Zim LGBTQ Community Suffer From Conversion Therapy
Staff Reporter
CONVERSION Therapy is forced upon members of the Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community community in Zimbabwe, a practice that has been outlawed elsewhere.
According to Human Rights Watch, “reparative" or "conversion" therapy is a dangerous practice that targets LGBTQ youth, seeking to change their sexual or gender identities.
It says such a practice has been rejected by mainstream medical and mental health organizations for decades, and the therapy can lead to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness, and suicide.
In Zimbabwe, the practice persists according to a report on Zimbabwe’s third universal periodic review 40th session.
“Discrimination in religious spaces based on LGBTI status is quite rife with conversion therapy and incidences of corrective rape from religious leaders. The country is rife with forced marriages, child-bearing as a form of corrective therapy,12 and overwhelming pressure from the nuclear and extended family for LGBTI persons to marry, cohabit with a partner of the opposite sex or enter a heterosexual union,” the report said.
It said LGBTI-identifying persons have also been discriminated against when it comes to child adoption. Section 59(1)(v) of the Children’s Act says a person cannot adopt a child with a sex that is opposite to theirs unless they do so jointly. with their spouse.
The provision eliminates LGBTI people from the process of adoption on the basis that same-sex marriages are prohibited under the constitution.
“Furthermore, lesbian and bisexual women with children are often seen as unfit parents by family members and society because of their sexual orientation and may end up losing custody of their children to family members as a result,” the report said.
“Gender markers are binary and do not accommodate intersex identities of people who do not identify with state prescribed binary gender markers (M or F). Transgender and Intersex
persons have trouble accessing any government initiatives and programs that require producing legal documentation e.g., voting during the electoral process and the currently ongoing
COVID-19 Vaccination program. Lack of ability to change gender markers also leaves transgender individuals vulnerable to accusations of same sex relationships, which are currently illegal.”
The report said numerous LGBTI persons have lost their jobs or been forced to resign due to an extremely hostile environment as a result of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“Public sector employment prioritizes marriages and preferentially rewards employees who are married. Openly gay employees are faced with unabated homophobia and death threats to a point where
they are forced to resign. According to GALZ an association of LGBTI persons in Zimbabwe, LGBTI persons often left school at an early age due to discrimination. Higher-education institutions threaten to expel students based on their sexual orientation,” it added.
According to a 2018 survey by the Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) survey, 64 percent of gay men and 27 percent of lesbian women in Zimbabwe had been disowned by their families. It said 50 percent of gay men in Zimbabwe have been physically assaulted.