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Joy and Pride as Botswana Decriminalizes Gay Sex in a Historic Judgment for a former British Colony in Africa: WATCH

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Activists celebrate outside the High Court in Gaborone, Botswana, Tuesday June 11, 2019. (Photo: AP)

“A democratic society is one that embraces tolerance, diversity and open-mindedness,” Justice Michael Leburu of the Botswanan Gaborone high court said, noting that discriminatory law not only serves as a detriment to LGBTQ people, but holds back all of society. “Societal inclusion is central to ending poverty and fostering shared prosperity,” he said.

South Africa’s edition of The Globe & Mail said that in what was a victory for queer people in Botswana, the Gaborone high court on Tuesday ruled sections of Botswana’s Penal Code which criminalizes same-sex sexual conduct unconstitutional.

The court, however, ruled these provisions “discriminatory because they take away the only means of sexual expression of the applicant.” Thus also recognizing an LGBT identity as a valid one.

According to Christian Science Monitor, judge Michael Leburu said that it is “not in the public interest” to criminalize same sex sexual conduct.  “What compelling public interest is there necessitating such a law? There is no victim.”

“The state cannot be sheriff in people’s bedrooms.”

A Human Rights Watch report written by Alok Gupta, titled This Alien Legacy — The Origins of “Sodomy” Laws in British Colonialism, found that Section 377 was “a model law” introduced by the British in 1861 and then exported to its other colonies.

The report argued that many of the countries that outlaw same-sex relations do so “because they once were British colonies”.

“They brought in the legislation … because they thought ‘native’ cultures did not punish ‘perverse’ sex enough. Section 377 was … a colonial attempt to set standards of behaviour, both to reform the colonised and to protect the colonisers against moral lapses. It was also the first colonial ‘sodomy law’ integrated into a penal code… Its influence stretched across Asia, the Pacific Islands and Africa — almost everywhere the British imperial flag flew.” 

The list of African countries that inherited versions of this law is expansive: Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Swaziland, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Africa’s Globe & Mail

Botswana’s ruling comes just a month after Kenya’s high court upheld its laws criminalizing homosexuality.

USA Today reported:

The Botswana-based non-governmental group LEGABIBO, which supported the anonymous petitioner in the case, has said such laws “infringe on basic human dignity.”

People in the courtroom were ecstatic, leaping up, clapping and ululating, LEGABIBO legal policy director Caine Youngman told The Associated Press. When the judges said the right to privacy includes the right to choose a partner, “it hit home,” he said.

“I’m a gay man. I’ve been out for many years. Now I can live with my partner without worry,” Youngman said. He said the state might appeal “to appease the homophobes” and has 30 working days to do so.

USA Today

“It is a day to celebrate pride, compassion and love,” UNAIDS executive director Gunilla Carlsson said in a statement after Tuesday’s ruling. Prohibitive legal environments increase the vulnerability of gay men, transgender women and others to HIV, the statement said.

“Sexual orientation is innate to human beings and is not a fashion statement,” the court stated. “Homosexuality is not unAfrican, but it is one other way Africans identify but have been repressed for many years.”

Word.

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