Joyline Maenzanise

Queer Zimbabweans – invisibilized or vilified under the regime of now deposed President Robert Mugabe – turn to social media to reclaim their narrative.
A trans man sharing his life as a parent. A “rainbow” love story over a span of 10 years. Queer people and the challenges they face in seeking employment. Bisexual women and their joys, fears.
A whole spectrum of stories about the Zimbabwean LGBTQI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex) told by them, for them.
There, proteste...

While many women have a valid fear of men, this too easily fuels the violence that people like me endure, writes Joyline Maenzanise
“Why do you dress like a man?” my colleague asked me one day when we bumped into each other in the bathroom.
We were in the same team at an investment management company and had been working together for several months at that point. Our desks were one person apart from each other. She caught me off guard that day — I had been feeling pretty confident in my look ...

Early October 2016, I relocated to Zimbabwe after being forced to leave South Africa, the first country in the world to provide constitutional protection to LGBT+ folks like me.
I was devastated. I was angry. Having my life reorganized, again, pushed me into an emotional rut that saw me attempt suicide twice in September of the same year. I decided against moving back to the city I grew up in. I wanted to avoid the pain of facing familiar faces and being subjected to questions I wasn’t emotio...

Dating as a queer person can be complex – even more so if you’re open and seeing someone who is in the closet.
This is the dynamic of the lesbian couple portrayed in Happiest Season, which stars Kristen Stewart as Abby and Mackenzie Davis as Harper.
Although they have been together for almost a year, and Abby is planning to propose, it turns out that Harper’s sexuality is still a secret to her family. This then becomes a problem when she invites Abby to stay with them over the Christmas holid...

Last year, Lupita Nyong’o shared publicly that she had been told at an audition that she was "too dark" for television. This hit close to home.
Like Lupita, I grew up in a predominantly Black community. Still, internalized White supremacy saw—and still sees—us using White standards of beauty to gauge attractiveness. It’s no surprise that several folks, including some celebrities, have opted to lighten their skin, or that the market for bleaching products is forecast to reach a whopping $24 bi...

In July, Zimbabwe’s government published the Marriage Bill, which outlawed marriage equality and aligned the country’s marriage laws to the Constitution.
Though legal recognition of marriage has clear benefits, organizations advocating for the rights of Zimbabwe’s LGBTQ people have a conflicting relationship with this law.
“There are more pressing issues affecting the daily experiences of LGBTQ folks and the various organizations have resolved to devote their immediate attention to those issu...

I had crawled out of the closet and now, I was ready to smash it to smithereens.
I was told by one of my church’s elders that I was possessed by a male demon because I wore pants to church when I was 23 years old. By then, I had already known I was attracted to women. As a teen, I would see women and girls I deemed beautiful but there were some women whose beauty I seemed to admire in a rather intense way.
Unsurprisingly, I didn’t act on those feelings. Queerness was — and still is — deeply f...

At a young age, we are unduly influenced to modify our genitalia so they fit the cultural idea of how a sexually desirable woman ought to look like.
This essay discusses genital mutilation in an explicit manner.
By Joyline Maenzanise
Over the years, we have been having more chats on the bodily autonomy of cis women and other genders assigned female at birth, whose bodies have long been regarded as a mere object for cis men’s gratification. Whether it’s making informed decisions regarding abor...

For Mental Health Awareness Month, HelloGiggles is publishing “The Support You Deserve,” an essay series exploring the different barriers, stigmas, and myths blocking our access to effective mental health care. This particular essay discusses suicidal ideation and sexual abuse. Please read with caution if these subjects trigger you.
When an acquaintance offered to pay for my therapy, I was so grateful for the opportunity to get the help I needed. But, after just three sessions, I had to call ...

“We reject attempts to prescribe new rights that are contrary to our norms, values, traditions and beliefs. We are not gay.” This is what Zimbabwe’s former president, Robert G. Mugabe, said at the 2015 UN General Assembly.
He’s the same leader who’s known for saying people like me are “worse than pigs and dogs.” And let’s be honest. For someone who’s known to be very educated, and he is, comparing us to animals wasn’t quite an intelligent remark. Check out this article published by Pink News ...

Trigger Warning: This article mentions periods of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation.
The festive season has just ended, and much like last year, I have made sure to spend as little time as possible on social media. I don’t want to be reminded of my aloneness during this time.
Last year, I forced myself to deactivate my Facebook account and every now and then, I would check m...

When a deputy headmaster at one of Zimbabwe’s top schools recently came out as gay, he faced a backlash that revealed a deep-seated homophobia. One Zimbabwean decided to stand up – and out – in support of the LGBTQI+ community in general and GALZ in particular.
In case you missed the story that made international headlines in September 2018, Dr Neal Hovelmeier, a deputy headmaster at one of Zimbabwe’s private schools, came out as gay.
According to the Zimbabwe Constitution of 2013, same-gende...

THE OUSTING of Robert Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe in November 2017 was a cause for jubilation for many people, including members of the LGBT community. The hope and expectation was that the end of Mugabe’s thirty-year dictatorship would usher in a new era with brighter futures for ordinary citizens. Some LGBT folks shared in the euphoria, as their community has long borne the brunt of so much intolerance fueled by our leaders.
A few days into the post-Mugabe era, one of the nation’s leade...

Recently, a pregnant student at Zimbabwe’s National University of Science and Technology was run over by a moving train. In a suicide note left to her family, the 19-year-old wrote that she had decided to end her life after her boyfriend, who revealed that he was married, disowned her pregnancy. This unfortunate incident took place not long after another student from Midlands State University, also a Zimbabwean institution, hung himself. The phenomenon is common across the African continent, ...