Councillor wants hospitals to report gay people
Okalongo constituency councillor Laurentius Makana Iipinge, who is also a lawmaker in the National Council, wants anti-gay bills passed this week to be tightened even further, and require hospitals to report gay people seeking treatment for criminal prosecution.
During his contribution on Wednesday to the private member’s bills midwifed recently by Swapo hard-liner Jerry Ekandjo, Iipinge suggested that rather than just explicitly giving the word ‘spouse’ a heterosexual meaning in the Immigration Control Act, the law must also seek to prosecute anyone engaged in same-sex intimacy.
Motivating his troubling remarks, he claimed this should be done in order to defend Namibian values and morals enshrined in the constitution.
This week, the National Council overwhelmingly agreed to amendments to the Marriage Act and the Immigration Control Act, which seek to - amongst other things - give ‘spouse’ an explicit heterosexual meaning.
The amendments seek to define a spouse as a ‘genetically born’ male married to a ‘genetically born’ female and vice versa.
To get his way, Ekandjo invoked Articles 81 and 4 of the Namibian Constitution to contradict a Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.
The law also criminalises advocacy and propagating same-sex marriages and provides for a N$100 000 fine or six years’ imprisonment.
‘Misleading people of God’
Speaking in parliament, Iipinge said: “The bill should not only prohibit same-sex marriages, but should also prohibit sexual activities between people of the same sex”.
“This bill should further require nurses and doctors to report to the police any suspicions of sexual activities between men, should they encounter such incidents in hospitals,” he added.
He then tore into government leaders defending equal sexual rights, saying: “If there’s any leader in government who’s supporting homosexuality, they do not deserve to hold those public positions as they are misleading people of God and people of the republic”.
Agriculture minister Calle Schlettwein has publicly condemned Ekandjo’s bills, tweeting this week: “Parliament approved to interfere with, restrict, hamper and criminalise a choice of affection”.
During his contribution on Wednesday to the private member’s bills midwifed recently by Swapo hard-liner Jerry Ekandjo, Iipinge suggested that rather than just explicitly giving the word ‘spouse’ a heterosexual meaning in the Immigration Control Act, the law must also seek to prosecute anyone engaged in same-sex intimacy.
Motivating his troubling remarks, he claimed this should be done in order to defend Namibian values and morals enshrined in the constitution.
This week, the National Council overwhelmingly agreed to amendments to the Marriage Act and the Immigration Control Act, which seek to - amongst other things - give ‘spouse’ an explicit heterosexual meaning.
The amendments seek to define a spouse as a ‘genetically born’ male married to a ‘genetically born’ female and vice versa.
To get his way, Ekandjo invoked Articles 81 and 4 of the Namibian Constitution to contradict a Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.
The law also criminalises advocacy and propagating same-sex marriages and provides for a N$100 000 fine or six years’ imprisonment.
‘Misleading people of God’
Speaking in parliament, Iipinge said: “The bill should not only prohibit same-sex marriages, but should also prohibit sexual activities between people of the same sex”.
“This bill should further require nurses and doctors to report to the police any suspicions of sexual activities between men, should they encounter such incidents in hospitals,” he added.
He then tore into government leaders defending equal sexual rights, saying: “If there’s any leader in government who’s supporting homosexuality, they do not deserve to hold those public positions as they are misleading people of God and people of the republic”.
Agriculture minister Calle Schlettwein has publicly condemned Ekandjo’s bills, tweeting this week: “Parliament approved to interfere with, restrict, hamper and criminalise a choice of affection”.
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