by Kelvin Lynch
Madonna, who occupies a position of influence in Malawi, Africa due to her charity, Raising Malawi, said she was "shocked and saddened" by a Malawi judge's sentencing of a gay couple to 14 years of hard labor, according to 365gay.com.
On the Raising Malawi website, Madonna states,
"I am shocked and saddened by the decision made this week by the
Malawian court, which sentenced two innocent men to prison. As a
matter of principle, I believe in equal rights for all people, no
matter what their gender, race, color, religion, or sexual orientation.
This week, Malawi took a giant step backward. The world is filled with
pain and suffering; therefore, we must support our basic human right to
love and be loved. I call upon the progressive men and women of
Malawi—and around the world—to challenge this decision in the name of
human dignity and equal rights for all."
Madonna also asks her supporters to sign her statement.
On the Raising Malawi website, the singer says, "We choose Malawi because we refuse to turn our backs on those in dire need. In the fourth poorest country in the world, Malawians face an unfortunate combination of disease, drought, poverty and a lack of critical resources. Confronting these extreme problems on a daily basis exacts a great toll. And few bear the brunt greater than the country's women and children—particularly the 2,000,000 orphaned and vulnerable children."
Madonna has personally adopted two children from Malawi - David and Mercy, but not without some legal battles of her own. The courts initially denied her adoption of David (who was suffering from pneumonia after surviving tuberculosis and malaria) because she was not a resident of Malawi for one year, but ultimately won custody with the cooperation of the boy's father. Madonna fought a similar legal battle to gain custody of Mercy, because she wasn't a Malawi resident, but ultimately appealed the case to the Malawi Supreme Court and won.
The gay couple, Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza were sentenced for gross indecency and unnatural acts in court in Blantyre, Malawi.
Sfist.com seemed to blame the arrest and sentencing of Chimbalanga and Monjeza on Madonna, saying, "Chimbalanga, a 20-year-old hotel janitor, and his unemployed partner were arrested Dec. 27, the day after they celebrated their engagement with a party at the hotel where Chimbalanga worked — an apparent first in Malawi. So, it would seem this gay couple felt emboldened by gay marriage advancement elsewhere in the world (and perhaps also by Madonna's growing influence in the country), and only wanted to exercise the right to marriage themselves, despite the steep penalties of even public homosexual affection in theirs and 36 other African countries. Their lawyer promises to appeal, and perhaps this was even planned and orchestrated as a landmark case for gays in Africa, to draw attention to gay rights issues there in a sort of Rosa Parks-esque publicity move."
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