Minister: Malawi won’t end gay sex ban

Malawi’s health minister has insisted that the country will not end its gay sex ban, despite requesting foreign funding to fight HIV, including within the LGBT community.

Minister Jean Kalilani stated last week that, “There will be no change in laws on homosexuality.”

She added: “It is still a crime to anyone engaging in the practice.”

The Nation reported that Kalilani made the comments in an interview about the government’s application for a grant of about $390,000 from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

When asked how the money would be used to target LGBT people, including men who have sex with men, when they are essentially seen as criminals, Kalilani wasn’t able to provide an answer.

Gift Trapence, from the Centre for the Development of People, commented that, “It is difficult to offer HIV and AIDS services to homosexuals when there are sodomy laws on the other hand.

“The same government is criminalising same-sex relationships and the same government wants to help them. This does not make sense.”

The status of LGBT people in Malawi is mired in confusion. While male and female homosexuality is illegal, with penalties of up to 14-years imprisonment, the Secretary for Justice and Solicitor General Dr Janet Chikaya-Banda told a UN human rights committee last year that the authorities will not enforce the ban.

She also insisted that the government remains committed to reviewing the discriminatory laws, although efforts to do so had stalled due to a lack of finances.

In May 2012, former President Joyce Banda announced her intention to overturn the country’s ban on homosexuality but she later reversed her stance, saying that the majority of Malawians were not in favour of this.

Three men – Amon Champyuni, Mathew Bello and Mussa Chiwisi – remain jailed for being gay in Malawi. They were sentenced to prison terms of between six and 12 years, with hard labour, by a magistrates’ court in 2011.