SOME parliamentarians believe Zimbabwe must not grant members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) community freedom to openly exercise their sexual rights.
This came out during a recent sensitisation workshop on sexual reproductive health rights organised by Katswe Sistahood.
Bikita South legislator and chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Energy Mutodi was one of the vocal parliamentarians against LGBTQI sexual rights.
“This is for the simple reason that we are very much interested in the continued existence of the human race,” Mutodi said. “It’s something that the society is trying to understand, but we are saying we don’t want our people practising homosexuality.”
Hurungwe East legislator Chenjerai Kangausaru weighed in saying they will oppose any legislation that supports same sex marriages.
“God created Adam and Eve and didn’t create Adam and Adam. There are certain rights that are against what God created, so we will not stand one day and pass a law that allows same sex marriages,” Kangausaru said.
“We do not want to find ourselves in trouble the same way the people in the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah found themselves in. We will strongly act against it.”
Midlands proportional representation legislator Tsitsi Zhou (Zanu PF) said: “If you look at the country’s demography, the youths have a dominant population and, therefore, when we meet we should avoid discussing such issues that are against our country’s Constitution in case we give them ideas.
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“As legislators we are here to hear the challenges our children are going through and to protect them, but never in any instance will we encourage them to engage in such acts. They should remove it from their minds.”
The late former President Robert Mugabe was known to be homophobic and hostile to the lesbian and gay community.
In 2006, the country under the Criminal Law Act 2006, criminalised gay acts.
Other countries in sub-Saharan Africa have joined the anti-gay train with Ugandan President Yoweni Museveni passing the Anti-Homosexuality Act which imposes death sentence as punishment for aggravated homosexual acts.
