Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema “Won’t Allow Gay Practices” | by Amuna Wagner

Same-sex relationships are outlawed in Zambia where British colonial-era laws on homosexuality still apply.

Queer Zambians live in constant fear of arbitrary detention, discrimination in education, employment, housing, and access to services, and extortion—all buttressed by a lack of specific legal protections for LGBT+ people under Zambian law.

After his win in Zambia’s August elections, LGBT+ rights activists had hopes that, once in power, President Hichilema would change outdated sodomy laws.

However, last month, the president denied holding talks on gay rights during his trip to the United Nations General Assembly in the US.“We did not go there to talk about lesbian rights.

We did not go for that. This is a point I want to make emphatically,” he is quoted as saying by Zambia Daily Mail.

Hichilema said that the country can only "realign sound democratic values with other countries", local media reports.

Some media sources had earlier reported that a planned meeting between President Hichilema and President Joe Biden had been cancelled following anti-gay remarks made by Zambian Vice-President Mutale Nalumango. Instead, Hichilema met with Vice-President Kamala Harris.

The US recalled its ambassador to Zambia in December 2019 amid a diplomatic row after he criticised the imprisonment of the gay couple Japhet Chataba and Steven Samba..

Same-sex relationships are outlawed in Zambia where British colonial-era laws on homosexuality still apply.

After his win in Zambia’s August elections, LGBT+ rights activists had hopes that, once in power, President Hichilema would change outdated sodomy laws.

However, last month, the president denied holding talks on gay rights during his trip to the United Nations General Assembly in the US.“We did not go there to talk about lesbian rights.

We did not go for that. This is a point I want to make emphatically,” he is quoted as saying by Zambia Daily Mail.

Hichilema said that the country can only "realign sound democratic values with other countries", local media reports.

The US recalled its ambassador to Zambia in December 2019 amid a diplomatic row after he criticised the imprisonment of the gay couple Japhet Chataba and Steven Samba..