'Now they must respect us': a beacon of hope for Africa as Angola bans gay discrimination

After winning legal protection for gay people, defenders of LGBT rights in Angola are gearing up for their next battle. But this time it's much tougher, with a more elusive goal: the acceptance of their own families and communities.  

Earlier this month, the southern African country enacted a new penal code passed in 2019 and removed a provision outlawing "vices against nature" which was widely interpreted to criminalise same-sex relationships.  

Going a step further, lawmakers gave gay and bisexual people legal protection against discrimination for their sexual orientation, making Angola one of only seven countries on the continent with some form of anti-discrimination provisions.  

"I had the best reaction. I screamed. We are obtaining rights in our country, and accepting difference little by little," Titica, one of Angola's most famous musicians who is also a transgender woman, told the Telegraph.  

As a teenager, Titica was regularly beaten up, had rocks thrown at her and abused on the streets of Luanda for being gay, before she came out as trans and rose to fame.  

The new law means such attacks would be illegal, as inciting hatred against people for their sexual orientation is now punishable by up to six years in prison.  

Employers can also face up to two years in prison for discriminating against someone "because of race, colour, ethnicity, birthplace, sex, sexual orientation, physical or mental illness or disability, belief or religion, political or ideological convictions," according to the new penal code obtained by the Telegraph.

By repealing a 133-year-old homophobic law dating back to the time Angola was a Portuguese colony, the country joined a small but growing number of African countries moving to protect their sexual and gender minorities.  

Globally, 72 countries or jurisdictions criminalise private, consensual sex between two people of the same sex, according to the Human Dignity Trust. Around half of these are in Africa. In northern Nigeria, Mauritania, Somalia and South Sudan, the maximum penalty is death.  

But several countries are making progress. Botswana ruled to decriminalise homosexuality in 2019 and Gabon followed suit last year after weeks of heated debates.  

"Well done to parliamentarians for changing mentalities and adapting to the times," Gabon Prime Minister Julien Nkoghe Bekale tweeted at the time.  

Even before the law, sexual and gender minorities in Angola enjoyed relative safety and freedom, particularly in the more liberal capital Luanda.  

There were no known cases of prosecution under the old Angolan penal code, and the law change did not give way to much public resistance. Powerful religious groups in the overwhelmingly Christian country were split over the move, but none came out publicly against it.  

"Contrary to other countries, there are no public debates around LGBT people. There is some hate speech but only on social media, not publicly, and it does not have a big impact on society because not everyone has access to social networks," said Carlos Fernandes, who heads the country's only registered LGBT rights group, Associação Iris.  

According to a 2017 poll by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), 67 per cent of respondents in Angola agreed that people who are attracted to the same sex should have equal rights. But conservative attitudes remain, especially in rural areas and religious communities.  

Highlighting the contradictions and limits of the country's tolerance, popular Angolan soap operas showed same-sex relationships as early as 2015, when two men kissed on TV for the first time in the series Jikulumessu.

But the kiss caused an uproar and the show was temporarily banned.  The show's producer, Coreon Du, the openly-gay son of Angola's former president José Eduardo dos Santos and an advocate for queer visibility, has long criticised intolerance and homophobia in his country.  

For the defenders of LGBT+ rights, this is the next challenge: being visible and accepted by their peers, their families and public opinion at large.  

"In Angola, the first people to discriminate against LGBT people are their own families," Mr Fernandes, from Iris, said.  

Five young people are currently taking shelter in the group's offices after being rejected by their families for their sexual orientation or gender identity, he said.  The advocacy group has also regularly criticised a lack of access to health and education services for LGBT+ people.  

"Public opinion will take a little bit of time, that's where there is a lot of work. We need to have religious leaders coming on board, also the families of LGBTI communities," said Richard Lusimbo, a programme manager for the African branch of ILGA.

Crucially, the legal changes protect lesbian, gay and bisexual people, but do not mention gender identity. Under the law, discriminating against a transgender person is therefore still legal.  Transgender people cannot change their gender marker on identity cards, leaving many women to forgo official documents altogether.  

"The transgender identity is still not recognised in Angola. Unfortunately, trans people are some of the most discriminated against, by institutions, in education, in health," said David Kanga, the editor-in-chief of Queer People, a magazine which covers LGBT communities in the country.  

Titica, the popstar, has decided to turn these struggles into messages for the younger generation.  In her 2016 hit Abaixa, she sings "I don't want a man who turns into a woman" in an ironic jab aimed at "ridiculing the criticism against gay and trans people."  

"Now they don't need to like us," she said. "But they have to respect us."   

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