yebo...we are in no position to impose our opinion...likewise, let us not let the west impose its opinion, directly, or thru its converts.

AFRICA for AFRICANS...ZIMBABWE for ZIMBABWEANS

No-one's trying to impose anything on anyone.

See, the main point of "Getting Married" means to create families and procreate as outlined in the literature, be it biblical or Muslim. Consenting male adults can do what ever they want but there is no place for them to get married through God's blessings whether under Christian or Muslim terms. The law of marriage that exists now is based on the laws extracted from biblical, muslim or traditional.

Therefore, Homosexual people can enjoy their own privacy but cannot cry out why they can't be wedded under the country's constitution. A disabled man with no legs cannot be found crying to compete with normal racers at the track fully knowing that he cannot win that race!

I have NOTHING against the Gay and Lesbian Societies and their members. In fact, I have Gay friends and respect them as individuals. Just trying to put the facts right. After all its up to the rest of Zimbabweans to vote for or against the constitution that allows gay marriages. If Zimbabwe votes for it, then be it. If they want to get tied under christian laws, then the bible must get re-written.

"Social illness" so you ask Zombo? An illness is a condition in which a body's expected functions deviates from the norm. Social illness is one where the society has deviated from normally accepted moral values and expectations. Please note, I did not say Psychiatric or mental illness here. Therefore, if the whole society becomes deviated, then that becomes the new NORM and 'social illness' becomes an invalid term.

Good luck for your pledge to include Gay marriages in Zimbabwe!

That isn't "literature", Tangi, that's religion. And while you and everyone else is entitled to one, that doesn't mean it applies to everyone.

As far as I know, no-one is "crying out" for gay marriage. LGBT people are entitled to form partnerships, informally or otherwise, like everyone else. And provided they respect the law of the country and pay their taxes, are also entitled to be free of harassment if they do so.

Thanks for defining "social illness". I don't believe that human rights falls under that, of course, and as gay rights are simply a small part of general human rights, neither do they.

thanks a lot for the lovely discussion, homosexuality in our constitution is something that i very much against, maybe my reasons are shallow but guess its because i am one of those who believe tom was meant for rachel and rosemary for patrick. to me this is the natural way and anyone who prefers to change this is going against the natural way, man shud be attracted to the feminine race and so shud women be attracted to the musculine race. indeed it is true that there are some who say nature has made them homosexuals indeed it might be true but when we appeal to science we find that in that circle there are some who may support homosexuality but then there are also some in science who find a lot of wrong in the whole issue of homosexuality. its a matter subject to debate even by those we may hold as our surest source of what is right.
while we are at it, i am sure there are some who would feel happy to have the matter of abortion put into the constitution, they wud be happy to have it legalised just as it is in some western countries. besides it shud be their right ti chose to terminate a pregnancy if it is unwanted...
and while we are at it i sure i might feel that it is also time to legalise ganja, at least some of us do not see anything wrong in it...
what else shall we legalise...?
at such a rate, we cant go about imitating anything that is adopted in the West...
but at the end of the day we could put it to the people to decide for themselves, and its likely that homosexuality wont get a lot of supporters...
<<MINE IS JUST A THOUGHT>>

Glad you have enjoyed reading this discussion, plato.

I can understand your not wanting to go beyond the familiar and conventional notions of relationship. But that's what growing up is about, isn't it? We accept what we see, at first, then we learn that there is more to it than that. And sometimes, that's uncomfortable, because we have to enlarge our understanding, and go beyond the comfortable and the familiar.

I don't know of any scientists who see sexual orientation as "right" or "wrong". That's a judgment call, not a specifically scientific conclusion. The mounting body of work points to a mixture of hormonal and genetic factors, and is showing just what a complicated development sexual identity can be. And we just have to get our heads round what is involved.

As for legalising other things, like abortion or ganja, no, that is irrelevant. We are looking at one issue here, not tackling a raft of unrelated issues. Bringing in such other issues just confuses the main argument.