Keith Goddard, a human rights defender of tremendous courage and tenacity, died 9 October after a short illness.
The Director of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), Goddard helped transform what had been primarily a social organisation with a mostly while and middle-class membership into a political group whose membership both reflected and served the broader LGBTI community in Zimbabwe.
GALZ made international headlines in 1995 when Mugabe called homosexuals “worse than pgs and dogs, among other irrational, rabble-rousing insults, after the group applied to participate in the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, whose theme that year was “Justice and Human Rights”.
In a further irony, Mugabe's vitriolic statements gave GALZ the media coverage it had been denied for over a year after its access to media was banned by the state-controlled newspapers and radio. People all across the country learned of GALZ, and, as noted by the organisation in its account of the Book Fair Saga, “the membership of GALZ, especially amongst younger black lesbian and gay people, increased dramatically.”
In its statement announcing Goddard's passing, GALZ wrote:
Although of small stature he had a voice that commanded authority and silenced any room he was in. Keith dedicated his life to the advancement of LGBT rights, human rights, and his passion for music. The struggle for LGBT rights is a difficult struggle and in many instances in the history of GALZ Keith stood gallantly in the frontline. He dared where most men would not go.
Keith Goddard was arrested multiple times and beaten by police. He endured smear campaigns and harassment. But he persisted, lived to see some changes, and worked hard to secure more. An August 2009 article in the Guardian, headlined “Gay rights campaigners in Zimbabwe see chance to push for equality,” describes the push to include prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation in the new Zimbabwean constitution. “I think we've got a 50-50 chance,” Goddard is quoted as saying. “We live in hope.”

(The original of this text, and more on Goddard, GALZ and the Book Fair Saga can be read at http://intlawgrrls.blogspot.com/2009/10/human-rights-defender-keith-goddard.html)