Gay taunt causes uproar in Zimbabwe parliament

Gay taunt causes uproar in Zimbabwe parliament

The Associated Press
Thursday, December 7, 2006

HARARE, Zimbabwe

A Zimbabwean Parliament session during which neighboring South Africa's gay marriage law was discussed erupted when an opposition lawmaker accused some top government leaders of being homosexuals.

Movement for Democratic Change lawmaker Moses Mzila-Ndlovu did not name any government leaders and later "apologized in the interests of progress" during Wednesday's debate, officials said Thursday.

Homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe, but the government stays out of South Africa's affairs, the official media reported Thursday.

"In Zimbabwe, we are very clear that men marry women and women get married to men. In Zimbabwe we prohibit marriages of similar sexes," acting leader of the ruling party in Parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, told lawmakers, the government controlled media said.

"We have no duty to criticize laws passed by another parliament," Mnangagwa said.

Zimbabwe's longtime ruler President Robert Mugabe once described homosexuals as "lower than pigs and dogs," a common sentiment in conservative Africa.

South Africa last month became the first country in Africa, and only the fifth in the world, to legalize same sex marriages. Homosexuality is illegal in most sub-Saharan countries. Gays and lesbians are often attacked even in South Africa, where the post-apartheid constitution banned discrimination for any reason, including sexual orientation.