And all teh western media, gay and straight, seems to have marched in lockstep

[the_future_modernes]

In The Interest of “Equality,” Malawian Woman’s Identity Is Erased

With the ongoing interest in Uganda’s state-sponsored homophobia and a bill in the country that would make homosexual acts punishable by death, there’s been more press than usual about sexuality throughout the African continent. Uganda has been getting most of the ink, but the fact remains that 37 countries in Africa have a variety of laws against homosexuality.
Early this week a story broke about a “gay male couple” in Malawi who have both been found guilty of “unnatural acts” and “gross indecency” and sentenced to 14 years of hard labor. This story has been in development since December, when Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga were arrested in their home after a public engagement party celebrating their union.
Gay rights and human rights groups all over the world have issued statements condemning the Malawian court system and speaking out against punishing people for their sexual orientation.

The only problem with this, as the razor-sharp blog Questioning Transphobia pointed out yesterday, is that Tiwonge Chimbalanga identifies as female. Both the mainstream press and gay rights groups have consistently erased this fact from their statements. Several newspapers have quoted Tiwonge as saying, “I’d rather remain in prison than to be released into a world where I am kept away from Steven.” However Gender DynamiX, a South African organization that promotes freedom of expression of gender identity and advocates for the rights of transgender, transsexual, and gender non-conforming people, has the full quote: “I am just a woman who loves my man. I’d rather remain in prison than to be released into a world where I am kept away from Steven.”MORE

Comments

[slippy]

Thank you for this. I knew the story, but yeah, not one of the articles I read included the fact that Chimbalanga identifies as female.

[the_future_modernes]

I didn't realize that either until the day before I put this up. I mean, they deliberately cut off full quotes to confirm to their narrative. Its ridiculous!