GALZ An Association of LGBTI People in Zimbabwe (formerly Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe) is an organisation established in 1990 in

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

to serve the needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (

LGBTI Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (such as genitals, gonads, and chromosome patterns) that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". They are substantially more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexua ...

) community in

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

. GALZ's vision is "a just society that promotes and protects human rights of LGBTI people as equal citizens in Zimbabwe".African Book Collective
GALZ is the largest organisation in the country specifically working to promote, represent and protect the rights of the LGBTI community. It networks extensively with other human-rights

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

s and regional associates, and has been involved in a number of high-profile campaigns. The organisation runs a resource centre in Harare which provides professional counselling, entertainment and educational activities for members, and is involved in campaigning on broader issues such as access to HIV treatment.Sex Rights Africa
/ref> It does its work against a background of persecution and repression of gays and lesbians in Zimbabwe: historically, the State, the President, and church leaders have encouraged homophobia, and there is a general lack of societal tolerance for sexual or gender difference.

History

After Zimbabwean independence in 1980, a gay and lesbian social scene grew up in the larger cities. By the late 1980s, a need was felt for a formal organization, and GALZ was launched in September 1990. Initially, GALZ had around 70 members, which grew to around 500 in 2000. In recent years, however, numbers have fallen, with many members seeking asylum in less repressive countries. Membership initially also consisted largely of male, white or mixed-race middle-class professionals, but since then the association has grown to represent the broader LGBTI community. alz.org GALZ website/ref> At first, GALZ was primarily Harare-based – in 2004, more than half of the members came from Harare or neighbouring

Chitungwiza Chitungwiza is the third populous urban centre in Zimbabwe and town of Harare Province in Zimbabwe. It is located on the outskirts of Harare. History As of the 2022 census, Chitungwiza had a population of 371,244. There are two main highwa ...

. The Affinity Group Programme was set up in 2002 for members living outside Harare, who had previously not been able to take full advantage of GALZ services and resources. Membership has subsequently grown significantly in ten other urban areas, including

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; ) is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council claimed it to be about ...

Chipinge Chipinge, formerly known as Chipinga, is a town in Zimbabwe, located in Chipinge District, in Manicaland Province, in southeastern Zimbabwe, close to the border with Mozambique. Location The town lies approximately , by road, south of Mutare ...

Marondera Marondera, originally known as Marandellas, is a capital city of Mashonaland East, Zimbabwe, located about east of Harare. History It was first known as Marandella's Kraal, corrupted from Marondera, chief of the ruling VaRozvi people who li ...

Masvingo Masvingo, known as Fort Victoria during the colonial period, is a city in southeastern Zimbabwe and the capital of Masvingo Province. The city lies close to Great Zimbabwe, the national monument from which the country takes its name and clos ...

Mutare Mutare, formerly known as Umtali until 1982, is the capital and largest city in the province of Manicaland. It is the third most populated in Zimbabwe. Having surpassed Gweru in the 2012 census, with an urban area, urban population of 224,802 ...

, Penhalonga and

Victoria Falls Victoria Falls (Lozi language, Lozi: ''Mosi-oa-Tunya'', "Thundering Smoke/Smoke that Rises"; Tonga language (Zambia and Zimbabwe), Tonga: ''Shungu Namutitima'', "Boiling Water") is a waterfall on the Zambezi River, located on the border betwe ...

. In these regional groups, the programme offers hands-on experience in proposal writing, financial management and report writing. Training in strategic planning and organisational development is provided through an annual conference (AGM). GALZ has permanent resource centres in Bulawayo, Masvingo and Mutare. GALZ has strengthened its position with its support for more mainstream Zimbabwean human-rights campaigns. In 1998, it joined the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a coalition of civic groups and individuals pushing for a new national constitution. Also in 1998, GALZ joined other groups on a march through central Harare on

International Human Rights Day Human Rights Day (HRD) is celebrated annually around the world on 10 December every year. The date was chosen to honor the United Nations General Assembly's adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Huma ...

– even though the police had refused to provide protection if GALZ took part. The association also established links with Padare/Enkundleni, a men's gender forum supporting women in the struggle against gender violence. In 1999, GALZ became one of the founder members of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, set up to assist victims of torture and report on State human rights violations, and is also a member of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition. GALZ is part of a network of regional organisations in southern and eastern Africa. According to their website, "GALZ has played a significant role in the struggle for LGBTI emancipation in Africa by showing others on the continent that it is indeed possible for lesbian and gay people to organise openly in hostile, homophobic climates." GALZ, along with 21 other groups from 17 African countries, was involved in the All Africa Rights Initiative, launched in Johannesburg in 2004, at the first All Africa Symposium on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights. GALZ has particularly strong links with groups in South Africa: a founding member of the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality, GALZ also works with Behind the Mask and the Gay and Lesbian Archives). GALZ has also collaborated frequently with two Namibian groups, The Rainbow Project and Sister Namibia. GALZ also has a relationship with LEGABIBO in Botswana. GALZ is part of a pan-African consortium of 10 organisations serving sexual minorities and marginalized groups known as the Love Alliance, which was set up with the support of AIDSfonds and the Embassy of Netherlands. In the area of HIV/AIDS, GALZ has a longstanding relationship with the Triangle Project and the

Treatment Action Campaign The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is a South African HIV/AIDS activist organisation which was co-founded by the HIV-positive activist Zackie Achmat in 1998. TAC is rooted in the experiences, direct action tactics and anti-apartheid backgro ...

(TAC) in South Africa, and is involved in the Pan African Treatment Action Campaign. GALZ is also a partner in the Sex Rights African Network. GALZ is also a subgrantee of the Global Fund, where it implements activities in partnership with the National AIDS Council. GALZ was part of the organisations that contributed to the development and publishing of the Ministry of Health (MoHCC)'s Manual for Key Populations. Key Populations is a collective label given by UNAIDS to marginalized groups left out in the initial HIV/AIDS response of the 90s and 2000s. These groups include adolescent women and young girls (AWYG), men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender persons, women who have sex with women (WSW), sex workers, people who use/inject drugs and prisoners.

The Zimbabwe International Book Fair controversy

Zimbabwean President

Robert Mugabe Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of th ...

received worldwide criticism for homophobic comments he made after seeing the GALZ stall at the 1995 International Book Fair in Harare. He said: Two weeks later, at Zimbabwe's annual independence celebrations, Mugabe proclaimed: President Mugabe went on to increase the

political repression Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereby ...

of homosexuals. GALZ itself became the target of infiltration by government spies and extortion attempts. LGBT people were repeatedly bribed, detained, killed, beaten and sometimes raped by the authorities. The

Central Intelligence Organisation The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is the national intelligence agency of Zimbabwe. It was conceived as the external intelligence-gathering arm of the British South Africa Police Special Branch in the early 1960s, under the Southern Rh ...

was reportedly used to beat and arrest homosexuals. The Book Fair controversy proved something of a turning point for the gay and lesbian rights movement in the country. As GALZ states on its website, "The lesbian and gay issue was the real litmus test for the deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe … not until 1995 did it finally become accepted that the ruling party (ZANU-PF) was prepared to use whites, gays and any other stigmatised minority as political scapegoats and target all perceived enemies who posed a threat to its power base.” Ultimately, the controversy alerted international rights organisations such as

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

to the dire situation for sexual minorities in Zimbabwe. Amnesty condemned Zimbabwe's state homophobia and began letter-writing campaigns in support of LGBTI rights in the country. In 1996, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission ( IGLHRC) also began to support GALZ’ struggle. GALZ is now a member of the International Lesbian and Gay Association ( ILGA), and has an ongoing relationship with Amnesty International: in 1996, GALZ activist Pollyanna Mangwiro became the first lesbian activist to be adopted as an Amnesty International Human Rights Defender. In 1996 and 1997, GALZ attracted funding from

HIVOS Hivos (, Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation) is an international cooperation organization, with its global office in The Hague, The Netherlands. Hivos provides support to civil society organizations working in Africa, Latin America, th ...

and the Southern African AIDS Trust (SAT), which enabled the association to establish offices. In 1998, the Ecumenical Support Services, IGLHRC and Amnesty assisted GALZ in its participation in the 8th Summit of the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodo ...

in Harare. In 2005, GALZ was awarded the IGLHRC Felipa Award for its activities. After Robert Mugabe's forced removal from the presidency in November 2017,

Emmerson Mnangagwa Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa ( , ; born 15 September 1942) is a Zimbabwean politician who has served as the president of Zimbabwe since 2017. A member of ZANU–PF and a longtime ally of former president Robert Mugabe, he held a series of cabin ...

was declared President of Zimbabwe. There were hopes that Mnangagwa would reverse Zimbabwe's decades-long persecution of LGBT people. In January 2018, Mnangagwa addressed the issue for the first time, saying: "Those people who want it ame-sex marriageare the people who should canvass for it, but it's not my duty to campaign for this".Zim's President Mnangagwa slams door on same-sex marriage
''Mambaonline'', 26 January 2018 In June, the

Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia ...

(ZANU-PF), the ruling political party, met with LGBT activists to discuss the situation of LGBT rights in Zimbabwe and to "improve the lives of LGBT people through local governance". Chester Samba, director of GALZ, said: "As an initial meeting it was great that they responded positively and somewhat surprising as this marked a departure from the previous leadership which did not engage with us. A willingness to engage is indeed an important shift."Zimbabwe , New hope as ruling party meets with LGBTI community
''Mambaonline'', 25 June 2018 GALZ launched its 2021-25 Strategic Plan under the theme 'Lead With Love'. This plan sets in motion the organisation's plans for movement-building, bolstering of health interventions, media strategy as well as legal and advocacy strategy within the wider Human Rights movement.

Publications

The GALZ Information and Communications Department disseminates information to members and the broader public: *''Sahwira: Being Gay and Lesbian in Zimbabwe'' is a collection of coming-out stories in English, Shona and Ndebele (GALZ, Harare 1995, second edition, 2000). *''An Operational Manual for Gay and Lesbian Organising in Africa'' consists of PowerPoint slides on how to set up and manage an LGBTI organisation (GALZ, Harare, 2004). * GALZ contributed the forward and other sections to ''The All-Africa Symposium on HIV/AIDS & Human Rights Report'' (2004). * ''Understanding Human Sexuality and Gender'' (GALZ, Harare, 2005) * In 2003, GALZ assisted IGLHRC and

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

in compiling a report, ''More than a Name: State Sponsored Homophobia and Its Consequences in Southern Africa'' * ''Unspoken Facts, A History of Homosexualities in Africa'' * A quarterly magazine, the ''Galzette'', as well as a regular newsletter, ORDAA!

Awards and recognition

GALZ has twice won the

Felipa de Souza Award Outright International (Outright) is an LGBTIQ human rights non-governmental organization that addresses human rights violations and abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. OutRight International documents human ri ...

for its promotion of human rights. It won the award in 2005 and again in 2015.

References

External links

Official website