Zimbabwe Says, 'We Can Imprison Gay People Too!'

Not to be one-upped by Malawi — which made headlines around the world last week when a gay man and transgender woman were sentenced to 14 years in prison — Zimbabwe has now arrested two leaders of an LGBT-rights group and charged them with possessing pornography and insulting President Robert Mugabe (left).

Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Muhambi, leaders of the group Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, were arrested last week and are now seeking to post bail and be freed. Their attorney says they were beaten with glass bottles by police while in custody (when they entered the courtroom this week, they were limping).

Bobby Mugabe is one of the most brutal leaders on the planet, and he just won't seem to go away. As Michael Jones has written on the Human Rights blog, Mugabe says LGBT people are "lower than pigs or dogs" and in March said the concept of LGBT rights is "insanity."

What strikes me an insane is the idea of imprisoning people for their sexual preference. More than 3,000 Change.org readers have called on Malawi to free Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, and by making a thinly veiled attack on gay rights, Zimbabwe is setting itself up as another target.

It is, of course, important and necessary to take action online in these cases. But it isn't enough to simply fight these laws one case at a time.

Since the people of Zimbabwe can't fight their own laws (after all, even a supposed letter criticizing Mugabe is enough to get activists jailed), it will take the action of world leaders like Barack Obama to set Zimbabwe straight on LGBT rights. The White House made a good start in this direction after the Malawi sentence was handed down last week, issuing a statement that read, in part: "We urge Malawi and all countries to stop using sexual orientation or gender identity as the basis for arrest, detention, or execution."

Even Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who met with Obama last year and heads the country's opposition group, is echoing Mugabe's anti-gay views. We need our leaders to stand behind the rhetoric that the White House offered last week in response to the terrible news from Malawi — for example, by leading the way and ensuring full equal rights for LGBT people in our country. Politicians like Mugabe are on the wrong side of history.

Photo Credit: Tech. Sgt. Jeremy Lock (USAF)