Being Positive about AIDS in Zimbabwe

by Keith Goddard

The Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) began in 1990 with two major objectives: to provide social services to the lesbian and gay community in the country, as well as counselling around HIV/AIDS. It was one of the first groups in Zimbabwe to acknowledge the threat of AIDS at a time when there was almost total denial in official circles.

Today GALZ has a fully-fledged health programme run from its new Health Centre. The centre coordinates counselling services in Bulawayo and Harare and provides safer-sex workshops and information on HIV/AIDS to members and their friends. GALZ Positive, which was launched in 1997, provides for around 20 people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as those affected by the virus through infected relatives and close friends.

All of us wish for a world free of AIDS, but in strange ways the disease has helped GALZ in its efforts to “normalize” the position of sexual minorities in society. For example, GALZ was working during 1999 to include a sexual orientation clause in a proposed new national constitution for Zimbabwe. The government asked a 400-member commission to collect testimony from citizens regarding all constitutional issues. Although GALZ lobbied for inclusion of a sexual orientation clause, the commission avoided the issue by incorporating the catch-all phrase “natural status or condition” in its proposed bill of rights, which was promoted as covering people living with HIV/AIDS.

The GALZ Safer-Sex Programme began as a way of providing raw facts about the use of condoms, dental dams and water-based lubricants, and the relative risk factors of sexual behaviours. After some time, the programme became a forum for people to begin discussing how to negotiate sex within relationships. Meeting to learn about HIV/AIDS provided gay men in particular with the means to open up sexually about themselves to others and to learn about sexual responsibility in general. One of the most discussed topics has been the problem of one partner wanting to dispense with condoms within a relationship.

Recently, the GALZ gardener complained about finding used condoms on GALZ premises after parties. Naturally the administration took action but as Romeo Tshuma, the GALZ Health Officer pointed out, “People may be careless and unthinking but at least we have got the message through that condoms are necessary.” GALZ is about to install a condom machine and a waste bin for used products on its premises.

Despite the popular belief in Africa that AIDS is a heterosexual disease, it is widespread in the gay and lesbian community as well. The care and support that GALZ Positive and the GALZ Chengetanai Queens Club have provided to sick members and their families have often resulted in affected families becoming more accepting of sexual differences. The following story tells how HIV can often bring out the best in us.

A few years ago Noah, a member of GALZ Positive, died. Before his death, Noah’s family had accused GALZ of turning their son into a homosexual and giving him the HIV virus. At times, they refused to let visitors from GALZ Positive see and care for him. Undaunted, GALZ Positive provided a wheelchair and access to a doctor while he was alive. When Noah died, GALZ paid for the coffin. At his funeral, GALZ members fulfilled most of the domestic duties generally assigned to women in this country, including all the cooking, cleaning and serving food.

During the funeral Noah’s father, near tears, publicly acknowledged the contributions of Noah’s gay friends. He said this had made him realize just how caring gay people could be. Even the church pastor, known for his disapproval of homosexuals, could not help but be impressed by the efforts of GALZ Positive. At the close of the funeral, Noah’s clothes were distributed to members of his family: some of the clothes were also given to Noah’s “gay family,” a profound symbol of acceptance and recognition within Shona culture.

In a completely different scenario, the Zimbabwe National Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS (ZNNP+) refused to allow GALZ to join the network on the grounds that homosexuality was an “evil” that was contrary to “traditional culture and values.” In addition, GALZ was told that its members had AIDS because they were gay.

After a long struggle, GALZ Positive was eventually admitted to ZNNP+ in 1999. Even on the day of the first meeting it attended, GALZ received an anonymous phone call asking it to “stay away.”

Not only did the GALZ representative, Peter, attend the meeting but he was voted youth leader for the network. In a few short hours, Peter had put a face on gay issues and had dispelled fears that GALZ would monopolize the organization and divert funding. Peter proved to be not only a reasonable and patient person but a great asset to the group, especially when it came to matters of disclosure. He had already “come out” as a gay man and was now out to his family as a man living positively with HIV. GALZ makes a point of joining all protests and actions that are in solidarity with people living with HIV/AIDS. This sense of concern for others, regardless of their sexuality, has not gone unnoticed.

GALZ also organized the Skills Clinic in Cape Town (South Africa), which involved seven African countries. The manual from the meeting broke new ground by moving beyond issues of sexual identity, concentrating instead on sexual behaviours. The module cuts across labels of “heterosexual” and “homosexual,” and will be useful to all sexually active people regardless of their sexual orientation. The module is to be distributed throughout the Southern African region, and will do much to educate people about the nature of human sexuality and problems of disclosure.

There are three full-time volunteers at the GALZ Health Centre, who follow the regime of healthy and positive living with HIV. They have become role models for others in the community in their bravery and determination to survive. The virus has altered their lives and their attitudes to life.

In September 2000 the GALZ Health Officer, Romeo Tshuma, took the proactive approach of passing on to local health clinics and police stations HIV/AIDS posters sent to us by well-wishers. Many of the posters are colourful with suitably positive messages. The posters have been put up—and have remained—on many clinic and police station walls. 

Since 1994, GALZ has found it difficult to keep in touch with its community by using public media. In 1994, the state-controlled Herald newspaper refused to run an advertisement for the GALZ counselling service on the grounds that it was a contact advertisement for sex. In March 1999, with the advent of the popular independent The Daily News, GALZ finally managed to advertise regularly in a daily newspaper. Since then, an average of one person every weekday has been joining the organization.

During September 2000 in a surprise move, the Herald contacted GALZ and asked if the organization would consider running an advert. Although GALZ declined, the incident showed how far GALZ had come in its struggle to convince the state that its existence in society was genuine and useful.

GALZ has done much to break down the prevailing attitude of Africa, as a dark continent of disaster with one mainstream sexual orientation. GALZ represents cultural diversity and is responsible for the appearance in public of black lesbian and gay men, who are also open about their HIV status. This stance has been commended by many. The organization is now moving beyond the single track of fighting for lesbian and gay rights. The former GALZ slogan of “Gay Rights are Human Rights” has now been replaced by “Sexual Rights Are Human Rights,” and this message is reflected in all GALZ advertising.

HIV/AIDS has dramatized problems of poverty and access to health care, but nowhere has this drama been more obvious than in the area of sexuality. HIV/AIDS has helped us reflect upon ourselves and our use of the terms “lesbian” and “gay” in Africa. Within the context of the disease, GALZ now believes much more in the right to sexual autonomy regardless of one’s sexual identity. There are few differences between heterosexuals and homosexuals when it comes to the enjoyment of sex, and these old divisions seem less and less important as we continue the battle against HIV/AIDS.

In a recent cultural exchange programme between GALZ and organizations from other parts of Africa, the common language was not “sexual identity” as one might have expected, but that of HIV/AIDS. 

As for the future, GALZ intends to take the lead regarding the sexuality of young people. This is an area that in the past would have been considered dangerous for the gay and lesbian lobby, given the prevailing attitude that all homosexuals are child molesters. GALZ is promoting the production of a manual on sexuality and young people, which would move beyond the limited sex education approach that concentrates on danger, disease, predatory uncles, sugar daddies and mummies, pregnancy and death.

GALZ will be collaborating with organizations working to stop sexual abuse of children. That GALZ is one of the first to raise this issue, and has the power to stimulate nation-wide discussion because of its reputation for controversy, is neither here nor there. HIV/AIDS has given GALZ the opportunity to put forth the issue of sexuality, which will go a long way toward helping young people in Africa protect themselves and come to a better understanding of themselves as sexual beings.

Lesbians and gay men in the United States and Europe showed their capacity to reinvent themselves in light of the AIDS epidemic. The services and support that the gay and lesbian communities set up for themselves have served as models throughout the world even though, as in Zimbabwe, this is not widely recognized or acknowledged. This pioneering spirit and capacity for invention in the face of crisis is no different when it comes to Africa. The gay community in the United States did not give up when the HIV virus first appeared, despite official accusations that this community had brought the “gay plague” upon itself. In Africa, 25 years later, the offshoots of the original revolution show the same fighting spirit and the same facility to adapt and take on the challenge.

Voices from Africa no. 10