Gay couple guilty of violating 'the order of nature'

A Malawi court on Tuesday convicted a gay couple who staged an illegal same-sex wedding of violating "the order of nature", which could land them with up to 14 years in prison.

More info.....
Anonym zu www.smh.com.au/world/gay-couple-guilty-of-violating-the-order-of-nature-20100519-vci3.html

As much as I sympathize with those two guys who performed a gay wedding as an act of rebellion against the unrighteous system, but for god's sake this was Malawi!!! Somewhere deep in Africa! Hello?

This is the same if I went to Iran and performed a gay wedding there and hoping nothing would happen to me. :rolling eyes:

I mean rebellion is fine, but you have to be smart! Not like Don Quixote

vasilis21 said:

A Malawi court on Tuesday convicted a gay couple who staged an illegal same-sex wedding of violating "the order of nature", which could land them with up to 14 years in prison.

More info.....
Anonym zu www.smh.com.au/world/gay-couple-guilty-of-violating-the-order-of-nature-20100519-vci3.html

Click to expand...

Yes, I came close to weeping when I first read this. But now, reading LuisM's observation that these 2 guys knew what they were doing, I do think they maybe, just maybe, are prepared to be martyrs for the sake of justice & to bring attention to the plight of gays in Malawi. I do hope, however, they do not have to serve their sentences & that eventually public attitudes & the law change in their country.

Integritas0 also has a point about the influence of the former colonial powers, as many former British colonies, for example, still have the old Victorian laws criminalizing male gay activity while totally ignoring gay female activity. I believe that South Africa is one of the few African countries to have repealed those laws. Still, some African countries do seem to have deep cultural antagonisms towards gays, often supported by popular Christian churches, it seems.

Since one of the partners wore women's clothes and lived as a female (was more a trans person, thus), this was a reasonable action on their part; they are citizens of Malawi and have a right to live out their lives there with equal rights as well as make changes to the societal systems. And while the colonialist legacy is readily apparent, that still does not absolve individual politicians in Malawi, the US, nor anywhere else in the world of prosecuting people for homosexuality or perpetuating inequalities.

Goes against nature? What does that even mean? To use the old Terry Pratchett thing, I'm sure those passing down the sentence live in trees and catch their own meat and eat it raw, too. Feh.

"Maybe if western powers would just keep their noses out of other, weaker countries then these countries could evolve all by themselves."

God yes, this, a thousand times this. Bloody ethnocentrism, it pisses me off. On the other hand, I probably don't know enough to comment meaningfully, so I'll just stop, now.

It isn't "ethnocentrism" when you are in opposition to the politics and culture of the place you live, and express solidarity with others in the world against the rich and powerful that set the policy which prosecutes them. Chomsky understands that, and does not withhold political solidarity due to anyone else's false and condescending labels.