Tuesday 23 March 2010

No to homophobia in Africa - Demonstration yesterday in London

Yesterday I stood outside the offices of the Commonwealth in London with Peter Tatchell, the Green Party's Human Rights Spokesperson, and a number of black gays and lesbians, including people from Malawi, Uganda, Nigeria and other African countries, as well as representatives of the UK black LGBT movement. As a gay man myself and the Parliamentary candidate for Vauxhall, I gave the Green Party's full backing to the campaign for the release of the gay couple arrested and currently on trial in Malawi for daring to enter into a marriage ceremony and for the repeal of the colonial era homophobic laws in Malawi.



Human rights are international and the Green Party has always supported the rights of LGBT people internationally and opposed homophobia, in whatever form it takes. All across Africa, LGBT communities are being used as scapegoats and criminalised. As many African speakers said yesterday, it is unbelievable that two men are facing imprisonment for the crime of loving each other. The Green Party calls upon the Commonwealth to act now and for the President and government of Malawi to intervene to release these two gay men and to repeal the homophobic laws in Malawi which date back to the colonial era. I am proud to stand beside LGBT Africans fighting for their rights.
We heard during the demonstration that the trial has been postponed until April. Further details here

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2010/mar/22/malawi-gay-couple-court-case
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous23 March 2010 at 21:04

    Sorry while I sympathise with the issue, I can’t see how the Commonwealth is to blame!

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  2. Joseph25 March 2010 at 09:37

    Malawi and Uganda are both members of the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth has challenged its members before on human rights issues, lack of democracy etc. Here a basic and fundamental human right, recognised under the UN Declaration on Human Rights, is being challenged by two Commonwealth countries. The least the Commonwealth can do is to speak out about it.

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