Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in Zimbabwe face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents. Since 1995, the Government of Zimbabwe has carried out campaigns against LGBTQ rights. Sodomy is classified as unlawful sexual conduct and defined in the Criminal Code as either anal sexual intercourse or any "indecent act" between consenting adults. Since 1995, the government has carried out campaigns against both homosexual men and women.
Zimbabwe stands in sharp contrast with neighbouring South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana, which enacted LGBTQ protections in the 20th and 21st centuries, along with Namibia, which decriminalized homosexuality in 2024 and recognized foreign same-sex relations starting in 2023. Same-sex marriage is banned by the Zimbabwe Constitution, and LGBTQ people enjoy no legal protections from discrimination, violence and harassment. Members of the LGBTQ community are heavily marginalised in both the legal and social spheres. As a result, many choose to remain in the closet, commit suicide, or emigrate, with a popular destination being South Africa due to their gay-friendly laws. However, since Robert Mugabe's forced removal from the presidency in November 2017, LGBTQ activists have expressed hopes that their human rights will be respected.
According to a 2018 survey, 50% of gay men in Zimbabwe had been physically assaulted and 64% had been disowned by their families. 27% of lesbians also reported disownment.Zimbabwe | 50% of gay men assaulted and 64% disowned, Mambaonline, 27 July 2018
Homosexuality, same-sex relations and cross-dressing used to be accepted and commonplace in Zimbabwe prior to colonisation and post-independence anti-White government policies, which in turn has spread the erroneous belief that homosexuality is un-African or a Western phenomenon brought to the country. Homosexual activity has been documented among the San people, the Khoikhoi people, the Ndebele people and the Shona people.
History of homosexuality in Zimbabwe in the pre colonial era The San people, who have lived in Southern Africa for thousands of years, were known to engage in homosexual activity. One famous San rock painting, located near Guruve, depicts three men engaging in anal intercourse. It is estimated that the painting dates to roughly 8,000 BC, though some estimates instead state the painting to be about 2,000 years old. In the 18th century, the Khoikhoi people recognised the terms , which refers to a man who is sexually receptive to another man, and , which refers to same-sex masturbation usually among friends. Anal intercourse and sexual relations between women also occurred, though more rarely. In these societies, homosexuality was not viewed as an antithesis to heterosexuality. Indeed, there was widespread liberty to move between the two, and engage in sexual activity with both men and women. The Bantu peoples are also known to have engaged in same-sex sexual activity. Before battle, Ndebele men would have sex with each other, typically intercrural sex. Effeminate men in Ndebele society would often become healers and spiritual leaders. Among both the Shona and Ndebele peoples, same-sex sexual activity was historically viewed as a form of spiritual rearmament (i.e. as a source of fresh power for their territories).
According to Marc Epprecht, homosexuality grew among African men during the colonial era. Even though it was controversial, arranges of pederasty began to show up in certain cities and labour camps in as early as 1907. The young men (called in Shona, also known as boy-wife in English) would typically dress as women, perform chores associated with women, such as cooking and fetching water and firewood, and have intercrural sex with their older husbands. In addition, they were not allowed to grow beards or ejaculate. Upon reaching manhood, the relationship would be dissolved, and the boy-wife could take a of his own if he so desired. These marriages are sometimes referred to as "mine marriages" as they were common among miners. Epprecht estimates that about 70% to 80% of Zimbabwean miners had an .Epprecht, Marc, Hungochani, Second Edition: The History of a Dissident Sexuality in Southern Africa. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 1 April 2013 Other homosexual male relations during early colonial times included love affairs, prostitution, rape, and sexual brutality. Marc Epprecht stated that many Zimbabweans believed that homosexuality was un-African, caused by a disease introduced by white settlers from Europe. Epprecht's review of 250 court cases from 1892 to 1923 found cases from the beginnings of the records. The five 1892 cases all involved black Africans. A defence offered was that "sodomy" was part of local "custom". In one case, a chief was summoned to testify about customary penalties and reported that the penalty was a fine of one cow, which was less than the penalty for adultery. Over the entire period, Epprecht found the balance of black and white defendants proportional to that in the population. He noted, however, only what came to the attention of the courts - most consensual relations in private did not necessarily provoke notice. Some cases were brought by partners who had been dropped or who had not received promised compensation from their former sexual partner. And although the norm was for the younger male to lie supine and not show any enjoyment, let alone expect any sexual mutuality, Epprecht found a case in which a pair of black males had stopped their sexual relationship out of fear of pregnancy, but one wanted to resume taking turns penetrating each other.
Writing in the 19th century about the area of today's southwestern Zimbabwe, David Livingstone asserted that the monopolization of women by elderly chiefs was essentially responsible for the "immorality" practised by younger men.David Livingstone, The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, From 1865 to His Death, 1866-1873 Continued by a Narrative of His Last Moments and Sufferings Edwin W. Smith and A. Murray Dale mentioned one Ila-speaking man who dressed as a woman, did women's work, lived and slept among, but not with, women. The Ila labelled such individuals , translated as "prophet". They also mentioned that pederasty was not rare, "but was considered dangerous because of the risk that the boy will become pregnant".Will Roscoe and Stephen O. Murray(Author, Editor, Boy-wives and Female Husbands: Studies of African Homosexualities, 2001
Law regarding same-sex sexual activity Laws against same-sex sexual activity date back to 1891, when the British South Africa Company imposed the law used at the Cape of Good Hope on the region. Common law prohibitions include sodomy, defined as the "unlawful and intentional sexual relations per anum between two human males" as well as unnatural offences, defined as the unlawful and intentional commission of an unnatural sexual act by one person with another person. Section 11 of the Censorship and Entertainments Control Act, which provides that no person shall import, print, publish, distribute, or keep for sale any publication which is undesirable (defined as "indecent or obscene or is offensive or harmful to public morals or is likely to be contrary to public health") has been used to harass LGBTQ people and activists.Gay Zimbabwe – Gay Times
In 1996, former President Canaan Banana was arrested based on accusations made during the murder trial of his former bodyguard, Jefta Dube, and found guilty of eleven charges of sodomy, attempted sodomy and indecent assault in 1998. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, defrocked, and served 6 months in an open prison.
Laws passed in 2006 criminalized any actions perceived as homosexual. The Zimbabwean Government has made it a criminal offense for two people of the same sex to hold hands, hug, or kiss. The "sexual deviancy" law was one of 15 additions to Zimbabwe's Criminal Code quietly passed in Parliament. The sections involving gays and lesbians are part of an overhaul of the country's sodomy laws. Before then, laws against sodomy were limited to sexual activity, and the revised law now states that sodomy is any "act involving contact between two males that would be regarded by a reasonable person as an indecent act".
Recognition of same-sex relationships
Zimbabwe does not recognise same-sex marriage or civil unions. In 2013, the Zimbabwe Constitution was amended to define marriage as being between a man and a woman.
In May 2019, Mnangagwa's Cabinet approved amendments to Zimbabwean marriage law, which would ban both child marriages and same-sex marriages, lining it with the Constitution.
Discrimination protections The Freedom of Information Act (2020) and the Cyber and Data Protection Act (2022) offer explicit protection based on sexual orientation regarding personal information.
Gender identity and expression Gender marker change is not allowed. Section 18(2) of the Births and Deaths Registration Act allows for a change of first name by submitting an application to the Registrar General, providing evidence justifying the need for the change. The discretion granted to the Registrar General to approve name changes may prevent a name change based on gender identity. Activists such as Jordan Chanetsa have commented on the difficulty for transgender people to access legal work due to their gender not being reflected in their official documents.
Intersex rights Zimbabwe does not ban medical interventions performed on intersex infants. Article 52 on Right to personal security of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, states that "Every person has the right to bodily and psychological integrity, which includes the right: a) to freedom from all forms of violence from public or private sources; b)subject to any other provision of this Constitution, to make decisions concerning reproduction; c) not to be subjected to medical or scientific experiments, or to the extraction or use of their bodily tissue, without their informed consent."
In July 2025, the government launched a legal reform process aimed at recognizing and protecting the rights of intersex people.
Politics Mugabe Administration
President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe, from 1980 to 2017, actively discriminated against LGBTQ people and spoke out in public against homosexuality.
Mugabe received worldwide criticism for comments he made on 1 August 1995 after coming across a stall set up by the organisation Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) at the country's annual International Book Fair in Harare, founded in 1990 to facilitate communication within the LGBTQ community and which had not received much attention from the Government beforehand.
Mugabe's comments after seeing the stall at the book fair were:
Two weeks later, during Zimbabwe's annual independence celebrations, Mugabe proclaimed:
Since then, President Mugabe increased the political repression of homosexuals under Zimbabwe's sodomy laws. Mugabe blamed gays for many of Zimbabwe's problems and views homosexuality as an "un-African" and immoral culture brought by colonists and practiced by only "a few whites" in his country. During his 82nd birthday celebrations, Mugabe told supporters to "leave whites to do that". Mugabe instructed journalists, most of whom work for state-owned institutions, to report unfavorably about gay relationships. Some critics believed that Mugabe was using gays as a scapegoat to deflect attention from Zimbabwe's major economic problems.
GALZ has been the target of infiltration by government spies and extortion attempts by both strangers and casual acquaintances. LGBTQ people have been repeatedly bribed, detained, killed, beaten and sometimes raped by the authorities. The Central Intelligence Organisation has reportedly been used to beat and arrest homosexuals.