Ministry of Information
Box CY1276, Causeway
Harare, Zimbabwe

Dear Minister:

Your continued harassment against the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe is unjust and obscene, and brings disgrace rather than credit to your country. As Keith Goddard of GALZ has said, the attempt by the Ministry of Information to ban GALZ from participating at the 1996 Zimbabwe International Book Fair is entirely without legal foundation. For something calling itself a ministry of information to suppress freedom of expression, while claiming to be defending that very freedom, calls to mind the cynical brutishness of Nazi Germany rather than the aspirations of a decent nation.

The Zimbabwean government's campaign to prevent its own citizens from distributing literature at a book fair is about the most pathetic and desperate means of making international news that I can imagine. As Mr. Goddard has said, the members of GALZ merely seek the equal protection of the law that any Zimbabwean rightfully claims. It is hard to fathom how anything going by the name of culture or morality could be defended by means of hatred, intolerance, and violence — the very evils that any truly moral culture should strive to combat. Considering the admirable advancement of human rights by your revolutionary counterparts in South Africa, your government's behavior looks like an effort to show how badly things might have turned out without the leadership of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress.

As Mr. Goddard so eloquently says, "Homosexuals exist within all strata of Zimbabwean society. It is inhuman to persist with this persecution of us. Homosexuals have the right to speak out and we will be heard. We are proud to be Zimbabwean and we are proud to be gay." You could learn a lot from the courageous example of your gay and lesbian citizens, whose refusal to be bullied into submission to authoritarian pressure is a continued source of inspiration to defenders of liberty and human dignity all over the world.

Sincerely,

Richard J. Rosendall
President
Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, DC