PM backs gay rights

Tsvangirai told BBC that gay rights were a "human right" that conservative Zimbabweans should respect.

"It's a very controversial subject in my part of the world. My attitude is that I hope the constitution will come out with freedom of sexual orientation," Tsvangirai said. "To me, it's a human right."

Tsvangirai last year joined President Robert Mugabe in publicly urging Zimbabweans not to allow ongoing constitutional reforms to be used to smuggle the rights of gay and lesbian people into the country’s fundamental law.

“I totally agree with the President,” Tsvangirai said in March 2010, supporting Mugabe’s position that gay rights were not up for discussion in Zimbabwe.

However, Tsvangirai told the BBC that should he be elected President, he would pursue a more liberal approach towards gay people and would defend their rights in conservative Zimbabwe where, as in most other African countries, homosexuality is regarded as un-Christian and un-African.