Harare: A Zimbabwean government hospital is reportedly compiling a register of people with ambiguous genitalia to undergo surgery, sparking an angry response from homosexuals who said this is not only a rights violation but reinforces an ‘archaic’ belief that intersex people are “abnormal.”
Ambiguous genitalia is a defect of sex development that makes it unclear whether an affected new-born is a girl or a boy.
Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo, the country’s second city, said the genitalia surgeries will run under the theme the theme “Restoration to normalcy” but homosexuals argued this contributes to stigma against intersex community.
“The practice of treating intersex traits as birth defects or disorders, reinforce the belief that intersex people need to be “fixed,” the Gays and Lesbian Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) and the Trans and Intersex Rising Zimbabwe (TIRZ) said in a joint statement.
“It is clear from the advertisement that some Zimbabwean health care providers use the label “disorders of sex development” to describe intersex traits, the term unnecessarily suggests that intersex traits and bodies are unhealthy or defective, contributing to intersex stigma.”
Ambiguous genitalia primarily occur when hormone abnormalities during pregnancy interrupt or disturb the foetus’s developing sex organs.
“Surgery to alter the size or appearance of genitals can cause scarring, incontinence, loss of sexual feeling, and emotional distress. Individuals who have been subjected to these procedures have reported resultant chronic trauma as they later realized that the gender assigned is contrary to what they identify as,” the GALZ and TIRZ added.
Former President Robert Mugabe was a fervent critic of homosexuals, and was known for making homophobic statements over the years.
Under Mugabe’s rule, the Lesbian, Gays, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) faced rights violations such as physical assault, hate speech, intimidation, torture and raids from both state and non-state actors.
The Constitution guarantees rights such as equality and non-discrimination but is silent on specific rights for LGBTI community. Zimbabwe criminalises same-sex relations.
