Wednesday 19 October 2011

Batswana lesbians can love and be loved without guilt

I once felt for a Tswana woman. I loved her deeply. I considered her exotic type,the type that volunteers teaching the Baswara in the dessert. I was also intrigued by her level of sophistication. We went to movies, thearter, live perfomances. Dined and dance. She was very conversant and a loving person. My motswana woman. She always said she woull rather be in South Africa that her home country. I never undertstood it until I went to bury the mother. I did dawn me that she meant we could not be affectionate with each other anywhere and everywhere, including her family home. We left Botswana without a kiss, ya kiss. It got me wondering how is that possible.

Not that there are no lesbians in Botswana. I am told, it is virgin territory. For a saturated terrain that South Africa, I stand a better chance to find my lifetime partner. I have vivid memory of her warm.She was the warmest body I hv ever met. God knows I loved her, or should I say I had intense emotions directed to her. I am hoping that was is shared below offers green light for the whole lot of closeted women to come out and be. Someday we will be together.

Festus Mogae, the former President of Botswana, told the BBC that homosexuality should be decriminalised in Botswana. Mogae's call coincides with a potential call to Commonwealth Heads of Government to decriminalise homosexuality as well.

Voices Call for Decriminalisation of Homosexuality
From BBC News Africa:
Festus Mogae


Then I come to things like same sex relations, men who sleep with men. I don't understand it. I am a heterosexual, I look at women, I don't look at other men, but, there are men who look at other men. These are citizens. If these people can infect each other, that means that a percentage of the population are becoming victims of HIV infection. They have to be helped. Again, I find that if you are arresting them, you will not be able to help them.


Festus Mugae and Kenneth Kaunda, former Presidents of Botswana and Zambia, were on the HIV Free Generation tour in May. At a news conference in Lilongwe they condemned Malawi's criminalisation of homosexuality as harmful to LGBTI persons and the fight against HIV/AIDS.


In the BBC Debate in May, Is homosexuality un-African?, Mogae placed the rights of LGBTI persons in a human rights framework.


I did not come out in support of gay rights but I did come out in support of human rights. I am not a pro-gay activist. I say I don't understand the sexual preference but they are entitled to it and therefore they should not be discriminated against, it should not be criminalised.


I can't understand why you say that homosexuality is un-African when there is evidence that it has always existed and exists today as it does elsewhere in the world. And therefore it appears to me that homosexuality whether we understand it or not or whether we like it or not is as African as it is European as it is Asian...We are trying to pursuade the rest of Africa and show them that homophobia is unjustified.


The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Australia may also include an agenda item asking for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the commonwealth. Forty-one of the 53 Commonwealth countries still criminalise homosexuality and HIV campaigners say such laws are seriously harming the ability to stop HIV infection.


Leaders will meet in Perth, Australia, next week for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (CHOGM).


Australian delegate Michael Kirby said today that the agenda will include a request to scrap anti-gay laws.He told ABC Radio that HIV messages were “very difficult” to get across without removing laws against gay sex. Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who is calling on people to lobby Commonwealth leaders, said that there is a “strong possibility” that the issue will appear on the agenda.


But he added that it was “not yet a certainty” and urged people to sign a petition. where do I sign

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