I know where this is going, do I win the prize?

14 years in prison for being in love. So so sad ...

http://gayswithoutborders.files.wordpres…
.. breaks my fucking heart...

This breaks my heart, the situation in Malawi, not Portugal. And, I can't help but shake the idea that this rooted in Christian evangelical efforts. I think we will see efforts like the recent events in Uganda continue to unfold around the world. I hope I'm wrong.

rewind:

this is rooted...

This makes me more convinced than ever that we need to push the Boycott of Arizona.

Cause they're here.

From today in the NY Times:

The couple has been in jail since Dec. 28, two days after they threw themselves an engagement party — a chinkhoswe in Chichewan — at the Blantyre lodge where Mr. Chimbalanga worked as a cook and housekeeper, referring to himself as “Auntie Tiwo” and insisting that he was a woman.

So, wait. What gives? Hey gay boys out there, question: when one of the partners refers to himself as a woman and prefers being called "auntie" and not anything suggesting he sees himself as a man, what is that exactly saying? Another question: does this explain why they proceeded with the ceremony, under the auspice that they spiritually were bonding as man and woman? Third question: is he one of yours, or is he one of the trannies? Question four: does supporting his case internationally mean anything different if it turns out he asserts again that he's a woman instead of a gay man? Fifth question: would that diminish overall support and media attention?

@10 it's none of our business.

@10 Nobody who hates them gives a shit about who or what they are. Only that something gay is happening and they are the cause. That is all 'they' need.

@11: Disclosed within the geo-political arena, it kind of is, as how it is discussed in Western press should be informing (or be informed by) the semiotics of what qualifies someone in this situation as cissexual (either gay or transgender) or transsexual (heterosexual).

Politically and presently, it appears most expedient to just distill Chimbalanga as merely gay and ignore anything else that was said.

Does Malawi have anything besides piles of dung we can boycott?

I just heard a discussion about this while listening to NPR in the car, and the man from the gay rights organization (bad reception; didn't catch names) called the views held by the Malawian guest and those of his country "bigoted and homophobic". I was cheering that he actually said that, though the host had to politely ask him to stay away from words like "bigoted" for the rest of the discussion.

@10

I think you're missing the point: throwing two consenting adults in prison for the "crime" of falling in love with each other is absurd and un civilized

In the sense that good civic behaviour is rooted in trying to get along politely with people even with you disagree with them

The quote at the end of the Times' Malawi article:

'Speaking for the prosecution, however, Barbara Mchenga urged the magistrate to “consider the scar this offense will leave on our morality. The two showed no remorse and were somehow proud of what they did.”'

Obviously the significance of the word 'pride' in the western world doesn't need explanation, but its context here, as part of this couple's damning at the hands of their society, and also a testament to proving what the word 'pride' should entail (pride even during dire circumstances, not just in nice, safe places) is coming close to making me cry.

To think that I worry about telling my parents I'm bisexual and I don't even know why, since I don't expect or fear any awful reaction... well, hideous situations like this are a sledgehammer of perspective.

@13: It doesn't seem like these nuances were particularly important to the judges and baying mob, in this case, but you're right that it does sound as though Chimbalanga was pretty female-identified. However, I'd argue determining his/her sexual identity is a bit more complex than the either/or (transwoman/gay man). Categories of sexual/gender identity vary between cultures and over history, and it can be difficult to pin down - for instance - Nandi (Kenyan) female husbands or mid-twentieth century lesbian butch-femme culture as 'either' gay or trans.

More importantly, the only person who can tell us Chimbalanga's sexual/gender identity - whether it's one that would be 100% familiar to us in the West or not - is Chimbalanga. And s/he is currently stuck in a Malawian prison cell, and presumably unavailable for comment to the world's media.

@20: Well, of course it's more complex if but for the point that cultural signifiers can and do get lost in translation from one culture to the next. There is all but likely — at best — limited analogue in Malawi social culture to what North Americans ascribe their own meanings and currency of those meanings.

Stripped to its most basic points, at first face, this story could easily read like a pre-1973 story of two gay men in — I dunno, Cleveland? — where one "identifies" as "the woman" to the point of going for public identification as a woman/all-time drag queen, or taking drag into surgery-bound tranny. There was a spate of those relationships of social approval, which left both partners bitterly screwed in the end: one as the man without his man any longer, while the other loses both the man and manhood to become a bitter old queen. In other words, the very fodder of Stonewall fags (n.b., this concept has come up in other discussion here on SLOG) and their ire toward anything relating to transsexual (not transgender) people.

Because we don't have the codex for translating Malawi queer culture against what Westerns define as queer, it really becomes a question how people in the West simplify concepts and strip nuance from the bigger context. As unfortunate as it is for the couple, I raise these comments in this thread because I think it's more reflective of what is more politically expedient to report in Western press.

I can all but place a 3-to-1 wager that had this story from the onset defined the persecuted couple as man and transsexual woman, Dan, Joemygod, The Advocate — wherever — would have footnoted this story at best as a "we care only because it's a "sorta queer" relationship. Pfc. Barry Winchell and Calpernia Addams, anyone? Oh, right. That was all but forgotten by most in the gay community since it mattered a bit less politically when it was clear that Calpernia was a transsexual woman and not a gay drag queen. It was a year after Matthew Sheppard — and arguably just as brutal a violent death — but was barely remembered after the revelation that this did not really make Winchell gay — just perceived as such by consequence of being involved with Addams.

So goes the Mawali situation with the best analogue I can find, alas — exception that this is being presented as a gay story, full-stop.

@21: It's a busy day, so quick response. I really appreciate what you're saying re. the relative news treatment of persecution of transgender and gay people, and it's a topic well worth bringing to the attention of SLOG readers.

This particular case still seems a tricky one to me for a few reasons. Cultural meanings do get frequently 'lost in translation' in Western media reports on non-Western happenings (and in American reports on European happenings, come to that, says the cranky Brit in the corner). However, in this case, I don't think the Western media can shoulder all the blame: the couple were convicted and imprisoned by a Malawian court specifically for homosexuality, whether that's how they see themselves or not. Bigoted laws don't tend to be too careful with distinctions between sexuality and gender identity: everything non-cisgendered hetero falls into the same big queer bucket.

Maybe this is another example of why queer can be a useful term for reporting on these things without making too many assumptions?