. GALZ received substantial financial support from foreign funders and the organization became a household name. At the same time, the plight of homosexuals came to the attention of the London office of Amnesty International, which began to monitor the human rights abuses against lesbian and gay people in Zimbabwe.

In 1996, a lesbian member of GALZ, Tsitsi Tiripano, faced legal problems as a consequence of her presence at the GALZ stand at ZIBF. Her case led international alert by Amnesty International that lasted more than a year and a three-month speaking tour in the first quarter of 2000. During the tour, she met with human rights supporters and detailed the situation facing lesbians and gay men in Zimbabwe. At both book fairs, the National Coalition of Gay and Lesbian Equality (NCGLE) of South Africa provided support and encouragement to GALZ. Gays in London responded by forming the May 8 Group which now provides legal advice and general support to lesbian and gay organizations in Southern Africa.

Arrest that man!

President Mugabe is a renowned globe trotter. Lgbt groups in South Africa, Britain, the United States and elsewhere, have kept up the pressure through high visibility public protests--a style of action not possible in Zimbabwe because of the danger of physical violence and repression.

These public protests went largely unreported in the local Zimbabwean press. But in November 1999, the London group, Outrage!, went much further by attempting to arrest Mugabe while he was on a private shopping trip in London. The incident sparked a diplomatic incident between Britain and Zimbabwe and heated discussion in the media. It became the platform from which Mugabe launched his campaign against the British government to sponsor the land reform process in Zimbabwe.

The incident did lead to a few revenge attacks on members of the gay community in Zimbabwe and a scandal in the British gay press. But Mugabe's claims that the British government was run by "gay gangsters" in league with secret agents who want to destabilize Zimbabwe was so far-fetched that even Mugabe's own hard-line supporters were incredulous. Although GALZ had no prior knowledge of the incident, the organization received many calls and letters of congratulation and GALZ bathed in reflected glory. Again, if such an incident had been attempted in Zimbabwe, the instigators most likely would have been shot immediately.

International publicity brings both positive benefits and problems. The attempts by GALZ to participate in the 8^th Assembly of the World Council of Churches were unsuccessful: GALZ was excluded on a technicality. But the local and international publicity generated by the discussions leading up to the Assembly proved invaluable in exposing the hypocrisy of the Zimbabwean Council of Churches (ZCC). The issue of homosexuality and the church was widely debated over many months. GALZ won friends in the international church community, leading to the formation of the GALZ Fellowship Group.

International law

International law has provided the backbone for much of the work of GALZ. Zimbabwe is signatory to most of the major international covenants, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Although their contents have not been translated into local domestic law, these international instruments give GALZ the moral authority to formulate policies on lgbt issues that are in line with modern international thinking. GALZ made a formal submission to the Constitutional Commission in November 1999 which argued for the inclusion of a sexual orientation clause in the next Zimbabwean constitution. Most of the arguments were based on international case law, borrowing extensively from the arguments that South African activists and lawyers had used for the inclusion of sexual orientation in their own post-apartheid constitution. Fortunately, there is still reasonable separation between the judiciary and the other branches of state. The Supreme Court is totally independent. The five judges who sit on its bench have a reputation to uphold, guaranteeing that they maintain international principles of impartiality.

GALZ's links with the international community are criticized by its detractors as proof of a gay plot to destroy Zimbabwean culture. Similar arguments are used against feminists and other progressive thinkers. GALZ is careful to ensure that all initiatives are home grown and to ask the international community only for support. After Outrage!'s attempted arrest of Mugabe, GALZ now asks to be informed of any planned action against Mugabe so that it can warn the community to take extra care.

Making links

International strategy and support is vital in GALZ's struggle against AIDS. Recently, GALZ linked up with a number of AIDS activists, including ACT-UP in Paris, with a view to engage in a joint campaign strategy for importing cheaper drugs for the treatment of AIDS. Bringing the international community on board for this project is vital for its success.

Communication with the international community, greatly facilitated since the emergence of the fax machine and the internet, has been vital to the struggle for lesbian and gay equality in Zimbabwe. At the same time, concerns have emerged recently. Increasingly, people are organizing around a gay identity that is borrowed from the movement that erupted out of the Stonewall rebellion in the United States that came at the end of the civil rights movement in the late 1960's. It is essential that GALZ develop our own strategies for combating homophobia in Zimbabwe and not follow blindly the strategies of our predecessors who emerged at a different time, in a different cultural context in another part of the world.

Keith Goddard is Programmes Manager for Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe.

GALZ, P Bag A6131, Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe (tel/fax +263 4 741 736; email galz@samara.co.zw;http://www.icon.co.za/~stobbs/galz.htm).