At a recent rally during his successful reelection campaign, Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe vowed to behead the nation's LGBT people. Critics have accused Mugabe of using anti-gay rhetoric to win support. In 1996 his supporters crashed a pride week event and Mugabe famously quipped that gays were "worse than pigs and dogs".
The country has harsh laws against sodomy — an ex-president was convicted of violating them in 1998 — but attacks on people in same-sex relationships are rare.
Zimbabwe recently celebrated its annual ZimPride week — a low-key version of gay pride week, complete with book readings and film screenings. But the week ended with a rowdy drag queen pageant held outside of an "isolated farmhouse on a forest-shrouded hilltop on the outskirts of Harare, the capital," according to the AP.
Although their country is generally uncomfortable with their sexuality, some gay men couldn't worry about all that — they had a crown to win.
They painted their nails.
Put on their flashiest outfits.
And picked out their hottest pairs of heels.
So that they could strike the finest poses.
Okay, really fierce amazing poses.
All in the name of being out and proud.
But we all know there can only be one queen crowned Miss Jacaranda.
And this year, the honor went to 17-year-old Ezmerald Kim Kardashian.
