A few weeks ago, a young gay couple decided to be the first to “marry” in the African nation of Malawi where homosexuality is against the law.  As a result, they were arrested and are awaiting trial.

Although spokespersons for the Malawi government have stated the couple’s arrest was as much for their own protection as it was for them breaking the law, it would appear that the Draconian views against the LGBT community in the small country haven’t gone unnoticed in other nations.

According to Nyasa Times:

More than 20 members of the Scottish parliament have condemned the arrest of two gay men in Malawi who held a wedding ceremony.

The motion was signed by members of all main parties and called for parliament to condemn the “illegal and homophobic arrests” of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga.

The couple are currently on trial and may face up to 14 years in prison if convicted.

The motion was introduced by Dundee West MSP, Joe FitzPatric.

“Malawi is one of several African countries adopting increasingly homophobic attitudes, with Uganda having recently introducing anti-homosexual legislation including the death penalty and other repressive practices being introduced in Gambia,” he said.

“Apart from the human rights violations, and the discriminatory nature of the contraventions, it is likely that these retrograde and illegal moves will considerably set back efforts to combat the massive problem of HIV AIDS in the African sub-continent.”

Hopefully this trend of denouncing homophobia from nations outside of Africa, much like what’s happened in Uganda, will be a trend to set the standard for human rights which provides equal protections for and urges the decriminalization of being a member of the LGBT community.

Source Text:

www.gayagenda.com