Jailed Malawi Gay Couple May Face Humiliating, Invasive Sex Test, Say They Have Been Beaten in Jail
posted 5:20 PM EST by Andy Towle
http://www.towleroad.com/2010/01/jailed-malawi-gay-couple-may-face-humiliating-invasive-sex-test.htmlSome follow-up on Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, the Malawian couple I posted about last week (see links below), who were arrested and charged with "gross indecency" following a ceremony at a local lodge. Media outlets had reported it as a marriage, but as John Duffell, a volunteer in southern Malawi explains eloquently on his blog, the ceremony was a chinkhoswe, or engagement ceremony, and Tiwonge identifies as female).
Duffell adds: Malawicouple "Now, in Malawi, differentiating between a gay man and a transgendered woman would probably just be seen as splitting hairs; many people here would prefer not to acknowledge the existence of homosexuality (at least in their own country), so as you might expect, gender identity is an even more elusive conversation topic. Thus, the labeling game isn't played so much - within and without Malawi's LGBT community. Interestingly, the two appear to self-identify as a gay couple, rather than as a heterosexual man and a transgendered woman; Steven says he's never been interested in women, and that he finally realized he was gay upon meeting Tiwonge (at church). At any rate, his lack of attraction to the opposite sex doesn't seem to hinder his feelings for Tiwonge."
