To be gay

By Marifi Jara

QUELIMANE, Mozambique–Africa is a difficult place to be gay.

Not gay as in happy, but gay as in gender gay.

South Africa, host of the recently-concluded 2010 FIFA World Cup games and long been the continent’s poster child for progress, where same-sex marriage is legal is the exception.

Most elsewhere, homosexuality is by and large taboo and it is actually illegal to be gay in some countries.

One example is Malawi, a country made popular in recent pop history by Madonna for her controversial adoption of a child there and then an attempt for a second one.

A Malawian gay couple who celebrated their engagement were sentenced to 14 years in jail in December last year. They have recently been given Presidential pardon during a visit (where surely some pressure was put on) by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. But their pardon and release does not mean they could now carry on with their relationship. The government has given direct warning that if they do so, they could again be arrested. And the consequences could prove to be graver.

Tension over gay rights has also been high in Kenya, a country that was in the limelight for a while for being the home country of US President Barack Obama’s father, as well as in its neighbor Uganda, where there have been discussions in fact about extending the law to include the death penalty for some gay people.

Even here in Mozambique, which generally has a culturally liberated society, gays are not really out in the open.

It’s not like back in the Philippines where, despite strong contradictions from religious sectors, Ang Ladlad — a national gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) group — has been accredited as a party-list group. Even if they did not win a seat in the last election, they at least have finally gotten due recognition. And we have many respected professionals who are open about their sexual orientation, including in the academe, the arts, fashion, and of course showbusiness. And we do have all those gay competitions, some even at the intimate barangay level, which goes to show how high our tolerance level is even for the more flamboyant clusters of the gay community.

Sure there is still prejudice, but I would like to believe that this would mostly be coming from the small-minded machos in our society who perhaps feel that their masculinity is threatened by LGBTs. Heckling still happens in public places but serious persecution or hate crimes arising from homophobia are hardly heard of.

And it is very welcome news when we have a city like Dagupan that sets an example by passing a local law protecting and ensuring the rights of LGBTs.

At the end of the day, regardless of gender, we are bound by the one thing we share in common: our humanity. We are all human — and we all feel pain, make mistakes, could be productive members of society, seek happiness, and most of all, capable of love.

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