Botswana recently became the latest African nation to decriminalise same-sex sexual activity, much to the elation of LGBTQ+ rights advocates who had pushed for years to reform the country’s colonial era law which criminalised these acts.
On 11 June, the High Court issued a historic ruling in a case challenging the constitutionality of sections of the penal code and how they’ve been interpreted. Before a packed courtroom, Justice Michael Leburu said: “there is nothing reasonable and justifiable [in] discriminating against members of our diversified society”.
Against commonly-heard claims that Africans are not ‘ready’ to accept homosexuality, he continued: “criminalising consensual same sex in private, between adults, is not in the public interest”. There is “no victim”, he said, and “it perpetuates stigma and shame against homosexuals and renders them recluse and outcasts”.
