by Maridee BonaDea, Peace Corps Volunteer (Mali, West Africa '08-'10) - Special to the SGN

Gay rights in Africa have been in the spotlight lately, with the couple in Malawi who were pardoned on June 1, and Uganda, where they are currently debating anti-homosexuality legislation. Almost two years ago, when I received my assignment to be a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, West Africa, I started doing some research on African Gay rights. What I found was a little scary. Most countries in Africa - 38, to be exact - have laws against homosexuality, and many carry the death penalty. Mali, as far as I could tell, doesn't have homosexuality on the radar yet. Looking at the legal status of homosexuality in Mali such as legal age of consent and laws covering homosexual activity, the relevant sections of the Malian Penal Code reads: "Mali 1981: Article 179 - Sexual Offence, Public Indecency: Three months to two years of prison and a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 francs." After reading this I breathed a sigh of relief.

Next I Googled "Gays in the Peace Corps" and got 33,700 results. There is even a website for GLBT Peace Corps Alumni and they have a website with a lot of helpful information if you are interested in applying to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The web address is www.lgbrpcv.org.

When I received my Mali Peace Corps welcome book, the contents seemed a mixture of good news and not-so-good news. The good news was that Gays were on the Peace Corps Mali staff's radar because they included a paragraph on Gays and Lesbians as part of Peace Corps Mali's diversity. The not-so-good news was the dress code, which states that women should wear skirts. Well I am a fem, and even though I don't wear dresses very often, it sounded OK - then two friends of mine said they would never go to Mali with the Peace Corps because they would never wear skirts. This started me thinking how much else of myself would I have to give up.

During the two and half months of language, cross-cultural, and technical training, I was out to most of the volunteers, but not the Malian staff. This invoked many interesting questions from volunteers like why I had a daughter who is 24 yet I had been out of the closet for over 30 years. There were a lot of questions about my partner of 15 years and how I could leave her to do Peace Corps. As liberal as the Peace Corps are, they don't allow same-sex partners to serve as a couple. As a matter of fact, Peace Corps changed their definition of marriage shortly before Massachusetts granted the right for same sex marriages. The change went from identifying married couples according to the laws of the different states to defining a married couple as a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, my partner's mother became ill. She was told that her mother would not last long, so she went back east to be with her. Peace Corps does have a family emergency policy for volunteers, so I called the country director (C.D.) to see if those policies included domestic partners. My partner and I have been registered with King County as domestic partners for 15 years. The C.D. said he needed to call Washington, D.C. and would get back to me by the end of the day. Several days later he called and apologized for not getting back to me sooner but the question had gone all the way to the legal department. He explained that while the Peace Corps staff was granted domestic partnership benefits under Secretary of State Clinton, those benefits had not yet been extended to volunteers.

Peace Corps' nondiscriminatory policy reads: "An important part of the Peace Corps' mission is to promote a better understanding of Americans and our multicultural society in the countries where our volunteers serve. Therefore, the Peace Corps places a high priority on expanding diversity not only among our volunteers, but also among our staff members. The Peace Corps actively seeks to hire employees regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, or political affiliation. Our goal is to ensure that Peace Corps employees, volunteers, and programs reflect and benefit from the diversity of the American people."

On the Peace Corps' website, this is the support and encouragement given to GLBT people: "Homosexuality is considered socially unacceptable or even illegal in some of the countries where the Peace Corps has programs. Moreover, volunteers are subject to the laws of their country of service. Those realities can create special challenges for Peace Corps volunteers, and Peace Corps has taken steps to address those challenges. During their three-month training process, new volunteers take part in diversity training sessions, and many Peace Corps posts offer peer support networks for volunteers. Volunteers learn techniques to manage cultural differences and are encouraged to support one another."

It's true the acceptance of GLBT people worldwide is a cross-cultural experience. I have been to Gay bars in Germany, Cuba, Mexico, and several other countries. When I traveled in Vietnam, my partner and I were sure that one of our tour guides was a Lesbian and we found several articles on Gay men in Vietnam. Mali is different in that it is Muslim, less developed, and very isolated from the rest of the world. What has helped me is talking regularly to friends and family back home, the people here in Mali who have found their way into my heart and the fact that men and women in Mali don't socialize together very much. So my highlight has been dancing with women at weddings while the men are all sitting off somewhere doing whatever it is they do.

The Peace Corps has been an amazing experience for me, and I don't regret the decision at all. Over the 30-some years I have been out of the closet, I have met many challenges because of my sexual orientation, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

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