Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe says that Zimbabwe and other African countries will never recognise gay marriage because it leads to “extinction”. Speaking at a women’s HIV/Aids conference in Harare yesterday, Mugabe, 88, stated emphatically that homosexuality goes against nature AND women’s rights. Why Mugabe – known for his anti-gay standpoint – was invited to talk at such an event is another question entirely.

In response to comments by UN human rights chief Navi Pillay on the criminalization of homosexuality in some countries, Mugabe countered with a fascinating argument that male homosexuality takes away women’s traditional rights of being mothers.

“When a man says he wants to get married to another man, we in Zimbabwe don’t accept it. We can’t talk of women’s rights at all if we go in that direction. It will lead to extinction,” he said.

Homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe and Mugabe, who has repeatedly referred to same-sex partners as “lower than dogs and pigs”, is adamant that gay rights should not be included in the country’s new constitution, which is currently in draft phase.

[Source: ABC News]