Landmark gay rights test under way

The Botswana High Court (Gaborone) has started hearing an application seeking to decriminalise homosexuality, in what a Times Select report describes as a landmark case for Africa’s legal response to same-sex relationships. Botswana is touted as one of Africa’s most democratic nations, yet homosexuality is outlawed under the country’s penal code of 1965. An unnamed applicant is challenging two sections of that code under which offenders face a jail sentence of up to seven years. ‘These sections ... limit me to interact with others who identify in the same way for fear of imprisonment,’ said the applicant in documents read by lawyer Gosego Lekgowe. ‘We are not looking for people to agree with homosexuality but to be tolerant,’ said the applicant identified by the initials LM. Appearing for the state, Sidney Pilane commended the applicant for taking on the 53-year-old penal code, but argued Botswana society was not yet ready to change its attitude towards homosexuality. ‘He is a brave young man, but this case is not about homosexuals and penal code, it is about public morality, and today I speak for the government,’ he said in stark contradiction to the President’s recent comments. He suggested that the applicant petition Parliament in his bid to have the law changed, to which Ludge Abednego Tafa said the law had no business in someone’s bedroom. President Mokgweetsi Masisi previously addressed a meeting on gender-based violence, saying there were ‘many people of same-sex relationships in this country who have been violated and have also suffered in silence’. ‘Just like other citizens, they deserve to have their rights protected,’ said the President at the December gathering.