The President of Malawi, Lazarus Chakwera, has announced that he has no definitive stance on same-sex marriage and will allow the citizens to determine whether the country should legalise it or not. The Presidential press secretary Brian Banda made this announcement to the media during the Weekly Brief at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre on Monday.
“What we need to do is to discuss as a country on the way forward. What is it that we want? We should not leave this issue to the President alone to decide,” Banda said. According to Banda, the President of Malawi, who is an ordained pastor was ready to ready to “listen to diverse opinions on the contentious issue from both in support or against the legalisation for the country to find a position on how to deal with it.”
“80% [of the citizens of Malawi] believe that homosexual sex is wrong, but one in three believe God loves people in same-sex relationships,” Alan Msosa, lead researcher and an academic with the University of Bergen in Norway said. “When we unpacked certain words using local languages, such as using ‘justice, fairness and inclusion’ over ‘human rights,’ we found that people were more tolerant in their views,”
In 2012, Former President of Malawi, Joyce Banda, said that she wants Malawi to overturn its ban on homosexual acts. All attempts since then have not been successful.
“Same-sex marriages will show that Malawi is ready to embrace of diversity, equality, freedom, tolerance, respect, dignity and fairness,” Eric Sambisa, founder of LGBT+ rights group the Nyasa Rainbow Alliance told Nyasa Times.
