By John Mack Freeman
The Malawi government has decided this week that they will not prosecute people under that country’s anti-gay laws. Via LGBTQ Nation:
Earlier this month, two men were detained by a neighborhood watch team, who turned them over to police, according to Human Rights Watch and the Centre for the Development of the People. […]
“The next step will be for the government to get rid of discriminatory laws altogether, including those that criminalize consensual sex between adults of the same sex,” said Gift Trapence, director of the Centre for the Development of the People, a Malawian human rights organization.
This was the first arrest of gays since 2009, when a gay couple was jailed and convicted in a highly publicized trial. Late President Bingu wa Mutharika pardoned the pair a year later, the rights groups said. Malawi moved to stop prosecuting gay citizens after former President Joyce Banda threw her support behind the decriminalization of same-sex relationships, the statement said.
