nngu007
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- Aug 2, 2010
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25 March 2011
Dar es Salaam The 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project reported that 95 per cent of residents were opposed to homosexuality in Tanzania, making the country among those with the strongest rejections in the 44 surveyed.
According to the findings, the overwhelming majority said homosexuality should be rejected.
In Tanzania, sexual intercourse between men is illegal, and carries a penalty of life imprisonment. Although sexual relationships between women are not mentioned in the law, the autonomous region of Zanzibar outlaws same-sex acts for both men and women.
Despite such stringent laws, homosexuals have decided to come up in open and break the silence. They want the public to accept them as normal human beings because they did not choose to be what they are.
Recently, some journalists visited Tanzania Network of Women Living with Aids (TNW+). The visit was organised by the Association of Journalists against Aids (Ajaat) and was funded by Africa Medical Research Foundation (Amref).
TNW+ project coordinator, Ms Joan Chamungu said that the network was formed by positive women in November last year and was the first to be run by women.
According to Ms Chamungu, the aim of the organisation is to ensure that women infected with HIV/Aids are visible and that their voices are heard.
Apart from that, she says the organisation work with gays and commercial sex workers and trains them on how to prevent themselves against HIV/Aids infections.
During the trip, The Citizen reporter seized the opportunity to interview one gay in order to understand their claim that they did not choose to be what they are.
Charles Msakanya, 22, (not his real name), says he is the first born and only male in a family of three children.
According to him, gays are affected by certain hormones that determine their sexual orientation, and compel them to do what they doing sexually involuntarily.
He says that since childhood he never had any sexual feeling for the opposite sex, and so far he has no intention of getting married.
"When I was young I neither liked interacting with girls, nor doing men's work," he says. "I tried to hide my feelings because I didn't want my family to suspect that I was gay". He says his family members (who are devoted Muslims) tried to change his behaviour through worship in God and prayers to no avail.
By that time, his parents were already suspecting that he was gay, but he continued to hide the truth from them. According to him, his mother died without knowing his true sexual orientation.
Now an open gay, Msakanya says it is high time the public should respect and accept gays as normal people who can contribute to the development of the country.
But according to scientists, there is no direct explanation as to how someone becomes a gay. The traditional view of homosexuality assumes that a man will play the role of a female for money or because he is impotent, but not because he wants to. The law says that any person who in public or private commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procures attempts to procure the commission by any person of any act of gross indecency with another person, is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not less than one year and not exceeding five years or to a fine not less than one hundred thousand and not exceeding three hundred thousand shillings.
Any person who has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature or has carnal knowledge of an animal or permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature, commits an offence, and is liable to imprisonment for life, and in any case to imprisonment for a term of not less than thirty years. Any male person who, in public or private commits any act of gross indecency with another male, or procures another male person to commit any act of gross indecency with him, or attempts to procure a male to commit an indecent act to him, is guilty of an offence and may be sentenced to five years of imprisonment
Dar es Salaam The 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project reported that 95 per cent of residents were opposed to homosexuality in Tanzania, making the country among those with the strongest rejections in the 44 surveyed.
According to the findings, the overwhelming majority said homosexuality should be rejected.
In Tanzania, sexual intercourse between men is illegal, and carries a penalty of life imprisonment. Although sexual relationships between women are not mentioned in the law, the autonomous region of Zanzibar outlaws same-sex acts for both men and women.
Despite such stringent laws, homosexuals have decided to come up in open and break the silence. They want the public to accept them as normal human beings because they did not choose to be what they are.
Recently, some journalists visited Tanzania Network of Women Living with Aids (TNW+). The visit was organised by the Association of Journalists against Aids (Ajaat) and was funded by Africa Medical Research Foundation (Amref).
TNW+ project coordinator, Ms Joan Chamungu said that the network was formed by positive women in November last year and was the first to be run by women.
According to Ms Chamungu, the aim of the organisation is to ensure that women infected with HIV/Aids are visible and that their voices are heard.
Apart from that, she says the organisation work with gays and commercial sex workers and trains them on how to prevent themselves against HIV/Aids infections.
During the trip, The Citizen reporter seized the opportunity to interview one gay in order to understand their claim that they did not choose to be what they are.
Charles Msakanya, 22, (not his real name), says he is the first born and only male in a family of three children.
According to him, gays are affected by certain hormones that determine their sexual orientation, and compel them to do what they doing sexually involuntarily.
He says that since childhood he never had any sexual feeling for the opposite sex, and so far he has no intention of getting married.
"When I was young I neither liked interacting with girls, nor doing men's work," he says. "I tried to hide my feelings because I didn't want my family to suspect that I was gay". He says his family members (who are devoted Muslims) tried to change his behaviour through worship in God and prayers to no avail.
By that time, his parents were already suspecting that he was gay, but he continued to hide the truth from them. According to him, his mother died without knowing his true sexual orientation.
Now an open gay, Msakanya says it is high time the public should respect and accept gays as normal people who can contribute to the development of the country.
But according to scientists, there is no direct explanation as to how someone becomes a gay. The traditional view of homosexuality assumes that a man will play the role of a female for money or because he is impotent, but not because he wants to. The law says that any person who in public or private commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procures attempts to procure the commission by any person of any act of gross indecency with another person, is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not less than one year and not exceeding five years or to a fine not less than one hundred thousand and not exceeding three hundred thousand shillings.
Any person who has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature or has carnal knowledge of an animal or permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature, commits an offence, and is liable to imprisonment for life, and in any case to imprisonment for a term of not less than thirty years. Any male person who, in public or private commits any act of gross indecency with another male, or procures another male person to commit any act of gross indecency with him, or attempts to procure a male to commit an indecent act to him, is guilty of an offence and may be sentenced to five years of imprisonment
