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Malawi govt urges
NGO to reject funds to fight for gay rights
 22
Jan 2010- Malawi- The Malawi government has expressed concern over reports
that some local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been offered money by
foreign organisations to lobby for gay rights in the southern African country.
Recent media reports said international gay rights movements have offered at
least three Malawian NGOs about US$ 500,000 to lobby for gay rights.
However, none of the cited NGOs have confirmed this.
In a statement, Information Minister Leckford Thotho urged Malawian NGOs to
reject such funding, which he said was "meant to destroy the very fabric that
makes Malawi a God-fearing and morally decent nation."
Thotho said Malawi was a sovereign state and "would not allow itself to be used
as a test ground for vices of homosexuality which are against the morals and
cultural values cherished by Malawians."
Malawi is largely a conservative society with the majority of the 13.1 million
people frowning upon homosexuality, let alone same-sex marriages.
Church leaders liken homosexuality to satanism.
However, research by gay rights activists indicate that homosexual acts are
increasingly taking place underground and in the country's prisons.
The arrest of the first openly gay men over Christmas has rekindled the debate,
with activists challenging authorities to expunge homophobic laws from the
statute books as they contradict the spirit of the new constitution adopted in
1995 whose Bill of Rights states that no one shall be discriminated against in
Malawi on the basis of their sexual orientation.
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