Robert Mugabe, the insane leader of Zimbabwe, spoke recently at a conference on AIDS and delivered a bizarre, rambling diatribe. It’s hard to make out exactly what he’s saying, but he clearly thinks that homosexuality violates the rights of women by robbing them of the ability to have children.
After earlier remarks by UN human rights chief Navi Pillay referring to the criminalization of homosexuality in some countries, Mugabe said Zimbabwe and Africa won’t recognize same-sex marriage because it leads to human “extinction.”
He said male homosexuality took away women’s traditional rights of being mothers.
Homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe, who has repeatedly described same-sex partners as “lower than dogs and pigs,” has vowed not to allow gay rights to be included in a new constitution being drafted.
“Mothers were given the talent to bear children. That talent doesn’t belong to men,” he said.
“When God created Adam … if Adam had desired a person like him it would not have made him any happier,” Mugabe said.
“When a man says he wants to get married to another man, we in Zimbabwe don’t accept it. We can’t talk of women’s rights at all if we go in that direction. It will lead to extinction,” he said.
Apparently the concept of some women being gay is beyond him.
15 comments
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Alverant
May 30, 2012 at 11:46 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
*sarcasm on*
Naw Ed, lesibans just need to be raped until they’re straight.
*sarcasm off*
valhar2000
May 30, 2012 at 11:49 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’ve noticed that this is often the case with wingnuts. I’m not sure if it’s caused by their obsession with anal sex, or by their disregard for women in general.
StevoR
May 30, 2012 at 11:53 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@ ^ valhar2000 : Probably both.
Mugabe is, well, one of the most evil and crazy dictators on the planet – which is saying quite a lot given the amount of competition.
imrryr
May 30, 2012 at 12:30 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Robert Mugabe is 88 years old? Good lord, how much longer must the people of Zimbabwe suffer?
Gregory in Seattle
May 30, 2012 at 12:44 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It is not that all men would give up women if homosexuality wasn’t a capital offense, just that he would give up women.
I really have to wonder about his obsession with gay men.
Gregory in Seattle
May 30, 2012 at 12:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Apparently the concept of some women being gay is beyond him.”
Fact: The people who obsess about gay sex are overwhelmingly men.
Fact: Many homophobes have homosexual feelings, have difficulty accepting those feelings and, as a result, generalize and externalize their self-loathing.
I would conclude that they ignore gay women because they are not terrified that they themselves are gay women.
d cwilson
May 30, 2012 at 1:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Mugabe cares about women’s rights?
When did that happen?
uncephalized
May 30, 2012 at 1:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It seems to me that the remaining straight men should have no complaints about any surplus of women running around desperate for babies, if this idea were true anyway.
Marcus Ranum
May 30, 2012 at 1:33 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Mugabe is, obviously, an expert on morality.
Rob F
May 30, 2012 at 1:34 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Cross-culturally, there is often a double standard with regards to homosexuality. In many cultures, both male and female homosexuality is condemned etc. In others, male homosexuality is condemned, while absolutely nothing is done concerning female homosexuality.
This site puts it as follows:
WP reports that the same double standard exists with regards to laws outlawing homosexuality; in some cases, male homosexuality is illegal while female homosexuality is not.
I have no idea why this double standard exists.
left0ver1under
May 30, 2012 at 2:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“You mean I have to eat at the same table with that murdering despot?”
- Justin Raimondo, speaking about – and in front of – Robert Mugabe
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2008/04/11/israel-loves-mugabe/
sivivolk
May 30, 2012 at 3:07 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Still with this peculiar idea that allowing male homosexuality would lead to men stopping having sex with women and wiping out the human species.
nimsudo
May 31, 2012 at 4:45 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Most homophobes are also misogynists. Misogynists don’t consider women actual people. One of the ways this expresses itself is that most misogynists don’t consider women to have any desires; desires being a quality that people have, not objects like women. Thus women don’t have any innate desire for sex. Women, to misogynists, are merely labor saving devices that can be used to aid in chores, produce useful products (i.e. children), project status, and are occasionally fun to stick your dick into. (Seen in this light, the reason misogynists seek to treat women as chattel is obvious: women aren’t fundamentally different than sheep in this view.)
From the viewpoint that women lack desires, lesbianism is unthinkable. First, it requires not one but two women to have desires of a sexual nature. Second, it requires those sexual desires to be expressed in a way that only satisfies the desires of the women and not a man, through sexual gratification, child-bearing, or titillation. Such things are unthinkable to a misogynist, so they merely deny the existence of Lesbians; if they consider the matter at all.
valhar2000
May 31, 2012 at 5:38 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
#13: Actually, in my experience, they do not deny the existence of lesbians at all, it’s just that they don’t think about them unless they are forced to (e.g. by someone bringing the topic up).
ambulocetacean
May 31, 2012 at 10:37 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh well, at least Mugabe will always be welcome in the Vatican.