Cousins Can't Love Each Other Because it Makes Gay Babies

Or so says someone by the name of  Ropafadzo Mapimhidze writing at newsday.co.zw about the cruel treatment (including criminal conviction) recently of a couple of consenting adults in Zimbabwe, prosecuted for loving each other while being first cousins. You know, like hundred of millions of other people throughout history and alive today and legally married.

This story has generated so much debate and I decided to do a bit of research on reasons why incest is taboo, and why incest occurs despite the prohibition. And what the consequences are.

Where this is taboo, it is because of superstition, ignorance, legislative inertia, and control. It happens anyway because consenting adults love each other more than they pay attention to following unjust laws.

Such children can be born with extra toes, three eyes, and they can also grow to become homosexual, they may also have a low IQ and a potential to mentally harm future offspring, says the website. It also notes that such children can become people who are not able to interact with others or express love.

First of all, they were not prosecuted for having children. They were prosecuted for having sex. There is a difference. Also, all the columnist described above happens with unrelated lovers, too. In fact, we do not prevent people with obvious, serious, genetic diseases and birth defects from dating, having sex, having children, or marrying. But there are hundreds of millions of children from first cousins who are healthy, attractive, bright, and very social. Finally, there's nothing wrong with being gay.

The New York Times recently reported that first cousins are somewhat more likely than unrelated parents to have a child with a serious birth defect, mental retardation or genetic disease, but their increased risk is nowhere near as large as most people think, the newspaper quoted research done by some scientists.

But who needs scientists when we can listen to bigotry instead?

At least the piece does mention Genetic Sexual Attraction. Then it goes on to...

“Traditionally, such matters were dealt with by chiefs who then would find the rightful people to raise products of incest. We have to go back to our roots and see how best these matters can be dealt with the Zimbabwean way because these children are innocent victims of incest,” Kandiero said.

You know what makes children the biggest victims? When strangers use the power of unjust laws to force their parents apart and break up their home and brand their parents as criminals.

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Posted in: Africa,breaking up homes,children,consanguineous,cousins,GSA,lack of equality harms,myths,persecution,prejudice,prosecution,stigma,Zimbabwe

Updates on Two Criminal Cases

A sentence has been issued in this absurd prosecution of two adults in Zimbabwe for loving each other and (gasp!) being cousins! Here's a report from radiovop.com...

Two members of the Feremenga family from Dzivarasekwa Extension in Harare, whose incestuous relationship resulted in two pregnancies, were yesterday convicted and ordered to perform 630 hours of community service at different institutions in the suburb.

Robson (21) and Ashley Feremenga (19), whose fathers are blood brothers, pleaded guilty to incest charges when they appeared before Harare regional magistrate Adonia Masawi and were slapped with a 36-month prison term each.

But Masawi later suspended 18 months of their sentence on condition of good behaviour and again suspended the remainder on condition each of them performs 630 hours of community service.

Got that? If you break up your family, you can stay out of prison. Of course, the bigots in the neighborhood are going to have a field day being sadistic towards you anyway, and we won't stop that. Because, you know, you shouldn't be allowed to love each other.

The court was nonetheless, left in stitches when the two relatives insisted they wanted to stay together as a couple despite the implications of their unlawful relationship.

The cruelty is appalling. First cousins have been marrying for all of human history. Everyone involved in prosecuting these two should look into their heart, if they one, and clear it of this hatred.

The other update is about a case out of Nevada in which there was a sentencing a while back. I don't think the media ever specified the relationship, but my guess would be uncle-niece. This update comes from elkodaily.com reported by Dylan Woolf Harris.

Hughes isn’t specifically appealing his conviction, but instead the district court’s decision to allow prosecutors to use evidence gathered during a search of Hughes’ home. Leading up to trial, the defense filed a motion to suppress on grounds that a search warrant request wasn’t supported by probable cause, but District Judge Nancy Porter held that the warrant was supported and the prosecutor’s evidence was permissible.

The investigation and eventual search of Hughes’ home began in late 2008 after Kimberly Harphant, an acquaintance of Hughes, met with sheriff’s detective Kevin McKinney. She brought with her an unsigned, handwritten letter she said she took from Hughes’ home one day, as well as a prepared document of cut-and-pasted emails between Hughes and the victim.

Harphant had helped Hughes set up a business email account to which she remembered the password, and had lent him a phone. She was retrieving the phone when she found the letter, according to court documents.

The letter appeared to indicate romantic love between two people, but “in addition to a complete lack of attribution, it contains no references to a past or existing sexual relationship,” the brief states. Similarly, the emails’ authors were unverified and didn’t mention sex.

The appeal brief asserts McKinney made little attempt to corroborate or verify the items Harphant presented to him.

Interesting.

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Posted in: Africa,breaking up homes,consanguineous,cousins,incest,lack of equality harms,love,Nevada,prosecution,siblings,Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe Still Prosecuting Consenting Adults

From allafrica.com comes this report of the criminal prosecution of first cousins for the "crime" of loving each other.

Two cousins who were involved in an incestuous relationship which resulted in the birth of a girl and current pregnancy will perform 630 hours of community service. The two's fathers are brothers and traditionally are expected to treat each other as brother and sister. Ashley Feremenga (19) and her cousin Robson Feremenga (21) were living as husband and wife in Dzivaresekwa before neighbours alerted Ashley's father Jonasi.

I wonder what the love lives of those neighbors are like... if they have a love life in the first place. Must not be very fulfilling if they have time to rat people out for loving each other.

I'm sure their child is healthy. Otherwise, you can be sure this report would have noted any problems.

The duo was convicted after their own plea of guilt when they appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Aidonia Masawi who sentenced them to a 36 month-imprisonment term.

What a waste of the court.

Ashley's father Jonasi only came to know about their relationship after being advised by his neighbours.

He filed a police report leading to their arrest.

Rat. The lovers should keep his grandchildren away from him.

Fortunately, very few US states have ridiculous laws criminalizing consensual sex between first cousins. About half of US states will legally marry first cousins, and such marriages are common in many countries today, and have been very common throughout history. Prosecuting consenting adults for loving each other is outrageous.

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Posted in: Africa,breaking up homes,children,consanguineous,courts,cousins,family reaction,lack of equality harms,love,prejudice,prosecution,Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe Still Prosecuting Consenting Adults

I found this report at newsdzezimbabwe.co.uk and I had a difficult time believing it...

Cousins Patrick Zingwena, 24, and Josephine Muonde, 19, whose love for each other led to a sexual relationship have escaped jail and will have to perform 140 hours of community service.

They are consenting adults. Why should anyone care if they are cousins? First cousins can legally marry in many countries around the word, and such marriages are common. In about half of US states, the bigotry against marriage equality does extend to banning marriage between first cousins, but other states are more reasonable.

The two cousins, who were found naked in bed by another relative, were found guilty of having sexual intercourse within a prohibited degree of relationship by magistrate Tsatsawani Ndaba.

So another relative, probably jealous, ratted them out and Tsatsawani Ndaba went through with this farce of a prosecution.

Ndaba had sentenced the two to eight months in prison but suspended four months on condition of good behaviour while the incestuous relatives will have to refocus their sexual energies doing community service for the remaining four months.

Prosecutor Ernest Zhanda told the court that sometime last year, the two cousins were staying with their uncle Jefias in Kuwadzana when he was told that the two frequently shared the same bed.

So what???

The two admitted that they were in love and were having sexual intercourse regularly.

What's wrong with that?

The report then goes on to something with less priority...

Meanwhile, a Harare man who set his wife ablaze after pouring gallons of paraffin on her body was yesterday granted a $50 bail.

Sidwell Nyambirai, 38, was remanded out of custody to May 22 by magistrate Don Ndirowei.

It is alleged that on April 9 this year, Nyambirai set his wife on fire after having a domestic altercation with her.

The woman is said to have been rushed to Harare Hospital’s Intensive care unit where she died 10 days later.

Murder-by-arson takes second billing to consensual sex? 

Attention journalists: Domestic violence leading to murder is real crime. Consensual sex shouldn't be.

Attention lawmakers and law enforcement: Stop the absurdity of prosecuting and otherwise discriminating against adult for consensual sex.

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Posted in: Africa,consanguineous,courts,cousins,family reaction,incest,lack of equality harms,media,persecution,prosecution,Zimbabwe

Brothers and Sisters and Pregnancies

Every day, all over the world, regardless of socioeconomic status, siblings are sharing everything from from exploration and experimentation to lifelong spousal relationships. Whether we know it or not, and whether they know it or not, we all know people whose genetic parents are brother and sister. It is that common, and most children born to close relatives are healthy. So the two news items in this update should be no surprise. (By the way, siblings and anyone else involved in a consensual relationship with a close relative who wants to talk with others should sign up at Kindred Spirit forum. But be sure to immediately read and follow the rules, or you'll get kicked right off.)

Raymond Tan reports at the borneopost.com on a criminal case of interest to this blog...

The police here are anxious to determine whether two teenage boys and their sister had committed incest after the 13-year-old girl gave birth to a boy.

The police should only be interested if there was an assault involved. Are those official police uniforms in the picture?

They are now taking the 15-year-old and 17-year-old brothers for medical examination and DNA tests.

Does Boreo have laws against using a turkey baster to insert semen in a case like this? Some places don't. It is a valid defense.

The incident came to light after the children’s father found the girl pregnant in July.

He lodged a police report after she refused to reveal who fathered her baby.

The police might want to take the father in for testing, too, although, unless he's insane, reporting the matter makes it unlikely he did it.

When the police took the girl in, she tried to cover up, saying she had an intimate relationship with her boyfriend.

She gave birth in September, and the result of a DNA test showed that her boyfriend was not the biological father of her son.

The police took the girl in again, and this time, she broke down and confessed she had an intimate relationship with her two brothers.

Sex between a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old, and especially between a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old, should not be criminal unless there was some sort of intimidation, coercion, or force.

The girl’s family has given the infant boy away for adoption.

Look for a Genetic Sexual Attraction case in about 20 years.

Nothing in the article implies this was anything but consensual sex. Nothing in the article implies there is anything wrong with the child. Make sure the teens know about and use contraception. They are a little young to be having children. Otherwise, the authorities should stay out of it.

The second article comes from myzimbabwe.co.zw...

In an incestrous relationship that has sent tongues wagging in Caledonia Farm, a brother and his cousin sister are staying together as husband and wife, bearing children!

What is a "cousin sister?" Is that someone born to, say, your father and your mother's sister? After some quick searching, it appears it could either mean an actual sister or "female cousin."

The sister, who identified herself as Milca Mazhindi (18), is currently six months pregnant of her cousin brother Munyaradzi Tarabuka's SECOND CHILD. The two have a one-year-old daughter together.

What is newsworthy about this?

Meanwhile, knives are out for the two to vacate the area they are staying and they have been given a one week ultimatum to leave following their 'taboo' branded marriage.

Some people are threatening violence because some people love each other?

She confirmed the incident and revealed that she is in love with her brother-cum-husband and that she is six months pregnant of him. Milca revealed that their relationship started in 2010 resulting in the birth of their one-year-old daughter.

Good for them. May they have a long and happy life together.

"We met in 2010 in Buhera and the relationship started and I fell pregnant and gave birth to our first daughter. My mother and all relatives were furious about the matter but my mum later left us to live. I was the first to leave Buhera following the incident and he was called and we started staying together."

Why can't they be left alone to be happy together? There have to things that are actual problems for the local authorities to be concerned with. Notice that again, there is nothing cited as wrong with their child and no reason given as to why anyone would try to stop their relationship.

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Posted in: breaking up homes,brother-sister,children,consanguineous,cousins,family reaction,incest,lack of equality harms,love,persecution,pregnancy,prejudice,prosecution,siblings,Zimbabwe

Brothers and Sisters and Pregnancies

Every day, all over the world, regardless of socioeconomic status, siblings are sharing everything from from exploration and experimentation to lifelong spousal relationships. Whether we know it or not, and whether they know it or not, we all know people whose genetic parents are brother and sister. It is that common, and most children born to close relatives are healthy. So the two news items in this update should be no surprise. (By the way, siblings and anyone else involved in a consensual relationship with a close relative who wants to talk with others should sign up at Kindred Spirit forum. But be sure to immediately read and follow the rules, or you'll get kicked right off.)

Raymond Tan reports at the borneopost.com on a criminal case of interest to this blog...

The police here are anxious to determine whether two teenage boys and their sister had committed incest after the 13-year-old girl gave birth to a boy.

The police should only be interested if there was an assault involved. Are those official police uniforms in the picture?

They are now taking the 15-year-old and 17-year-old brothers for medical examination and DNA tests.

Does Boreo have laws against using a turkey baster to insert semen in a case like this? Some places don't. It is a valid defense.

The incident came to light after the children’s father found the girl pregnant in July.

He lodged a police report after she refused to reveal who fathered her baby.

The police might want to take the father in for testing, too, although, unless he's insane, reporting the matter makes it unlikely he did it.

When the police took the girl in, she tried to cover up, saying she had an intimate relationship with her boyfriend.

She gave birth in September, and the result of a DNA test showed that her boyfriend was not the biological father of her son.

The police took the girl in again, and this time, she broke down and confessed she had an intimate relationship with her two brothers.

Sex between a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old, and especially between a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old, should not be criminal unless there was some sort of intimidation, coercion, or force.

The girl’s family has given the infant boy away for adoption.

Look for a Genetic Sexual Attraction case in about 20 years.

Nothing in the article implies this was anything but consensual sex. Nothing in the article implies there is anything wrong with the child. Make sure the teens know about and use contraception. They are a little young to be having children. Otherwise, the authorities should stay out of it.

The second article comes from myzimbabwe.co.zw...

In an incestrous relationship that has sent tongues wagging in Caledonia Farm, a brother and his cousin sister are staying together as husband and wife, bearing children!

What is a "cousin sister?" Is that someone born to, say, your father and your mother's sister? After some quick searching, it appears it could either mean an actual sister or "female cousin."

The sister, who identified herself as Milca Mazhindi (18), is currently six months pregnant of her cousin brother Munyaradzi Tarabuka's SECOND CHILD. The two have a one-year-old daughter together.

What is newsworthy about this?

Meanwhile, knives are out for the two to vacate the area they are staying and they have been given a one week ultimatum to leave following their 'taboo' branded marriage.

Some people are threatening violence because some people love each other?

She confirmed the incident and revealed that she is in love with her brother-cum-husband and that she is six months pregnant of him. Milca revealed that their relationship started in 2010 resulting in the birth of their one-year-old daughter.

Good for them. May they have a long and happy life together.

"We met in 2010 in Buhera and the relationship started and I fell pregnant and gave birth to our first daughter. My mother and all relatives were furious about the matter but my mum later left us to live. I was the first to leave Buhera following the incident and he was called and we started staying together."

Why can't they be left alone to be happy together? There have to things that are actual problems for the local authorities to be concerned with. Notice that again, there is nothing cited as wrong with their child and no reason given as to why anyone would try to stop their relationship.

Read more »

Posted in: breaking up homes,brother-sister,children,consanguineous,cousins,family reaction,incest,lack of equality harms,love,persecution,pregnancy,prejudice,prosecution,siblings,Zimbabwe

Another Case of Consanguinamory in Zimbabwe

In a tabloid-like news blurb that doesn't identify anyone, we get this...

A man in Zimbabwe has committed the worst crime possible, not once but twice.

Worst crime possible? You mean like genocide?

A resident of a village in Zimbabwe left his mother pregnant with his child for the second time and absconded.

Abandonment is a terrible thing to do, but hardly the worst crime possible.

The mother also allegedly fled the village, according to reports in the British media.

Ah.

About four years ago, the mother and son were fined by their village church after the council learnt that the woman was left pregnant by her son.

That's the real crime... fining people for things that are no business of anyone else.

At that time, the woman had miscarried when she was four months pregnant. Now, history has repeated itself.

The villagers were outraged on learning about the incestuous relationship which has been on since 2008. The woman's husband passed away after a long illness.

If the villagers would mind their own business rather than interfering the private lives of other people, nobody would feel a need to leave.

Now villagers want to hunt and get the duo back to the village and subject them to harsh punishment to send out a signal to the entire community that such incestuous relationships would not be tolerated.

Why? What's the problem? Why don't they focus on their own lives, instead, instead of grabbing pitchforks and torches because two people love each other?

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Posted in: Africa,consanguineous,incest,lack of equality harms,love,mother-son,pregnancy,prejudice,prosecution,Zimbabwe

Politician in Zimbabwe Prosecuted Under Incest Laws

In what appears to be a more pressing matter of child support, a politician in Zimbabwe is making headlines for having consanguinamorous relationships. Of course, the headlines focus on "incest." From zimdiaspora.com...

A ZIMBABWEAN politician Fidelis Mhashu, whose wife left for the United Kingdom in 2003 and never came back, says he ended up in an incestuous relationship with his two nieces due to loneliness.

Both cases resulted in the birth of four children.

Mr Mhashu who is also Chitungwiza North legislator and former Minister of National Housing and Social Amenities is now facing charges of engaging in incestuous relationship under Zimbabwe traditional court system in his home area of Mhondoro.

Consensual incest should not be a crime in the first place.

Mr Mhashu (70), who later dumped both women has confessed the unlawful unions, claiming that he had been driven to incest by his wife’s departure to Britain in 2003.

It would make sense that he would seek companionship, but who he found it with has nothing to do with anything else.

He said the women, one of whom has since died, had actu­ally become his wives.

Mhondoro’s Chief Chivero fined Mr Mhashu 15 head of cattle for the offences a fortnight ago. However, the former minister said he was appealing against that ruling because of the “excessive’’ fine.  The cattle are sup­posed to compensate the women’s families.

Hold on a minute while I check what year it is...

Mr Mhashu said although he had relationships with his two nieces, who were sisters, he had not forced or sexu­ally abused any of them as their family is now claiming.

“I was lonely when my wife and children left the country for the UK. I then requested for assistance from my nieces at family level, but, unfortu­nately we ended up falling in love. It is not true that I raped them.”

One of the women, who was 20 years old when she began the relation­ship with Mr Mhashu in 2008, last week accused the former minister of neglecting her and their two children.

“I have two surviving children with this man.

The other one is only seven weeks old and, unfortunately, I cannot breastfeed the child.

“We have no food and I am now relying on handouts from neighbours for survival.”

So this appears to be a child support issue. Making sure children are taken care of is more important than whether or not consenting adults had sex, right?

The brother said Mr Mhashu sought refuge at their family home in 2004 when he fled alleged political violence in Chitungwiza. At that time, he asked the late sister to be his private secretary.

“He came with nothing, but, as an uncle, we had to accommodate him. Within a few months we discovered that he was having an incestuous relation­ship with my older sister.

“We tried to talk to both of them, but all our advice fell on deaf ears. He would always plead with the elders to conceal the crime for fear of public embarrassment,” he said.

The sister, however, died in 2007.

“While my elder sister was hospitalised, he (Mhashu) requested my younger sister to assist him in caring for her. Soon after her death, we again dis­covered that he had begun a relationship with the younger one. We tried to warn him, but he would always plead with us promising to marry her, which he never did.’’

It appears what we have here, at worst, is a bitter fight over child support. I did not see in the articles about this whether these women are nieces through a brother or sister of Mhashu, or through his wife. I think the implication is that they are actual blood relatives of his. Of course I have no problem with any adults sharing sex and love, but I do have a problem with people who don't provide or make arrangements for their children.

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Posted in: Africa,boundaries,children,consanguineous,family reaction,incest,law,politicians,prejudice,prosecution,uncle-niece,Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe Arrests Adults For Consensual Sex

In a report at chronicle.co.zw, we see both the prosecution of consenting adults for sex,  a a bias in the media against the lovers.

In a bizarre case, a 38-year-old mother and her son from Gutu have left the whole community in shock after they were caught being intimate during a night prayer vigil.

"Bizarre?" The only thing bizarre is that consenting adults are being prosecuted. What does it matter if other people were praying somewhere? In any given town, there's somebody praying and somebody making love. Sometimes they are the same people.

Appearing before Gutu resident magistrate, Mr Nyasha Vhitori recently, the woman and her 18-year-old son were not asked to plead to charges of incest.

The duo was remanded out of custody to 18 September for trial.

The case should be dropped. Nobody has been harmed.

For the State, Ms Agatha Gabriel told the court that on an unknown date but sometime in July this year, the woman allegedly coerced her son into making love and he consented.

Either it was coerced or it was consensual. The prosecution can't even get their story straight.

The court further heard the two’s illicit sexual encounters, which are believed to have started in April this year, came to light sometime last month.

It is said the two would normally do their sordid act during night prayer vigils and on the fateful day, the two were caught by two minors who were attending a church service at Runyowa business centre.

Privacy is important.

It is said the encounters happened so frequently that the two had lost count of the number of occasions they had been intimate.

Sounds like they are in love and enjoying each other.

They are adults. As long as it is consensual, they should be free to be together. Nobody else has to like it. It is a waste of resources to prosecute them. An adult should be free to share love, sex, residence, and marriage with ANY consenting adults.

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Posted in: breaking up homes,consanguineous,lack of equality harms,law,love,media,mother-son,persecution,Zimbabwe