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Zimbabwe president describes homosexuality as ‘inhuman’

Robert Mugabe made comments during International Women’s Day event

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Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, Gay News, Washington Blade

Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, Gay News, Washington Blade

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. (Photo public domain)


Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Thursday described homosexuality as “inhuman.”

“The West says we must accept there is change in the world, that gays have human rights,” he said during an event at a hotel in Harare, the country’s capital, that commemorated International Women’s Day as the Herald, a Zimbabwean newspaper, reported. “Gays have no human rights. They have human rights – human rights for doing an inhuman thing.”

Mugabe has repeatedly faced criticism from Zimbabwean LGBT rights advocates and others over his homophobic rhetoric.

He told supporters during a rally last July ahead of the African country’s presidential election that authorities should arrest gays and lesbians who don’t conceive children. Mugabe during the same event criticized the Anglican Church for blessing same-sex marriage and President Obama over his support of nuptials for gays and lesbians.

The Zimbabwean president described gays and lesbians who took part in a Harare book fair in 1995 as “dogs and pigs.” Mugabe reportedly said in a speech at a teacher’s college in the city of Masvingo last June that gay men and lesbians “should rot in jail.”

“President Mugabe’s hateful and wholly irresponsible comments about LGBT people in Zimbabwe are highly unfortunate, though not altogether surprising,” Jeffrey Smith of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights told the Washington Blade on Friday, referring to the Zimbabwean president’s latest comments against gays and lesbians. “These comments are consistent with Mugabe’s past statements, describing gays as worse than ‘pigs and dogs.’ For Mugabe to declare gays and lesbians as somehow inhuman, on a day meant to celebrate equality, is horribly ironic and reprehensible.”

The Zimbabwean government has also frequently targeted members of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), a local LGBT advocacy group.

Police in August 2012 arrested more than 40 members of the organization inside their Harare office. GALZ members said authorities confiscated computers and pamphlets from the same office a few days before the arrests.

“We are deeply concerned when security forces become an instrument of political violence used against citizens exercising their democratic rights,” said then-State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland after the incidents. “We call upon the government of Zimbabwe to end this pattern of abuse and to eradicate the culture of impunity that allows members of the security sector to continue to violate the rights of the Zimbabwean people.”

Smith told the Blade that officials stopped a GALZ workshop two weeks ago.

A Zimbabwean LGBT rights advocate with whom the Blade spoke in D.C. in February 2013 said Mugabe and his political party, Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front or ZANU-PF, use homosexuality as “one of their campaign tools.”

Mugabe last July defeated former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in his country’s disputed presidential election.

“They will use this issue to threaten the LGBT people in Zimbabwe,” said the activist who asked the Blade not to publish his name because of potential reprisals against him. “They will do everything in their power to make sure that LGBT people are punished.”

Smith further categorized Mugabe’s crackdown on LGBT rights and homophobic rhetoric as “unacceptable.”

“Mugabe’s brazen disregard for human rights and the principles enshrined in his country’s own constitution is indicative of the wider crisis in Zimbabwe,” Smith told the Blade.”[It] has been exacerbated by his re-election last July, of which many observers – including the U.S. and other world leaders – declared fraudulent and by no means representing the will of the Zimbabwean people.”

Zimbabwe, gay news, Washington Blade

The Zimbabwean Embassy near Dupont Circle in Northwest D.C. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

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District of Columbia

Mayor Bowser signs bill requiring insurers to cover PrEP

‘This is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS’

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D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on March 20 signed a bill approved by the D.C. Council that requires health insurance companies to cover the costs of HIV prevention or PrEP drugs for D.C. residents at risk for HIV infection.

Like all legislation approved by the Council and signed by the mayor, the bill, called the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act, was sent to Capitol Hill for a required 30-day congressional review period before it takes effect as D.C. law.

Gay D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) last year introduced the bill.

Insurance coverage for PrEP drugs has been provided through coverage standards included in the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. But AIDS advocacy organizations have called on states and D.C. to pass their own legislation requiring insurance coverage of PrEP as a safeguard in case federal policies are weakened or removed by the Trump administration, which has already reduced federal funding for HIV/AIDS-related programs.

Like legislation passed by other states, the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act requires insurers to cover all PrEP drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Studies have shown that PrEP drugs, which can be taken as pills or by injection just twice a year, are highly effective in preventing HIV infection.

“I think this is a win for our community,” Parker said after the D.C. Council voted unanimously to approve the bill on its first vote on the measure in February. “And this is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”  

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Hungary

JD Vance to travel to Hungary next week

Country’s elections to take place on April 12

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Vice President JD Vance speaks at CPAC on Feb. 20, 2024. He and his wife, Usha Vance, will travel to Hungary next week. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Vice President JD Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, will visit Hungary next week.

An announcement the White House released on Thursday said the Vances will be in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, from April 7-8.

JD Vance “will hold bilateral meetings with” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The announcement further indicates the vice president “will also deliver remarks on the rich partnership between the United States and Hungary.”

The Vances will travel to Hungary less than a week before the country’s parliamentary elections take place on April 12.

Orbán, who has been in office since 2010, and his Fidesz-KDNP coalition government have faced widespread criticism over its anti-LGBTQ crackdown.

The Associated Press notes polls indicate Orbán is trailing Péter Magyar and his center-right Tisza party.

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The White House

Pam Bondi ousted as attorney general

Donald Trump announced firing on Thursday

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Now former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

President Donald Trump removed Attorney General Pam Bondi from her post Thursday, following growing criticism over how she and the Department of Justice handled a range of issues, including matters related to sex offender and Trump ally Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump announced Bondi’s removal on Truth Social, where he also said Todd Blanche will serve as acting head of the Justice Department.

“Pam Bondi is a great American patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my attorney general over the past year,” Trump wrote on the platform. “Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown on crime across our country, with murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900.”

Trump was seen as recently as Wednesday with the now-former attorney general at a Supreme Court hearing on citizenship.

The decision contrasts with Trump’s previous public praise of Bondi, the 87th U.S. attorney general and former 37th attorney general of Florida, who served in that role from 2011-2019 before joining the Trump-Vance administration. He has frequently lauded her loyalty and said he speaks with her often. Bondi was also one of president’s defense lawyers during his first impeachment trial.

Privately, however, Trump had grown frustrated that Bondi was not “moving quickly enough” to prosecute critics and political adversaries he wanted to face criminal charges, according to multiple sources. The New York Times reported that her inability to charge former FBI Director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James with any crimes is a large factor in the president’s choice to fire her from the government’s primary law enforcement agency.

The move comes as Trump has sought to minimize public turmoil within his administration, avoiding the perception of a revolving-door Cabinet that defined his first term.

Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York who unsuccessfully ran for governor, has emerged as a leading contender to lead the Justice Department. He has been one of Trump’s most reliable allies.

“He’s our secret weapon,” Trump said of Zeldin in February during a White House event promoting the coal industry, adding, “He’s getting those approvals done in record-setting time.”

Bondi has also growing faced scrutiny from Congress.

The House Oversight Committee recently subpoenaed her to testify about the department’s handling of certain files, where she declined to answer key questions during a contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing in February.

The Tampa native has a long history of opposing LGBTQ rights through her roles in government. As Florida attorney general, she fought against the legalization of same-sex marriage, arguing it would cause “serious public harm,” pushing forward a legal battle that cost taxpayers nearly half a million dollars. She also asked the Florida Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that found the state’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.

More recently, Bondi established a “Title IX Special Investigations Team” within the Justice Department focused on restricting transgender women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports teams and accessing facilities aligned with their gender identity. She also told Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to turn over the medical records of anyone under 19 who received gender-affirming care.

Her removal follows Trump’s decision last month to oust another controversial female Cabinet figure, Kristi Noem.

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