criminalises consensual sexual activity between two men. 7.2 Societal drivers of antagonism against LGBTI persons. Large sections of the Zimbabwean population hold the predominant view that homosexuality is un-African and not consistent with the widely popular Christian religion. In their 2014 report, AfroBarometer noted that that 83% (8 out of 10) of Zimbabweans would strongly dislike having an LGBTI person as a neighbour7. The situation does not appear to have noticeably changed in the last four years. It must be noted however that this kind of intolerance is not exactly uniform across the board. The same report, identified the least intolerant provinces as Bulawayo and Midlands 8. Additionally, evidence gathered by the British Home office 9 suggests that there are multi-level variations in terms of tolerance levels, segmented across demographic groups, controlled by education, age, political orientation and whether an individual is a rural or urban resident. Generally, it would appear that young people with postsecondary education, living in an urban setting and affiliated to the MDC party, 10have emerged with the highest tolerance for freedoms in sexual orientation and gender identity. The reverse proves to also hold true that the least tolerance is found among the more senior citizens, with education below secondary school level and are resident in the rural areas. Often, at family level, family members do not know how to handle situations where another member’s ‘other’ orientation is revealed. The common default reaction is to assume a negative stance, break ties and in some extreme cases, the police have been brought in to deal with the situation. This may possibly draw from the fact that deeply embedded, traditional and cultural factors also generally inhibit free expression of sexuality in any form, whether an individual identifies as homosexual, heterosexual or otherwise11. There are simply not enough spaces for engagement on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) issues in the country despite notable efforts by a few activists and 7 8 9 10 11 Afrobarometer, Dispatch No. 124 (p7), November 2016, url Ibid Country Policy and Information Note Zimbabwe: Sexual orientation and gender identity (Country of origin information for purposes of assessing protection needs and human rights claims. Movement for Democratic Change – Zimbabwe’s largest and most formidable opposition political party to the incumbent ZANU-PF Party. DFAT report 2016 An analysis of the state of human rights violations against LGBTI persons in Zimbabwe (2011-2017) 12