#PrideMonth: LGBTIQ rights in Malawi

This week, the NHRF will highlight the voices of human rights defenders who are working towards strengthening the rights of LGBTIQ communities across the world. Here you can read about the Malawian human rights defender Eric Sambisa, who is the co-founder and current director of NYASA Rainbow Alliance (NRA).
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NRA is a LGBTIQ-led membership organisation that works to increase the scope of the existing LGBTIQ organisational landscape and address some of the gaps identified by the members of the LGBTIQ community. In 2015, Eric Sambisa was the first Malawian to openly come out as gay on national television.

“I do this work not because I’m forced to do it and not because I’m paid to do it. I do this just because it is in my nature, because I face each and every day the brutality that exists by being LGBT. I do this because I’m fighting for myself as a gay person and the people that will come after me. (…) I feel so sad when I see injustice, when I see people being arrested just because they are being suspected. I want the Malawians to know that it is not a crime to be gay.” Eric Sambisa

Listen to Eric's I Defend Rights story here:

Photo: Pixabay.com