Roughly 150 people attended an LGBT
Pride parade on Saturday in Namibia's capital Windhoek.
According to the
AFP, the activists marched down the city's main thoroughfare,
Independence Avenue, calling on lawmakers to advance legal
protections for the African nation's LGBT community.
In what is believed to be Windhock's
first gay pride march, demonstrators waved rainbow flags and chanted
“we are one.”
Police escorted the activists as they
marched, but no incidents were reported with the exception of an
occasional derogatory comment.
Though laws against it are rarely
enforced, sodomy is illegal in Namibia. According to several
sources, the law has never been enforced, though it remains on the
books.
Friedel Dausab, director of Out-Right
Namibia, a group which supports LGBT rights, explained that activists
were not asking for same-sex marriage.
“The request is not for marriage.
The request is not for a structure that mirrors the heterosexual
unions. The request is for some legal protection to couples that
live together and have a joint estate for a long time,” Dausab
said.
Other protests calling for greater
rights for the LGBT community have previously taken place in other
Namibian towns.
The southern African nation shares a
border with South Africa, the only independent African nation where
gay and lesbian couples can marry.