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The only thing stopping homophobic Zimbabweans from oppressing the LGBTQIA+ community at home is a lack of power. We’re all claiming that #ZimbabweanslivesMatter is about defending the human rights of all of us, but hypocrisy is heavy in the air. Let’s unpack.
Homophobia (really, queerphobia) & transphobia is kind of a required character trait in the faux-conservative Zim mainstream. We’ve done an incredible job of conditioning generation after generation to believe being anti-gay is “who we are” & “part of our culture”. We are wrong.
Homophobic Zimbabweans, & the “neutral” ones (aka: also homophobic) don’t want to sit with the fact that their (mis)beliefs are by-products of colonial Christianity.
When we gained independence, hating LGBTQ+ people was packaged as part of the nation’s core values and morals-
When we gained independence, hating LGBTQ+ people was packaged as part of the nation’s core values and morals-
-through political opportunism. Robert Mugabe established the idea that being ‘gay’ (in Zim, an umbrella term for LGBTQIA+) was not only immoral, but dirty. Inso doing, he redefined homophobia as a given in considering what being a “good” Zimbabwean means.
#ZimbabweanLivesMatter
#ZimbabweanLivesMatter
And yet, aspects of Zimbabwean languages and histories (even a few of our rock paintings) prove we did recognize gay, queer and trans rights in the past, then deviated into requiring heteronormativity. https://www.gaychristianafrica.org/homosexuality-in-zimbabwe-a-reality/">https://www.gaychristianafrica.org/homosexua...
But in school, we weren’t taught in completion and without bias about our precolonial sexual histories. Or the roots of genderlessness in our languages. Instead we learned homophobia there, at church, and on primetime ZBC.
#ZimbabweanLivesMatter
#ZimbabweanLivesMatter
Learning through diverse mediums that homophobia was a core part of the Zimbabwean lived experience refracted who I grew to be.
But even before I accepted my sexual orientation and gender, I realized human rights applied to me because I was human at least.
But even before I accepted my sexual orientation and gender, I realized human rights applied to me because I was human at least.
Those speaking out that #ZimbabweanLivesMatter recognize that ZANU’s influence is so far reaching, the entire regime must topple for change to be possible. Yet some Zimbabweans in the movement choose to keep believing that human rights must only be selectively recognized.
Any social justice movement should compel people within it to ask themselves how they‘ve individually contributed to denying another person a better quality of life. Being homophobic now is dismissive of this responsibility. And if you are, you are agreeing with ZANU. https://twitter.com/tinashete/status/1290394794259251201">https://twitter.com/tinashete...
You don’t need a niche education, a privileged background or a gay best friend to begin realizing and accepting that humanity experiences attraction, gender, love and sex through many different windows. You don’t need anything to just let people live their truth.
This thread is for everyone but primarily it is for the Zimbabwean LGBTQIA+ community to keep internalizing that they (we) have a right to exist as ourselves freely in the country we call home.
#ZimbabweanLivesMatter
#ZimbabweanLivesMatter
I don’t respect English and I accept my typos, thx.
