There are still major challenges when it comes to the treatment and acceptance of members of the LGBTQ+ community in Tanzania and the United States. In most African countries it is illegal to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Just like in Tanzania there is still a fight for equal rights in the United States, with a new wave of awareness of the LGBTQ+ community comes more pushback against the community and more risk of them losing rights that every person should be afforded.
Gay marriage was legalized in the United States in 2015 and yet there are still an absurd amount of hurdles that same sex and queer couples have to jump through to get married. One of these hurdles is Christian Churches. Speaking on this problem a journalist for Human Rights Watch states, “In fact, with few exceptions, the laws as drafted create blanket exemptions for religious believers to discriminate with no consideration of or even mechanism for consideration of the harms and burdens on others.” (Thoreson). This means that churches and businesses can deny LGBTQ+ couples service based on their religious beliefs. Many have argued that this is unjust because there is a legal separation of church and state in the United States. Religious exemptions that are being put in place are harmful to members of the LGBTQ+ community and are pulling our country back into the past to when not everyone was afforded equal rights under the law.
In Tanzania, homosexuality is still illegal. This means that same sex couples cannot legally get married. “Life imprisonment is the maximum penalty in Tanzania…” (Hussian). This means that same sex couples in Tanzania risk a lifetime in jail just for being openly gay. This goes along with marriage rights because if they are not able to be open about being gay then how would they be able to marry their partner. Tanzania is still stuck in previous centuries where being gay was thought to be “against God”, while most countries know that this is not the truth there are still places in the world where it is punishable. Gay marriage still goes unrecognized by religious figures in Tanzania. Because of this religious discrimination Christian members of the LGBTQ+ community that want to be married under the eyes of God have no way to do so.
While there are both terrible problems when it comes to gay marriage in each of these countries it is difficult to say who has it worse. Yes, you want to say that it is worse for LGBTQ+ members living in Tanzania that are worse off because they cannot even legally be married. However it feels wrong to compare who is worse off when they are both in terrible situations. Both Tanzania and the United States deal with discrimination from religious figures and believers alike when it comes to the marriage rights of same sex couples. Even though gay marriage is legal in the U.S. and not in Tanzania they still both face the same kind of religious persecution by Christians for their lifestyle. Community members in both countries have to fight for their place in a religiously charged world.
Something needs to be done to make these challenges go away, however it is going to take more than just saying it should change to make it change. With the new generation of activists there is change that is being made. People are becoming more educated and accepting, and those that are not are being challenged for their positions. There is good reason for hope when it comes to marriage rights in both countries, it may take a few more years but there is no reason why it should not happen. (Word Count: 628)
Hussain, Noor Zainab. “Legal Hurdles Faced by LGBT+ People in Africa.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 27 Oct. 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-lgbt-lawmaking/legal-hurdles-faced-by-lgbt-people-in-africa-idUSKBN27C2XQ.
Thoreson, Ryan. “‘All We Want IS EQUALITY.’” Human Rights Watch, 8 Mar. 2018, https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/02/19/all-we-want-equality/religious-exemptions-and-discrimination-against-lgbt-people.
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