Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has
rejected a call to protect gay men and lesbians in a constitution
being drawn up under a power-sharing deal, the BBC reported.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
agreed.
The two leaders made their comments at
a Women's Day celebration in Chitungwiza.
“Those who engage in homosexual
behavior are just crazy,” Mugabe said. “It's just madness.
Insanity. We can't do it or the dead will turn in their graves.”
Mugabe said a family consisted of a
“father, mother and children.” “If you are doing that [being
gay], you are destroying nationhood.”
“I totally agree with the president,”
Tsvangirai said.
“Women make up 52% of the population
… There are more women than men, so why should men be proposing to
men?”
The two men agreed to a power-sharing
government a year ago and Zimbabwe will begin work on a new
constitution in April.
The group Gays And Lesbians of Zimbabwe
(GALZ) has confirmed it will submit a gay protections measure to the
constitutional review commission.
Being gay is illegal in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe once created an uproar when he called gay people “lower than
pigs and dogs.”
Anti-gay sentiment in Africa is common.
Ugandan lawmakers are considering a bill that would ratchet up the
penalties for being gay in a county where it is already illegal. The
new bill proposes the death penalty under some circumstances. A gay
couple in Malawi have been jailed for holding a party to celebrate
their engagement.