APRIL 2012
Identity Kenya I SUPPORT GAYS, SO WHAT? Interviewed by DENIS NZIOKA, Prof. MAKAU MUTUA, Dean in an American university, says ‘Matters of human rights and dignity are not a popularity contest. We must do what is right’. Prof. Makau Mutua is the Dean, SUNY Distinguished Professor , Floyd H. & Hilda L. Hurst Faculty Scholar, The State University of NY, Buffalo Law School & Chair of the KHRC. (Inset | Photo | Buffalo University) Q: You have been a vocal proponent for gay rights and have written much to defend gays. Where did this stem from? I am a human rights thinker and advocate. It would be wrong for anybody who believes in human rights to choose to protect the rights of some human beings, and not others. I am guided by the theory of anti-subordination under which we have a normative obligation to oppose all tyranny and oppression. We shouldn’t, for example, oppose torture and support the oppression of women at the same time. This is would be logically inconsistent and theoretically indefensible. But like most Kenyans, I was raised in a homophobic world. Later in life, as I developed as an intellectual, I discovered that there was no rational or intellectually defensible reason to be homophobic. That’s how I overcame my own homophobia. I decided to write and speak up. I know my position on gays is unpopular with powerful interests in Kenya – and perhaps a majority of Kenyans. But matters of human rights and dignity are not a popularity contest. We must do what is right. But I believe the majority of Kenyans will come around to our point of view with time and education. CONTINUED ON PAGE 6, 7
Kenyan Lesbian Poetry To Hit Shelves Soon Lesbian activist and artist Kate Kamunde (inset) is set to launch her poetry book comprised of lesbian themed poetry and articles. Kate Kamunde who serves as the Programs Officer for AFRA Kenya, a Kenyan lesbian, trans and bisexual group
and also a columnist with Identity Magazine said that it was not easy writing the book. She said she wrote the book so as ‘Bring the general society to a fuller and more tolerant understanding of sexual minorities and in this case lesbian.’ In addition to the poetry book,
she is working on a CD collection. ‘The book and music will be an effective means of passing communication to the LGB community as well as the society,’ she said. CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
Identity Kenya
INSIDE ORGANISATION TALK
@IdentityKenya @BugzMaingi @IdentityKenya i just joined, being an alumni. I've being wondering what it was @bisialimi Growing older with HIV: What do we know? http:// sagba.blogspot.com/2012/04/ growing-older-with-hiv-what-dowe-know.html? spref=tw @IdentityKenya @Rebe kahWebb1 @RogTat@hanifleyla bi @ProfWetpaint @Qamunde @DenisNzioka @IdentityKenya This month, I'm sending you the story of the lesbian couple that committed suicide. Check your mail. Tx @jfburroway Read Kenya's great LGBT Mag! RT @IdentityKenya Our March 2012 Issue - Leading story - LGBT community mobilizing. @LorernaLuetkeme Rt @IdentityKenya #Holographi cTupac SOULMATES - Identity welcomes soul mates ads for its April 2. @JarelTheArtist isn't it already? RT @DenisNzioka @IdentityKen ya poised to become Kenya's leading LGBT news hub and media station. ROCK ON!
10-11
JOHN MAKOKHA shares his experience of an organization workshop he attended, Citing development, growth and challenges that are often common in people organizations, Makokha highlights the key areas we can work on to ensure success and growth. SODOMY LAWS
12-13
In her premier feature for Identity Magazine, human rights activist and lawyer ROSELYN ODOYO charts the historical pattern of antisodomy laws from the times of Jesus Christ. She paints the picture of a Kenya that is yet to move even as its colonial masters have ‘shed off’ some of the archaic laws it once held firmly. HETEROSEXUAL ALLIES
14-15, 18
When GALCK appointed a heterosexual identifying man to head the organization, few thought this move was calculated. JACKSON OTIENO interviews the GALCK General Manager on his life, passion, work and commitment even at the sacrifice of his reputation and family. IDENTITY
22
If there is one question that human beings tire to answer is ‘Who Am I?’ More so, persons who identify as LGBT have an extra task to find themselves despite the opposition they face. TERRENCE TENDAI shares his thoughts on this universal question. TRANSGENDER FEMINISM
25-26
BARBRA MURUGA delves into the feminism movement and the place of the transgender feminist in it. She points to the contribution that Trans persons can give to the feminist movement and that special palce they occupy in women’s liberation.
IN DISAPORA
28-29
LARRY MISEDAH writing from Houston, paints a portrait of the African community in Diaspora and especially those who identify as LGBTI. The dynamics of movement, of a new culture can be challenging to someone unfamiliar. Culture shock is also inevitable.
COMING OUT STORIES Its never easy coming out. Especially to our close family members and relatives. NJOROGE JOE found out the hard way when his father nearly killed him after he came out. More salient, however, is the picture of a conflicted, young man with a ‘secret’ but afraid to share it. He delves into the emotions and fears one goes through.
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April 2012 Issue
EDITOR’S LETTER
I do not consider myself as a human rights activist. I am a promoter and advocate for homosexuality I do not consider myself as a human rights activist. I am a promoter and advocate for homosexuality. I preach and live to tell all that homosexuality is a legitimate, valid and equal to heterosexuality. I care about human rights, yes, but not at the expense of belittling or sacrificing the innate attractions I feel for men. Just as human rights are inherent to my as a person, so is homosexuality. Let me make this clear – When the American Psychologist Association removed homosexuality from its list of sicknesses and disorders, it did so not because persons who showed homosexual inclinations were denied their rights or because it was a ‘human rights issue’, but because they realized what we do now – that homosexuality is how a minority of society expresses its sexuality and finds satisfaction and betterment in it – hiding or living a lie only results in self hate, depression, suicide and other maladies. The Catholic Church also recognizes homosexuality (innate) though it condemns Page 3
the ‘actual act’ of homosexuality. Most LGBT activists, burgeoned by a strong civil, human rights, social justice movement, have lost ground and vision because they have forgotten what they really are supposed to be advocating for – homosexuality. Their work and mine is not to ask for human rights only; but more fundamentally, to tell people that homosexuality is not evil, its not immoral, its not unAfrican, its not a curse, its not a foreign import but its good, legitimate, safe, rooted in our innate beings, equal, and positive. Too often the call for human rights ‘swallows up’ the more pertinent call of showing that homosexuals can live as patriotic citizens, fervent religious and social beings. Homosexuality, like human rights, are so innately woven in us that the promotion of one will lead to the death of the other. Sadly, we are betraying our homosexuality when we insist on human rights. Claiming that talk of homosexuality is not ‘palatable’ but talk of human rights is, is
akin to denying our true emotions and attractions that form who we are as human being. Give us the buffet! In no way, am I saying that human rights advocacy should not be pursued but our goals and vision must be clear—homosexuality is good. Give us rights, yes, but know that I am a homosexual. May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia is one such opportunity to preach the Gayspel. Its my hope all around the world that as we seek to highlight the challenges that most LGBT face, we do not forget to take the message home. People may give us rights but will still cringe at the thought of same sex love, sex and marriage. Sell it differently. Trust me on this. DENIS NZIOKA
Identity Kenya A writer and human rights campaigner, JACKSON OTIENO is an Anthropology graduate from the University of Nairobi. He is a coordinator for PurpleHaze Bisexual group. He is passionate about human rights, politics and sports and his vision is to contribute in the creation of spaces for bisexuals and bisexual discussion by participating in the fight against biphobia and homophobia.
CONTRIBUTORS LARRY MISEDAH, writing from Houston, Texas, writes on Africans in Diaspora. Back in 2007 at the World Social Forum, he became the face of a community that was hidden, maligned, discriminated and hated. With numerous media interviews and shows, Larry was able to pave way to a new generation of activists, who emboldened by his ‘coming out’ act, now lead the struggle for rights.
Photo | Ina Sesgoer
ROSELYN ODOYO is a lawyer by profession but a Human Rights activist and afro feminist at heart by passion. She is endeavoring to mesh the two in her advocacy for accessibility to Human Rights to include LGBTI because otherwise is "against the order of nature."
After a two month hiatus, QUEER WATCHTOWER is back! Known for his knife-edge analysis, quick tongue and no hold barred pieces, this time, he points his machine guns to someone who heads the largest LGBT organization in Kenya and opines, he might be the problem that needs solving.
COLE MUTAHI a promising gay Kenyan blogger and lawyer, gives his usual dossier on gay men. ‘Closing our eyes to future d*ck and or man-pussy is a sacrifice many queer men are not going to make any time soon’ he opines in this month’s article.
Recently appointed to head Kenya’s premier LBT women organization—Minority Women in Action—AKINYI OCHOLLA, this months views that unit we call ‘family’ and seeks to highlight the importance of this unit of society. This resonates well with most LGBT children who seek affirmation and understanding from their own families.
Identity Kenya BARBRA WANGARE is a queer African transfeminist from Nairobi Kenya. She strongly believes in the feminist and transfeminist values and considers herself as a human rights and social justice activist. Her goal in life is to see the rights of gender minorities truly upheld in the countries they reside in and specifically the Kenyan and African communities. She believes she is still a young activist and has got a lot to learn from the much more experienced activists out there and this is one of her other goals.
CONTRIBUTORS DAGITARI WAWIRA is a photographer in the making. She uses the art of light to amplify social injustices affecting the world and is a journalist by profession. Dagitari occasionally blogs, writes, sketches and uses other various forms of art.
KATE KAMUNDE is a 28 years old human rights defender cum artist who identifies as a woman of color. She is a refined poet and blogs specifically tailored poetry and articles for women who love other women. She is in the process of launching her first poetry book . She is also a skilled vocalist and composer. She lives in Nairobi.
TENDAI THONDHLANA is the Communication Officer at AMSHeR, having joined the organisation in 2011 soon after completing his degree at University of Fort Hare. He is a Zimbabwean citizen living in South Africa and has an innate desire for justice and a real passion for the equality of LGBT persons in all aspects of society. Tendai has a fresh and innovative approach to effective communication of AMSHeR objectives and the visibility of African MSM."
NJOROGE GITAU to highlight the more extreme reaction that parents exhibit when their sons, daughters reveal they are gay, shares with us his personal coming out story. He is 28 and studied Marketing at the Kiambu Institute of Science and Technology and is a proprietor.
JOHN MAKOKHA and his open and affirming Christian organization— Other Sheep AfrikaKenya—is a trained theologian, pastor and married father. He seeks to bring balance between the Christian faith and homosexuality and at the same time, affirming the beauty of GOD who created each individual different. ‘If GOD did not love us, he would have created all of us the same.’
Identity Kenya (Photo| Blog) Q:
The Constitution of Kenya, promulgated on August 2010 was
welcomed and embraced by many Kenyans. One of the goodies is the Bill of Rights. Does the gay community too need to celebrate? The new constitution is document of wonderment in many respects. The Bill of Rights is one of the most comprehensive and progressive in the world. The Constitution protects the rights of gays and lesbians in its each protection clauses. The provisions of the Penal Code that criminalize homosexuality are clearly unconstitutional, and I have no doubt that the courts will rule in favor of gay rights. Importantly, the Constitution doesn’t prohibit gay marriages or civil unions among gay people. I hope the courts will rule on this soon. It’s the international trend in any case, and it’s a matter of time before it becomes commonplace internationally. South Africa, on our own continent, allows gays marriages. We must follow suit. Q: Compared to the gay community in the US, what are some of the similarities with the gay community here in Kenya in terms of advocating for their rights? Gay communities the world over live under the pressure of tradition and stigma. In most countries, including the US, they don’t have an adequate public voice. But the difference between Kenya and the US is that the gay community in the US has been embraced by the Democratic Party. It’s an important constituency politically – a large voting bloc and also a source of campaign funds for Democrats. Thus gays have a voice in the political process. There is a movement, albeit very small, to force the Republican Party to recognize gays. Several states, including New York – the third largest in the Union – has legalized gay marI have been vilified for supporting gay rights. I have been accused of being gay. I have been attacked for preaching moral decay. I have been called every name you can imagine
riage. These changes have been possible because of the smart political advocacy of the gay movement in the US. They have done so without fear, or begging. I feel that the gay movement isn’t bold enough. It’s still self-stigmatized and cowed. It must show courage, speak openly and DEMAND its rights. Rights are never given – they must be taken. Q: There have been voices that question the inclusion and or participation of ‘heterosexual’ persons in the gay movement. What are your thoughts on this? Anyone who questions the unity of the rights language is a fool. We need as many voices as possible speaking about ALL rights. It would be tragic if gay folks thought that only they should speak about gay
rights. That’s not how rights claims are mainstreamed. I would go so far as to say that the gay rights movement will not achieve any success in Kenya UNLESS heterosexuals are a part of it. The same is true of the women’s rights movement and others. In unity there is strength, and weakness in disunity. But I strongly believe that the leadership and the agenda of the gay rights movement MUST come from gays themselves. Q: One of the greatest challenges is the lack of awareness of one’s human rights and therefore most people whose rights are denied (violated, abused, e.t.c.) do not seek redress or are unaware of how to. This is more so in the gay community. How do you think this can be addressed? The success of every rights claim must begin from the inside out. Gay people must educate themselves first so that they can educate others. That’s why we need more gay organizations in Kenya. But the gay movement must also seek to incubate in the mainstream human rights groups like FIDA and the KHRC gay rights agendas. There cannot be redress without self-knowledge of rights and how they can be protected. This is the role of the leadership of the gay rights movement.
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Photo | Sunday Nation
Identity Kenya (Photo | Demokrasia Kenya Blog )
Q: Now more than ever, the once ‘hidden’ gay community is now coming out and are even publicly advocating for recognition and acceptance. Whereas this has been heralded as a provocative and dangerous move, what is your opinion? There will be no success for the gay rights movement if there is no public visibility of gays. Gays must come out so that Kenyans can see them. The gay movement cannot be a closet movement. No movement has ever succeeded in hiding. Why should seeking human dignity be provocative? As Zapata, the Mexican revolutionary said, “It’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.” Q: What are some of the challenges you have faced stemming from your support for gay rights? I have been vilified for supporting gay rights. I have been accused of being gay. I have been attacked for preaching moral decay. I have been called every name you can imagine. Many of these attacks and accusations would be comical were they not so tragic and dangerous. But I take solace in two facts. It’s good to know the enemy – so that we know how to confront him. Second, none of the attackers can defend their position with intellect and logic. This to me means that they are fighting a losing battle as all bigoted battles will be lost eventually. The attacks only make me more determined to advocate for the rights of gays and lesbians. Q: Any final words? Gay people must educate Remember, the arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice. The clouds may be dark now, but tothemselves first so that morrow looks brighter because that is the march of history. We will never be free – especially as heterothey can educate others. sexuals – if our gay brothers and sisters are not free. Aluta continua! That’s why we need more gay organizations in The poetry book and music ‘coming out’ letter that Kate nities as possible on the issue Kenya CD are set to be launched on addressed to her mother. of homosexuality.’ May 17th during the Interna‘It is an emotional letter that She faced some challenges tional Day Against Homowill be part of the healing on the way that included getphobia. (IDAHO) process through coming out ting a publishing house that IDAHO is celebrated world- and I hope will reach out to would publish her book. wide to fight stigma and dis- the many parents who have crimination faced by LGBT found out that their sons/ ‘Most felt that the poetry was daughters are gay, and those offensive and sensitive and persons. who are judgmental to open- did not want to lose credibil‘I hope to encourage other ing up for the possibility that ity with clients, get in trouble LGB artists with talent to that could actually be their with government, and other,’ express themselves through child’ she added. she remarked. art without fear,’ she added. According to Kate, there is a ‘I am therefore self publishIn addition, the music album, lot of silence when it comes ing with the help of my felto be titled Ekwality has three to sexuality. low artists (poets) most of songs on audio and a bonus whom are heterosexual allies ‘My main aim in publishing who support the idea of pubtrack. these two is to provoke dia- lishing queer poetry,’ she Kate Kamunde One of the featured article in logue with as many commu- said.—IDENTITY KENYA the poetry book will be a Page 7
Identity Kenya
Identity Columnist Appointed Head of Lesbian Group Identity Kenya Magazine columnist and lesbian activist, Akinyi M. Ocholla (inset) has been appointed as the new Executive Director of Minority Women in Action (MWA).
Rhoda Awino, the appointment was effective from April 1st 2012. Rhoda described Akinyi as 'experienced and knowledgeable' and who has 'a passion for LGBT human rights.'
MWA is a Kenyan based organisation that advocates for lesbian, transgengder and bisexual women's rights.
Akinyi is an accomplished LGBT rights advocate and is now the representative of the ILGA Women Secretariat that MWA is hosting.
According to a statement from the Chair of MWA,
She is an avid writer and after several publications in Identity Kenya Magazine, Kenya's LGBT and sex work magazine, she was honored with her own column. She writes on life, well-being, 'coming out,' women and justice as well as rights. She has also been involved in both private and public sectors. IDENTITY KENYA
Kisumu Based LGBT Activist Found Dead NYAWEK, the Nyanza Western Kenya LGBTI coalition has announced the death of LGBTI activist Robert Anthony Odhiambo, 24, who was found dead in an empty house belonging to a relative in Kisumu, western Kenya. Until his death he was an active member of Picture Youth Group. The cause of
his death is being investigated. Bob, as his friends called him, was found hanging in the bathroom of a recently built, but vacant house belonging to a relative. He was found on the morning of Monday April 16 in Kisumu city’s Mamboleo Estate and was positively identified by his parents. Executive
director
of
AWEK Daniel Peter Onyango said, “We are very sad to hear about the death of one of our members Robert Anthony Odhiambo. The Kenyan LGBTI community has lost a hero. His death is currently under investigation and we are yet to establish whether his death was as a result of his work in LGBTI movement.”
NY- BEHIND THE MASK
IDAHO Planning Underway In Kenya Kenya’s LGBT community is bracing for the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia with plans for a community day lined up.
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An IDAHO planning committee instituted by GALCK was tasked with coming up with activities for the day celebrated each year on May 17th.
Preliminary reports say that the committee formed had suggested, among others, a community evening and a cocktail bring together the community and other key stakeholders from the human rights, legal, health and media fraternity. Last year, the day was marked in Kisumu and Nairoi
with Kisumu celebrations being a community day and a fashion pageant. Nairobi’s marking of the day included a cocktail party at the Museums of Kenya and a public lecture last that was held last year at the GoDowon Arts Center. IDENTITY KENYA
Identity Kenya
Male Sex Workers Group Awarded HIV Grant A Kenyan based community organization whose members are male sex workers living with HIV and AIDS has been awarded a grant to train the members to do be peer educators and also use social media to undertake outreaches.
Health Options for Young Men on HIV, AIDS and STIs (HOYMAS) started in 2009
as a support group for male sex workers in Nairobi. From an initial membership of 20, they now number close to 300 from different parts of Nairobi. The award was announced by amfAR, that seeks to 'bolster frontline groups working in discriminatory environments to curb the AIDS epidemic among Men who have Sex with other Men (MSM).' amfAR, The Foundation for
AIDS Research, is one of the world’s leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to the support of AIDS research, HIV prevention, treatment education, and the advocacy of sound AIDS-related public policy. Since 1985, amfAR has invested more than $340 million in its programs and has awarded grants to more than 2,000 research teams worldwide. CONTINUED ON PAGE 11, 30
PM Raila Appoints Homophobe For Presidency Shot For I have always considered the homosexual a pervert, who should be left alone. And I have left these nauseous fellows alone
Prime Minister Raila Odinga has appointed well known and public homophobe Barack Muluka (inset) as his head of communication directorate and will take charge of the Prime Minister's media and public affairs relations during the 2013 campaigns. Barack Muluka, together w i t h D o r o t h y Kweyu (Nation) and Kwamchetsi Makokha, all renowned journalists, have written to dispute homosexuality and employ stereotypes to increase their readership as well as instigate anti-gay sentiments and further fuel them.
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He is also a publisher with Mvule Africa Publishers, media consultant and newspaper columnist with The Standard.
One of his famous anti-gay articlestitled 'Homosexual Perversion is a Threat To The Survival of Humankind' says 'I can pity them, yes. But stand them, no. I have never stood them.'
ity. 'The lowest common factor between the rapist, the pedophiliac and the dog-man is that they have evolved perverted carnal appetites that run counter to the law of nature.'
He goes even further terming homosexuals make him 'sick.'
He goes further and says that homosexuality will be the end of humanity.
'You will occasionally come across uncouth male characters who will even try to finger you in conversation and try 'taking you out'. When they do not try this, they disgustingly try to be coy and womanish with you. The very thought of it makes me sick.' He also adds, 'For I have always considered the homosexual a pervert, who should be left alone. And I have left these nauseous fellows alone. Muluka, a father, also equates homosexuality to rape, pedophilia and bestial-
'Homosexuality is a threat to the very survival of humankind,' echoing Pope Benedict's remarks on the same. Muluka goes even further as to say he can disown his own son if he turned out gay. 'Of course he cannot be my son if he is a homosexual, or a dog-man. He could be my anything else, but not a son. He cannot be anybody’s son,' he writes. IDENTITY KENYA
Identity Kenya
Organization Talk—Strength & Development (Image | Wikistreets)
BY REV. JOHN MAKOKHA I have been privileged to attend the four-day workshop organized by the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) in a Nairobi hotel. The objective of the workshop was to enhance participant knowledge and understanding of organizational development, strengthening and systems strengthening as a capacity building strategy for civil society organizations. This was meant to build commitment to effective management of civil society organizations for greater impact of HIV/AIDS intervention at the community level. It was noted that good project management skills and resource mobilization are key to the success and sustainability of community-led projects. To achieve the project objective, a strategy has to be formulated which identifies activities and expected results, as well as human, financial and material resources that are required to meet the set objective. One facilitator emphasized that many projects’ failure is attributed to poor project management and organizational weaknesses. Some examples could be the project objectives and expected results and outputs are too ambitious and exclusion of relevant stakeholders. Good organizations fail because their missions gradually drift from stakeholders and beneficiaries Monitoring and evaluation they serve. This can negatively affect the development and growth of an organizational entity. were presented as important elements in the project implementation. The purpose of monitoring and evaluation of the project is to promote excellent implementation of project activities
The aspect of good governance and leadership were highlighted as the driving forces behind a successful organization since they provide a vision and guide for the organization. Leaders of the organization have to adapt their leadership styles to the changing environment of the organization’s development. If they fail to do so, then the objectives of the organization will not be achieved. Governance responsibilities protect the interests of the organization and its stakeholders. Consequently, this ensures the organization’s success by providing effective leadership within a framework of effective checks and balances.
It was observed that most organizations lacked strategic plans in their daily operations. This makes them lack proper direction and vision. Strategic planning determines where an organization is going over the next few years. This clarifies what an organization is trying to achieve and the approaches it intends to use effectively. Regular review of the strategic plan helps to maintain relevance with emerging issues of the day. One participant equated an organization without a strategic plan with a pilot whose destination of the flight is Heathrow airport in London but flies to Johannesburg in South Africa due to lack of a compass. The role of stakeholders and beneficiaries in the project implementation was over-emphasized; involving them meaningfully in the project cycle is key for project ownership and sustainability. It was shown that stakeholders have the knowledge and expertise that can contribute to the success of the project at hand. Therefore stakeholders and beneficiaries are valuable and should be welcomed and their voices heard as partners in the project design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation. This strengthens community accountability and commitment to a project of focus. The participants unanimously agreed that every organization should have policies and procedures to protect its financial assets. There should be a clear mechanism of planning and controlling income and expenditure and decision-making that will enable an organization to survive and live financially. Every organization should have its financial statements examined or audited by an independent, objective and qualified person at least once per year. This enhances credibility in the eyes of the community, partners and donors. Indeed the financial raising, controlling and accountability is the life-line of any living civil society organization. Page 10
Identity Kenya Networking and advocacy were taken as identical twins in the organizational development cycle. Networking enhances information generation, sharing and a synergy effect. Thus cooperation between various civil society organizations makes it possible for the organizations to achieve more and more. Advocacy is mostly undertaken to create awareness of the problem and lobbying for social and political change; promoting new ways of thinking and acting at the community level. The participants noted that community-led projects generate a lot of information and knowledge that is often unrecognized or documented due to ignorance. It is evident that this data of information is key to influencing policy and decision-making as regards the project outcome and impact. Knowledge management is emerging as one of the vital aspects of project management since it promotes sharing of what works and what doesn’t work to avoid interventions that are wasteful. The need to understand the role of strengthening sustainability was argued by participants, since sustainability is a process and not an end in itself. The purpose of sustainability is to ensure civil society organizations have the capacity and resources that will enable them to continue beyond the project funding. The organizations need to work beyond the donor dependency syndrome box through income-generating projects since donors come and go. No wonder civil society organizations struggle to survive for sustainability due to scarce resources and lack of proper exit strategy, hence some are more sustainable than others- others just die and buried. Monitoring and evaluation were presented as important elements in the project implementation. The purpose of monitoring and evaluation of the project is to promote excellent implementation of project activities. Monitoring provides the implementers with information required to analyze the current situation, identify problems and solutions to keep in line with There should be a clear the project objectives. Evaluation is a systematic examination of the completed project in terms of effimechanism of planning ciency, impact and relevancy in relation to the project objectives, stakeholders and beneficiaries. When and controlling income the participants were requested to reach all most –at- risk populations such as gays and lesbians and sex workers with HIV/AIDS programs, majority declined to make any meaningful commitment citing reliand expenditure and decision-making that will gious, ethical and cultural dogmas. enable an organization to survive and live financially
On the basis of our daily organizational experience, I am strongly persuaded that most of our organizations are struggling to reach all of these benchmarks!
Announcing the full list of awardees, amfAR CEO, Kevin Robert said “There is continuing concern that the social climate in many African countries is increasingly homophobic, so the groups we work with through our MSM Initiative are not only doing vital work, but also very dangerous work."
The project to be undertaken by HOYMAS, will provide sex workers living with HIV with HIV prevention and treatment information. Those workers, in turn, will pass that knowledge on to other sex workers. Additionally, HOYMAS is working with the Kenyan government to improve public policies related to HIV among male sex workers.
Erastus Ndunda, a member of HOYMAS, was excited at the grant awarding and said he was looking forward to the training. He hopes that this grant will allow the male sex workers to reach more people and also help the larger LGBT community understand male sex workers who identify as gay or MSM.
'HOYMAS is the only male sex workers group and the only group whose membership is drawn from those living with HIV in Kenya; we are unique in our own way and we hope that this recognition will go a long way in not only reaching out to more male sex workers but especially lessen the stigma and discrimination they experience from their clients, families and larger community,' said John Mathenge, the Chairman of HOYMAS.
Identity Kenya
Sodomy Laws In Kenya (Photo | LGBT Asylum News)
BY ROSELYN ODOYO “Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials.” Avicenna (Persian physician and philosopher) To understand the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity activism in present day, we should start at the beginning. I will do my best to refrain from the legal jargon that oftentimes causes a breakdown in communication between lawyers and people with non legal backgrounds. So, let’s talk about the history of sodomy laws in Africa. The history of homosexuality has been argued to be traceable as far back as nine thousand years before Christ. The criminalization of homosexuality can be traced as far back to over a thousand years before Christ when in Assyria men in the army that had intercourse with other men in the army were castrated and ostracized. In Rome homoerotic thoughts and action between two males was accepted and deemed natural but confined to an oppressive caste criteria that benefited those of a higher class whose partners would be slaves. The law did however penalize those that committed a ‘sex crime’ against a free born minor. Therefore even though permissible, consent was not a factor as such because the slaves had no free will. Britain has long since, in 1967 to be exact, Fast forward a few thousand years to the revolution of Christianity in the world that spread, sweeping across nations like wildfire by invitation and by force. This new found enthusiasm to embrace the new decriminalized religion and proof of faith led to King Henry the eighth of England introducing the first legislation in the homosexuality yet new order that criminalized homosexuality as no doubt felt would ascribe to the Bible. He introduced the ironically sub Saharan Buggery Act of 1553.Buggery referred to anal intercourse between two men or between a man and a Africa still clings tightly woman and punishable by hanging. to the sodomy laws inherited from the British There were a series of revolutions in the years since then that resulted in the copying and application of various versions of that law complete with the varying punishments phrased in different languages in the rest of the ‘1st world’ over the years. In 1861 the offences against the person act expanded the subjects to include bestiality (just in case some people were getting off easy). Then came colonialism. With it, the pillaging, rape and arrest of different wonderful cultures perceived by the colonialists as backward and undeveloped. In conquering the ‘third world’ the colonialists strove to imprint the cultures and laws they left in their own lands in the new found lands that seemed in dire need of this ‘benefit’. India was a successful test case to the rest of the ‘third world’ for its ‘exemplary ‘penal code that categorized sodomy as unnatural. India’s penal code was adopted across Britain’s colonies in Africa between the late 19th century and early 20th century. Sub-Saharan Africa amongst them. Kenya was a colony of Britain between 1890 and December 1963.The new religion deemed the indigenous religious practices as ungodly and the culture unacceptable. The missionaries built schools and brought about ‘education and in the process fortifying the English imposed laws that admonished homosexual conduct referred to in the Penal code as “acts against the order of nature”. Consent was not and still isn’t a factor in our Penal code. This was also the case in Tanzania and in Uganda. The intention of the Buggery act was to criminalize anal sex whether between homosexual or heterosexual partners. In modern day East Africa, the penal codes which were inherited from Britain as former colonizer and derived from the Buggery Act has been deemed to refer expressly to sexual conduct, presumably anal sex, between homosexual partners, consenting or not.
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Identity Kenya Britain has long since, in 1967 to be exact, decriminalized homosexuality yet ironically sub Saharan Africa still clings tightly to the sodomy laws inherited from the British. In fact, we have gone so far as to embrace that inheritance as originating and always existing in African culture instead of the import that it is. Today, as seen in many African countries more famously, Uganda, that inheritance remains jealously guarded with ‘clearer’ provisions proposed to assert the sodomy laws. Kenya is considered one of the more liberal countries yet here, again, the government, despite the redundancy of the relevant provisions of the penal code which render proof of evidence difficult, appear reluctant to get rid of them. To the LGB community in Kenya that may have been extorted, black mailed or threatened based on your sexual orientation, the Penal code criminalizes the ‘act’. This means that unless you really can’t help yourself and must engage in same sex sexual conduct in public, it is not a legal offence to be, look or act as you identify. It is not criminal to be a homosexual. It is however criminal to be caught in homosexual sexual conduct. Not ideal, I know, but until this position which is a gross violation of more than just the right to privacy is amended, that you are homosexual should not be used against you for extortion…unless you are exhibitionist. Photo | Wikipedia
Atsango Chesoni: Constitution Protects LGBT Kenyans BY SARJO CAMAARA We are writing in respect of the continued human rights violations against LGBTI persons in Kenya, despite the new constitutional dispensation, which guarantees equality and non-discrimination to all Kenyans without distinction of any kind
Atsango Chesoni | Flickr
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Atsango Chesoni, the Executive Director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has said that the Constitution of Kenya guarantees equality and nondiscrimination to all Kenyans including LGBT persons. She was speaking at the African Commission on Human and People’s Right (ACHPR), on behalf of the human rights conditions of LGBT persons in Kenya. “We are writing in respect of the continued human rights violations against LGBTI persons in Kenya, despite the new constitutional dispensation, which guarantees equality and non-discrimination to all Kenyans without distinction of any kind,” said Atsango.
She said the KHRC has through its engagements with the LGBT community documented cases of targeted violence, homophobic hate crimes, hate speech by political and religious elite, blackmail and extortion, illegal detentions by the police as well as denial of essential services such as housing, health and education by providers. She further said the KHRC has always worked with marginalized groups to enable them to articulate, defend and realize their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, adding that one such group is that of sexual minorities, comprising LGBTI persons. She noted that continued criminalization of homosexuality in at least 38 member states of this Commission,
and the introduction of stiffer penalties for sodomy in at least 3 member states, are factors that are not only sanctioning impunity in the violation of human rights of LGBTI persons in Africa, but also forcing innocent LGBT persons to live in inhumane and degrading conditions with imminent fears of homophobic attacks. She said they would encourage the ACHPR to endeavor to expand its body of knowledge on the lived effects of criminalization by many LGB Africans and appreciate the extent of human rights violations experienced by LGBTI people in Africa including those that are becoming refugees and fleeing their countries of origin on account of persecution for being LGBTI. First published in Foroyaa
Identity Kenya
Courage: A Daring Ally—MaqC Eric Gitau BY JACKSON OTIENO For many LBTIQ individuals, there comes a period during which they decide to cross over from feeling in silence and perhaps acting on their feelings within safe spaces, to affirming their non hetero-normative sexual orientation and identifying as bisexual or lesbian or gay or Trans or queer or whichever way they feel and act. Coming out within the LGBTIQ communities may have its own challenges, such as biphobia against bisexuals, but it normally precedes and is easier than coming out to their respective straight friends, family and community. This is because in a heteropatriarchal African society, alternative gender relations and sexual orientations aren’t readily appreciated. Indeed they are greatly shunned and to a huge extent branded “unnatural”, “abnormal” and even “sin”. The colonial legacy evident in most of our laws has further ensured that there exist legal basis to penalise such “deviance”. As such LGBTI individuals find themselves in positions of psychological vulnerability where they are caught between two major compromises; executing their duty to their minds through exploring their sexuality, with the consequence of exposure and potential discrimination, and perpetuating the shared socieSome have doubted his tal conventions through denying themselves their basic human instincts and eventual self actualization as sexuality and he has they live with the fear of exposure and burden of secrecy. The anxiety caused by such positions can have been branded closeted. adverse effects on the mental health of individuals especially when they lack a psycho-social support base From the interview, I made up of other members of members of society. sense that what hurts him This support base exists in various spheres of life and levels of interaction; which can be summed up as the most is the individual, family and society and constitutes persons who are both LGBTIQ and straight. Here is the perception that his marriage to the person story of one such straight individual or ‘Ally’ as they are commonly referred to in LGBTIQ activism he loves the most has as lingo. a consequence been labelled by others “an arrangement”
MaqC Eric Gitau is a young heterosexual Kenyan. He is a son, brother, husband and father. He is also an active Christian, a mentor to many young individuals, a consultant on management and a development specialist. Currently, he is the General Manager of the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK), a position he has held since early 2011. He represents that societal level of ally who is public, active in the overall struggle for recognition of LGBTIQ rights as human rights in Africa. Hailing from a Christian and hetero-patriachal community setup, he admits that he has come a long way in erasing most of his inculcated biases towards sexual and gender diversity. A point in time which he notes is when he was in charge of training and curriculum development at a leading facilitation at his previous work in a project dealing with behaviour change communication towards prevention of unintended pregnancies and STIs including HIV. When the organization was discussing greater inclusion of sexual and gender issues into their training curriculum, he took lead role in the development of curriculum content and facilitation of sessions that had a bend to Gender and Sexuality. It is at this time that he felt that it would be prudent to ensure he has all facts about sexual and gender minorities beyond the moral debate and the association therein with the public health and specifically the HIV/AIDS pandemic as well as human rights. The classic reader “African Sexuality” by Sylvia Tamale was one of the texts that helped him come to terms with the complexity of the situation. His wife, well aware of the interest he had developed in LGBTI issues as he worked on the projects’ training curriculum and facilitation, pointed out a vacancy she came across on a leading daily for the post of the General Managers position at GALCK. She encouraged him to apply citing his excellent managerial and a host of other skills and new found understanding of the intricacies of the challenges facing the community. Page 14
Identity Kenya Making the three month long decision to apply, sit for the interview and begin working at GALCK was a complex situation to navigate to say the least. Firstly, the young couple were both heavily involved in their church. MaqC was fast growing as a pew preacher at a local church. They were pretty visible and commonly looked at as a happy emulate-able couple with a love for each other that needs no elaboration. His circle of friends as well as family background consisted of some wholesomely Christian folk some of them conservatives and fundamentalists. When he was finally started working at GALCK, he still had not figured out how to break the news to these two groups. He sought a balance that would allow him to separate whatever position he had as church leader from his position as the new GALCK General Manager. Initially he reckoned that he would only engage the job from a managerial and administrative point of view. This is indeed what he explained to his family. It did not take long before he started facing challenges as the new General Manager. With very few non-discriminatory employment opportunities available, some members of the LGBTI community felt that the position should have gone to one of their own, a person who identifies as either L, G, B, T, or I. And this sentiment was expressed in blogs, online magazine articles an even to his face. He understood the reluctance of people to work with him based on that but assured them that with time and consistency, a heterosexual man working with LGBTI people can bridge the sexual and gender divide excellently. As would be expected for any new position, he set out to further understand the needs of the LGBTI community in Kenya and the coalition of member organisations that serves them, GALCK. He would soon realize that there was a lot more in his plate than could have evidently been pin Asked about his style of pointed during the interview process. The handover process was a bit rocky and there needed to be a steep management, which is learning curve on a multiplicity of issues that have shaped the history, politics, and management of evidently a very different LGBTI organizing in Kenya. approach given that his To build on the advocacy that GALCK has been doing since inception, MaqC felt the importance to clean predecessor was an all- out the house from inside and do some institutional strengthening. He points out that systems, structures, out activist and face for policies and procedures are a major need, especially while working with multiple levels of stakeholders, a GALCK, he says: “I am wider scope and various needs. These were part of his managerial job and so he also discussed with the a coach” GALCK board the staffing needs and got an approval to recruit new members onto the staff team including some who would deal with advocacy on human rights and legal issues, communications, monitoring and evaluation, operations amongst others. These appointments would help him focus on community, donor and stakeholder relations, as well as greater effort towards non-discrimination and equality through a multi-tier approach that he helped set up and found. His heterosexuality has given him an edge when representing GALCK as a coalition of varying groups. “Within the coalition, there are lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual interests represented in the member groups; my being “non-partisan” means that I can hold all groups without personal bias”, he stresses. He alludes to the fact this job can be quite difficult. It’s far from your typical 8am-5pm job. His plate is constantly full. There cannot be anything like a “typical” day, because every rise of the sun and moon, there is are new and unprecedented aspects to deal with. Since he started, he has steered the organisation through really busy seasons, rigorous with financial audits, creation of internal controls checks and balances, preparation of donor mid-term and annual reports, review and generation of several policies and procedures, resource mobilization, mentoring of staff in their roles and responsibilities, responding to and creating systems for protection and security, harmonization of member groups/organization efforts, programming and advocacy towards equality and non discrimination through the Multi-Tier Approach, alongside many other tasks. Looked at isolated, these efforts are simply that; isolated. However, in overall view, these efforts form a snow-ball effect towards a legacy that is to be hailed for long. CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
Identity Kenya
ANGOLA: Transsexual Artiste Woos Nation
Titica | Image BBC
She is bold, she is bright, she is beautiful and she is taking Angola by storm.
dancer Titica adopted her female persona four years ago following a breast enhancement operation in Brazil.
Not bad for a transsexual in a Catholic African country where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by hard labour.
Now, at 25, Titica is the new face of Angola's unique urban rap-techno fusion music style known as "kuduro".
Born in Luanda as Teca Miguel Garcia, singer and
By day her songs boom from minibus taxis, by night they fill Luanda's dance floors and at the weekends she has be-
come the essential soundtrack for children's parties. Named best kuduro artist of 2011, she is a regular on television and radio, and has even performed at the annual Divas concert, attended by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, where she herself was named a diva. BBC
SOUTH AFRICA: Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims The Ekurhuleni Pride Organising Committee (EPOC) hosted a day of commemoration in honour of all the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) people who have been murdered due to hate crimes in South Africa.
cause of their Sexual Orienta- Kwa Thema. tion and Gender Identity.” A year ago, the body of The event also outlined a plan Noxolo Nogwaza, a 24 year by the South African Police old lesbian, was found lying Service on eradicating hate in an alley in Kwa-Thema at crimes. The Ekurhuleni local about 9am after she had been government and other interbeaten and subjected to a ested groups addressed those who attend on the effects hate horrific rape.
According to the invite, “The event is aimed at remembering all the LGBTI comrades who were killed simply be-
crimes have in our societies.
BEHIND THE MASK
The venue was the Methodist Church on Kgaswane Street in
GAMBIA: President Denounces Gays AGAIN! Gambia’s President has denounced in the strongest term possible terms what he called “ungodly gay marriages”, saying his country has no “room for gays and lesbians”.
Yahya Jammeh | Gambia President
Dr Yahya Jammeh made the condemnation at the Legislative Chambers, while presiding over the 2012 State Opening of the National Assembly.
He said: “If you want us to be ungodly for you to give us aid, take your aid away, we will survive. We will rather eat grass than accept this ungodly evil attitude that is anti -God, anti-human and anticreation. What is interesting is that Muslim veils have been banned [in some Western countries], and they want
us to accept gays and lesbians in Africa, hell no! It will not happen in this country. The Gambian leader concluded by asserting “We will not insult our religion, and we will not insult God by doing something in the name of human rights.” ALL AFRICA STORIES
Identity Kenya
UGANDA: VP Says Death Penalty To Be Dropped Uganda’s vice president, Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi has told a visiting British government minister that the proposed death penalty in the Anti- Homosexuality Bill 2009 would be dropped when it becomes law. Ugandan VP Edward Ssekandi meeting the UK Minister | BTM
The government owned New Vision newspaper is reporting that Ssekandi however told the British Home Office minister Lynne Featherstone, that homosexuality was alien
to Ugandan culture and values. The VP’s remarks sharply contradict a recent statement b y P r e s i d e n t Y o we r i Museveni to the effect that homosexuals have always been part of the black African heritage.
were neither persecuted nor discriminated in Uganda, giving four examples of prominent historical Ugandans who were homosexual. BEHIND THE MASK
The president told a delegation of the European Union ambassadors accredited to Uganda that homosexuals
NIGERIA: A Diary Of Gays The African society views same-sex relationships as repulsive. Yet in Nigeria, homosexuals live among us. A few hide their status from the world's prying eyes, while the majority however do not care. Some of them took Ruth Olurounbi through their
worlds, insisting that they have of discrimination and rejecbeen unfairly judged and mis- tion from our immediate enunderstood. vironment. Our families regard us as inhuman for those In spite of their varied reasons of us who are brave enough for being “who they are”, the to come out to them. several homosexuals who spoke with the Nigerian Trib- ILGA une desired the world to stop looking at them as aliens. “We are constantly being abused and live in constant fear
GHANA: We Do NOT Recruit, Say Gay Activist Mac-Dar lin g Co b b inah (inset, a Ghanaian HIV activist and human rights defender, last week attacked as “misleading” the methodology of a 2011 study of MSM in Ghana which accused gay men of recruiting heterosexual men for sex.
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In an article entitled “Gays recruiting for MSM study?” which he distributed to activ-
ists across Africa, Cobbinah said the authors of the report were being grossly unfair to Ghana’s gay community by implying they had “recruited boys and men” for the study. He said that according to the report, the gay community was not only alleged to have recruited people for the MSM study but also recruited boys and men for sexual purposes.
In his rejoinder to the report and its findings, Cobbinah said the study conducted by Centre for Diseases Control (CDC Ghana) had “brought on tremendous backlash to the gay community in Ghana.” ILGA
Identity Kenya
Challenges for Being a Daring Ally Most heart-breaking, emotionally and psychologically draining for him are the instances he receives calls, texts or emails pointing to cases of human rights abuse, threats and violations based sexual orientation and gender identity that happen all across the country. “Try dealing with ever arising cases of blackmail/ extortion, gay bashing, unwarranted arrests, eviction from premises, termination from employment, religious and politically instigated hate speech, discrimination on health services and others. You need to be strong. You need to recline some place and find peace.” These require for him and his staff to be constantly in touch with police, lawyers, medical practitioners, and parliamentary representatives, LGBTI groups across the country, development partners, & international community, amongst others multiple stakeholders, at all times, during the day, night, weekends and even public holidays. Normally, a man with a jovial spirit, he has had to occasionally assume the aura of army general receiving news of depleted numbers at the frontline when there is personality or inter-group conflict or inter-personality wrangles at the GALCK centre that he manages. “A coalition is arguably the hardest kind of ‘organization’ to manage. There is lots of consensus building that needs to take place,” something that he admits proves very difficult to achieve. Asked about his style of management, which is evidently a very different approach given that his predecessor was an all-out activist and face for GALCK, he says: “I am a coach. My task is to empower the real players on the ground. These are staff, activists and volunteers across the country, who will at their own spots in the pitch score His wife encouraged him for the success of the movement. A coach is never really the frontal most visible person in a team; the to apply for GALCK’s players at their respective corners are. Manager position citing his excellent managerial This understanding of power dynamics makes sure that we are not breeding personalities that are bigger and other skills and a than the course and movement. And that’s why I will ensure that adequate systems and structures are crenew found understanding ated to allow for the team to each play their part and contribute significantly in equality and nonof the intricacies of the discrimination of LGBTI persons.” challenges facing the community
Being the head of an LGBTI coalition, he has had to endure high levels of stigma and discrimination. We start discussing this and his mood suddenly changes: “I have lost some of my pillar friends...” he says. Some have accused him of being “demon possessed” and others have alleged that the devil is “at work through him.” Others have said he is “siding with sinners.” Others have stopped inviting or visiting him. Some will hang out with him under conditions that there should be no discussions or even mentions of the words gay and lesbian. Some have doubted his sexuality and he has been branded closeted. From the interview, I sense that what hurts him the most is the perception that his marriage to the person he loves the most has as a consequence been labelled by others “an arrangement”. He has however managed to remain calm, tactful and confident in the different seasons of challenges at a personal and work level. He attributes this to prayer, reading the bible, friends (the few who have been left around), colleagues, a staff team and acquaintances that are encouraging as well as family. Now a father to a baby boy who resembles him so much, naturally his family’s wellbeing is MaqC’s first priority. What is important for him while raising his son and at his work both at GALCK and wherever else he may navigate the sea of a professional career, is that tenets for equality and non-discrimination will be hailed at all times. “The bottom line is that all human beings are equal and should be treated with respect and dignity.” He concludes.
Identity Kenya
For Pauline And Jacqueline** Have never been married
Their sole
Neither do they have children
Breadwinners
They have lived together
Where’s justice for
For the longest time they’ve known
Hard working Kenyans
Neighbors recognized them as
Who did nothing wrong but
Best Friends
Love one another
Their families had no idea
The helplessness
That the arrangement was more than
We feel for
Friendship
Not managing to intervene
Informing me that we had lost the lives of
Until
For you having not been part of any
Two women, a lesbian couple
A crime that took away
Organization
That has been dating for
The lives of their loved ones occurred
For quietly minding your business
The last many years
These two women
While criminals now on the loose
Where’s justice?
None of us really got to know
Invaded your privacy and
For innocent souls that
But heard about
Made your lives and love their priority?
Seek and pursue true love
From their close friends
Earnestly
Who lived and worked in
In the sweet confines of their closets
Nakuru, Nairobi.
Until a snoop gang gets suspicious
Where is justice?
Why two women in their forties
For families that have lost
BY KATE KAMUNDE Where is justice? For these who are correctively raped If only they could conform to what society requires? I’ve begun my Easter Holiday Until I receive a disturbing call Information from a friend
To have their lives cut short For being women lovers?
CONTINUED ON PAGE 21
Identity Kenya
When Being Homosexual Is Not A Big Deal BY DAGITARI WAWIRA
Image | Ken Savage
Don’t get me wrong; I am not seeking heterosexual recognition or affirmation, rather for once people see past my orientation
Nowadays I wonder where to go hang out, I think I’ve become much of a bore! I stopped smoking, I changed my heavy drinking to weekends only, and when at it I limit myself to a maximum of five for that’s the level of tolerance my body can accommodate now! I changed my beer too from Guinness to Tusker and now to white cup (best beer ever) and I don’t like the loud music anymore, I prefer hanging out in balcony’s at times with no company or less people! If at all I’m hanging with groups, an intellectual conversation is usually up to speed, it’s no longer about sex, sex acts, sexcapes, beerscapades, etc like before! Nowadays I’m thinking more about what I would really want to accomplish this year that doesn’t have to be peed off or defecated or cummed and climaxed! For the latter I’m in an imperfect but fulfilling relationship so they are well contained and obtained from one person other than before where multiple partners existed. Not that multiple partners are bad (I advocate for healthy polygamous relationships if at all that can happen with jealousy and possession in the mix!) just that I probably got tired of trying so hard to be homosexual! I also changed pubs! Guess I was tied of the ‘cat’ fights and trying to maximise on who is the studdest of
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them all, who dons the boxers of them all, and etc. Basically, I’m tired of introducing myself as gay, and I’m also tired of living within that stereotypical box of homosexual extremism; I don’t have to state it do I? yes we get you went through a rough patch blah blah but who hasn’t and since they have how many of are living careless ‘homosexual’ lives?? I for one don’t!! Practice your deviant extremism out of a personality disorder but not on a homosexual ticket! Suddenly I feel so fulfilled and satisfied when a friend, a straight one in this case introduces me by my name only and not, ’Hey this is Dagitari, my lesbian friend’. I like the sound of that. Don’t get me wrong; I am not seeking heterosexual recognition or affirmation, rather for once people see past my orientation. I am no different, only I love women while they love men vice versa, and they introduce me to many others, who as surprised as they will be later when they know about my inclination, still find me very resourceful as a human being! As a photographer, and not the human ‘alien’ that homosexuals have been victimised to be. Correction, have victimised themselves to be! I have an issue with the bottom -top shit as well as Tommy/ butch-femme shit! And more recently futch! (Combination of femme and butch)! Why can’t we be ‘just a couple
that’s dating’! Cant you for once stop limiting yourselves to who you prefer to coit with?! Do I need to fucking know! Does it pay your fucking mortgages or trips or food? Question goes especially to those who flaunt it all over, and worse when you hit on a straight person perfectly knowing his/her stand! No body gives a fuck you prefer ass or p***y! They care about what input you might add to their life/organisation/ environment etc. So yes while I agree the homosexual issue is still a controversy and we are still a minority group I still have to say being homosexual is no different from being straight. Another thing guys, while your busy flaunting your personal inclinations please get straight and hard facts on your orientation acting as a defence mechanism (including scientific facts)! Something tangible that’s convincible! You hardly know what to tell people when they start with the attacks hence endless insults that later on lead to damaging results! Please learn more about thyself! In short can we have an intelligent pack of homosexual peeps going around?? And stop ‘homosexual’!
being
so
Identity Kenya
Where’s justice?
That this battle is far from over Where is justice?
Were they not Kenyans?
It will not be without a fight
Were they not human?
It will not happen without bloodshed
Do we have to conform?
Weren’t they taxpayers? Was their skin color purple?
Rising in strength to defend those who
Did they deserve
Unlike me
To have their lives cut short
Are one with their closets
For being women lovers?
The Pauline’s and Jacqueline’s of Kenya
For the hand of justice To take shape?
Rest In Peace Pauline, Jacqueline In Eternal Peace
Pauline, Jacqueline Will raise a lot of suspicion Your demise As a photographer, and not the human ‘alien’ that homosexuals have been victimised to be. Correction, have victimised themselves
Will save a life Made me admit While others are silently destroyed
Call For Abstracts: 5th Africa Conference on Sexual and Health Rights The Scientific Committee of the 5th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights is pleased to invite Abstracts (oral presentations and posters) exploring the overall theme of the conference – “Sexual Health and Rights in Africa – Where Are We?” Abstract themes may be — Adolescent and Youth Sexuality - Women’s and Girls Sexuality - Disabilities and Sexual
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**Pauline and Jacqueline were a lesbian couple who committed suicide in April 2012 in Kisumu.
Rights - Sexual Rights and Sex Work - HIV/AIDS and Sexuality - Sexuality, Culture and Religion - Sexual and Reproductive Rights (Legal, Policy and Programme Issues- financing, equity, access, implementation, enforcement and redress) - Sexual Orientation, Sexual/ Gender Identity and Sexual and Reproductive Rights - Capacity building and
Knowledge Management. For further information and questions, contact conference@africasexua lity.org" Submission Deadline: June 30, 2012
Identity Kenya
Who Am I? why. We do as we’ve been taught, as we see around us. It’s enough to know that ‘that’s just the way it is’. For the most part, it suits us to keep things as they are. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. But at times curiosity breaks itself from its shackles. At times ‘the way it is’ is simply unacceptable to the individual. The question is so burning and agitating, it breaks through the accepted, ‘the way’.
(Image| Solanah)
BY TENDAI THONDHLANA
Revolutions are born of questions. Questions that challenge ways and values that, until the question is asked, are accepted, exercised, lived and defended. Then it happens, the right question is asked and suddenly a pause. Silence. We search for an answer, a reason… why? Why not?! It is an incessant yearning to fill a vacuum, an innate, inextinguishable desire to know ‘the truth’, which spawns an internal conquest. In seeking the answer we reform, and with reformation comes the revolution. From the moment we are born we are conditioned with layer upon layer of ways, values and norms that solidify and harden like concrete; layers that can bury our individual identities. Our natural curiosity in asking and wanting to know why, is taught, teased, beaten, and instructed out of us, or redirected and put to use in more ‘beneficial’ areas, to be used for ‘good’ where it will do no harm. Where curiosity is an asset rather than a nuisance, where it is a cure rather than a malignant cancer. And so it goes, we never stop to ask Page 22
Not knowing the truth, accepting ‘the way’ becomes a suffocating, unbearable, slow torture. Like Prometheus, you are bound to a rock by the values and norms you were taught, and feasted upon by the eagle that is your own laboured attempt to uphold them! Most people lack the will to break their bounds, others lack the strength. Worse are those that accept and make peace with their ‘fate’, even when they have the knowledge or suspicion of dissatisfaction with the way they are leading their lives. “There is no other way…..” or “That’s just how it is…how it has to be” they say to comfort themselves. To try and get some sleep, while their liver grows back. And with the morning comes the eagle once again. There are those however, for whom the search to know the truth knows no boundaries. They cross the line rather than stare at it. They ask questions without limit. Nothing is more conditioned in our societies than what is expected, what is becoming, based on whether or not one has ‘dangly bits’ between one’s legs. The ways and values for men and women are made of the hardest concrete and yet, some men and some women among us are walking, talking and living revolutions. It’s a gargantuan, almost unfathomable act that an individual would ‘rebel’ against this particular status quo. That a flower would grow where the concrete is hardest and thickest. Religion, ‘morals’, tradition, culture, politics, law, heterosexism and a plethora of tenets that are the cornerstones of our civilisation,
are all proved impotent in keeping these men and women in the closet. For them, ‘the way’ is not their way. And so they question it and their curiosity shows them another way. They find their own truths that suit them and are so natural that anything and everything else is a substitute, a compromise of their truth. A lie! And rather than live a lie, they live the truth about who they are, and in this way, their internal truths lead to an external revolution. I am talking about my openly gay brothers and sisters! They are the sons of liberty, even where none is granted. In life, asking a question oft leads, not to an answer, but to another question. It is in pursuit of an answer that we uncover and learn about our very beings, our very nature that makes us who we are as individuals. What makes ‘me’, me and what makes ‘you’, you. The best of times it’s quite by accident and what you find will surprise you. The person I am today is not the person I thought I would be ten years ago. And yet, I am more ‘me’ today than I was then. I just had to ask myself the right question to find ‘me’. Self-discovery is a curious thing, and in curiosity lays self-discovery. So ask questions, seek your truths without limit and fear. And when you find what you find, revel in it for it is you! So what could be that question that at time culminates in one finally coming out of the closet and declaring “I’m queer and I’m here. Get used to it!” What is that one question that made these men and women prepared to risk losing everything and everyone, even to put their very life on the line? The question to which all other questions may follow… the question that will lead you to yourself and maybe your own revolution is “WHO AM I?”
Identity Kenya
USA: Obama Won’t Issue Ban On Gay Discrimination WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama won’t issue an executive order anytime soon banning employment discrimination against gay and lesbian workers by federal contractors, officials said, disappointing some gayrights activists who had hoped for action on the issue ahead of the election. Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett delivered the news to gayrights activists at a meeting
Wednesday afternoon, and the decision was confirmed by a senior administration official. The executive order under consideration would have barred federal contractors from hiring or firing based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
barred federal contractors from hiring or firing based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Supporters consider such an order a secondchoice option to broader legislation banning such discrimination. WALL STREET JOURNAL
The executive order under consideration would have
ISRAEL: Gays, Lesbians To Be Ordained As Rabbis Gay and lesbian students will be ordained as Conservative rabbis in Israel.
Image | IABSI
The Board of Trustees of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary voted Thursday night to accept gay and lesbian students for ordination beginning with the 2012-13 academic year. The Conservative movement in Israel is known
as Masorti. A seminary statement said the decision comes following a "long process."
Hanan Alexander, chair of the seminary's Board of Trustees, said in the statement. “This decision highlights the institution’s commitment to uphold halachah in a pluralist and changing world.”
“The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary views the serious process leading to this decision JTA as an example of confronting social dilemmas within the framework of tradition and halachah,” or Jewish law,
USA: World’s First Gay, Lesbian Art Museum Opened With the recent accreditation by the State of New York as an official Museum, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art (MoGLA) has become the first and only museum of gay and lesbian art in the world.
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There has never been a shortage of gay and lesbian art on display in America's muse-
ums; what has been lacking is the courage to articulate that fact and to illustrate how the artist’s sexuality influenced his/her art. Now, for the first time, a new museum in New York will finally show what has been hiding in plain sight. Charles Leslie and his late
partner Fritz Lohman – who organized their first small exhibition of gay art the same year as the Stonewall riots in 1969 – founded the new Museum with their multi-million dollar gift. ARTDAILY
Identity Kenya
IDENTITY MAGAZINE
Editor & Programs Officer | Denis Nzioka Assistant Editor | T.A.M Columnists | John Makokha | Neville Tirimba | Kate Kamunde | Barbra Muruga | Queer Watchtower | Cole Mutahi | BarFly | Akinyi M. Ocholla | Contributors | Larry Misedah | Rosely Odoyo | Identity Correspondents | Sarjo Camaara | Jackson Otieno | Dagitari Wawira | Terrence Tendai | Njoroge Joe Photos/Logos/Images | Authors & Owners | Sources | Identity Kenya Identity Magazine © is founded, edited, published and distributed by the Identity Kenya ©. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, utilized, reprinted, distributed or copied in any form, whole or in part or by any means electronic or mechanical - including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from Identity Kenya ©. The mention or appearance or likeness of any person or organization in articles or advertising in this publication is not to be taken as any indication of sexual, social or political orientation of such persons or organizations. Identity Kenya P.O. Box 13005-00100 Nairobi, Kenya Editor—nzioka@identitykenya.com | General—info@identitykenya.com www.identitykenya.com
Identity Kenya
Unpacking Transgender Feminism BY BARBRA WANGARE This month I take the pleasure to share with you this article on Transfeminism. The article was written by Busi Deyi and was shared to me by Leigh Ann Van der Merwe. Leigh Ann is the director of a new Transfeminist organisation known as S.H.E. i.e. Social Health and Empowerment Coalition for Transgender women in Africa. Currently, the coalition is still East and Southern Africa but intends to grow into fully African. Leigh Ann is also a strong transfeminist and hails from East London, South Africa. There is a mistaken belief that feminism is targeted at men, that these creatures that walk with a phallus dangling between their legs is the enemy and that our efforts, endeavours and war cries must be directed at them. When we see these male specimens we ‘cock’ – pun intended - our mouths and we are ready to fire accurately aimed words and stand up for our ideals as feminists. Patriarchy has come to be symbolised by masculinity - more accurately, the male body - and feminism by femininity. And in between this dichotomy, the transgender community has become a none neutral, neutral ground. The male body and indeed the male penis has come to represent the patriarchal society that feminists have dedicated their entire existence to fighting but - and this is where shit hits the fan - I think their wrong. Let’s backtrack shall we? Feminism arose from the realization that our destinies were not necessarily connected to the form of our bodies. That one’s identity and indeed ones destiny as to who they were and how they externalised and expressed their identities could be based purely on their own sense of agency, their own sense of who they felt they were internally, beyond societal constraints and assumed roles based on the biological arrangement of their XY-XX chromosomes. Come back to the rise of trans-feminism, the idea of a transgender feminist is oxymoronic and unsettling to a lot Transgender feminists of cis-gendered feminists, this is because we have come to associate the male form with patriarchy and are not agents of literally have come to regard those that are in a male form as part and parcel of the system that has demarpatriarchy or a mockery cated women to the margins of society and stripped them of their ‘subject-hood’ and sense of selfto feminism, they are a determination and yet we do not see this development in feminist thinking as dangerous-think about it. celebration of the central principles that feminists have long sought to have recognized
To accord a certain symbolic status to the male form we are reverting back to the very status quo our feminist ancestors sought to over throw- that body determines destiny, that somehow who we are is intricately linked to ‘what’ we are biologically . We are inadvertently saying that yes, your body does determine your destiny. That women born in males bodies, M-T-F’s, cannot possibly be feminists and understand the feminist struggle. This is perhaps not surprising. The body is the one thing through which we interact with the world. We use the body to express ourselves, to give meaning and identity to our internal ideologies and crisis’s. The body is the one thing that we utilize in love, in protest and identification and an ambiguous body is dangerous, or viewed as dangerous because it does not lend itself to our discriminations and does not fit into our dichotomy of male and female and the assigned patriarchy v feminist to the respective forms. So, where to from here? Cis-gender feminists cannot legitimately close the doors to trans-feminism and transgender women cannot legitimately stay away from claiming the title of feminist, why??? Because I believe that the trans-feminist movement holds the key that could empower feminists in understanding truly what we have been advocating for when we said our bodies do not determine our destiny. In my own personal view transgender individuals hold the key to a more tolerant and accepting society, if we can break the gender binary that exists currently, if we can show society that we are humans regardless of what is between our legs, who we love and how we love them than we have an opportunity to create a society in which your gender and how we express it is not determined by our biological form. Someone really smart said something along these lines, “every battle championed by minorities is my battle” and that has been my motto, I have realized that by standing for the rights of other minorities I am in fact indirectly pursuing my own. Transgender feminists represent the polycentric nature of being human. When the voices of minorities manage to bring about change, the collective consciousness of society is penetrated and this presents an opportunity for us as minority groups to further establish ourselves and loosen the societal constraints that have stifled individual self determination. CONTINUED ON PAGE 26 Page 25
Identity Kenya (Image | Trans Feminism)
Here’s the deal, the feminist movement exists within a larger social movement and each sub-movement is part of a larger system of interdependent pieces defined by their relationship to all other pieces. To think of the feminist movement as independent from other social movements is a fallacy and highly misguided. We need to see feminism as a transformational movement, as feminists we seek to transform society and make it possible for all persons to exercise self determination in determining their destinies. Every victory loosens ever so slightly the societal chains that have prevented change and real reform through social conscientization. Transgender feminists are not agents of patriarchy or a mockery to feminism, they are a celebration of the central principles that feminists have long sought to have recognized. They are a celebration of the idea that self determination is a principle worth fighting for, that we as feminists in all body forms have become a social movement that can create spaces that enable those that are differently gendered to express their true selves. Feminists and feminism must always seek to transform not only society and the prejudices and boundaries that have been placed but they must at all times be self critical about how we relate to other minority movements. We must always seek to transform ourselves and be constantly critical of ourselves and our associations with other marginalized groups. To get the article online follow this link: http://transfeminists.wordpress.com/
Dating Diary Of A Diva I’ve also been having misgivings about this whole swag of dating older men despite them being respected for their experience and spoiling a pretty boy as my acquaintances put it
BY COLE MUTAHI He sent a text message this morning. It’s just a day after our one night stand. I’m sure he’s just being a gentleman because I told him I’m okay with the whole idea of not seeing him again. It happens a lot in the queer scene you know. I was too easy for a first date and even Hurdy once opined that my profile just doesn’t fit one nighties! The pretty boys’ code clearly outlines that such men will never be your significant other. My two consistent friends in the scene happen to be a 7 or 8 month old couple who have been keenly fol-
lowing my dating patterns with men such that every other weekend my trysts are not hidden to them. I think I love it. It really has some good sort of big brother effect on me. Clearly they want me to get a ‘husband’ though that’s a word I reluctantly subscribe to. What? All that talking you thought I’m just this spoilt bitch who doesn’t relate with stable people! Now you know. The dominant partner in the said relationship has always opined that I need to date an older man who has fetched all this experience and knows how to spoil a pretty boy even beyond that bedroom door (giggle). Today I feel like I want to start a fight with some schools of thought this whole queerdom thing has brought along with it. If there is one thing us solo people hate is watching that fine ass couple walking down the street (not yet in our Country but if you hang out late maybe around 2a.m in the CBD you’ll see it) or having that customary beer bottle at your usual watering hole as you try judge the definitely bad karaoke singing or even shopping together at the mall and you haven’t even got to those who live together or this one who is picked in the evening from work! CONTINUED ON PAGE 32
Identity Kenya
Might We Want To Fire The GALCK General Manager? BY QUEER WATCHTOWER A little birdie has been nagging about my concentration space as a Queer Watch Tower for the last two months (hence the absence of my column last monthkisses of apology!) The matter on my head has been finding the head of this snake, the ill leadership problem facing the LGBTIQ, MSM, Indigenous sexual identities and all movement in Kenya-GALCK, and eureka! Ha! Alas! My club, my sword, my pen has found the fat head of the snake eating the progress of the movement in Kenya, the GALCK General Manager. Don’t close this page, be a spot, read on (and drop that sneer.) It is a coalition, yes, groups, members, and millions of closeted others, all asked the secretariat, the centre, the organizing head, the lead LGBTI centre in this country! We asked GALCK, here, please, try carry our proud identities, try lead us in realizing equal rights, try fight the government and all homophobes for us. At least try, for David and Jonathan’s love sake! Pause. Before you dismiss me for being a hogwash, here is a legal theory. GALCK is a coalition, a representative government of sorts, there are many groups-each with many members, in many country locations, all surrendering their visibility, organizing and such other powers to one huge umbrella body – their organizing, their secretariat, their technical nerve centre- GALCK. Next governance structure - the board of GALCK. Its the board of GALCK that really makes policy decisions and most importantly hires the head of GALCK including most of the staff therein. Please follow me, don’t roll eyes too much. So the board; all made of lesbians gays,
(Image| WriteForHR) bisexuals and transgender sat and decided that a self proclaimed straight man should lead GALCK-and then he turned out to have been double dealing them and he was fired. As if without shame of a nasty date, the board hired another self proclaimed straight-I-am-married-with-family-guy and is, leading LGBTIQ Kenyans in their equality struggle. Of course it was based on merit, the same way a male lawyer can be the head of FIDA, same way a white man could have been the leader of the black civil movement in the US. Save us the merit nonsense in the liberation struggle, temper it with self identity and self pride-we need role models. Tell me who is setting example for Olouch considering suicide in rural Bondo when his presumed national leader is a closeted ‘heterosexual’ who won’t dare speak on national TV about respect for diversity without stigmatizing the identities he seeks to protect? Tell me who will speak for the struggle and articulate our issues to the country with eloquence and merit when our national leader cannot do press interviews because of his straight family issues?
I sneer, for we have ceded our powers to an incapacitated coward who does not want to lead for the cause but for the career. We sit and watch sex workers advance and swing across Nairobi stirring good national debate, we allow the stereotype of all queers being sex workers and HIV positive, to be perpetuated because just like our GM , we are all a bunch of sissy fags and butches that are so closeted and homo/bi/lesbo/transphobic within themselves that we will only allow one of our closeted-homophobic-hello donors, I work for GALCK but I am straightkind of nonsense to lead us. I have heard reliable rumors that some disgruntled queers are collecting signatures to petition the ICC, sorry, the board of GALCK to fire the GM for mal performance (based on movement building and other vital in roads, not office redecorating- hate the colors by the way.) Rumor has it that some outlaw outfit by some radicals to rival GALCK is on the offing, be that as it may. We are a family, a high flying rainbow that cannot be hidden -with many diverse colors, warm and gay. But we need leadership. Not fear and cowardice when courage and self identification is demanded of us. Leadership that is self identifying, proud and meritorious. In short, wake up and smell the coffee. This movement is stagnated and circling in internal petty fights. Give us a Moses, Let the pharaoh that is Maq C go.
Identity Kenya
Letter From Houston BY LARRY MISEDAH As of 2011, it was estimated that more than one million immigrant from Africa now live in the United States. Often torn between two worlds and sometimes misunderstood, I can bet the many times I’ve been caught up in an altercation with the siri app because it did not understand what I was saying, leave alone the very time I found myself at a Public Office and just because I did not had an ‘’accent’’ that was not their own, I was given a read from head to toe and asked if I needed a translator. And when you pick up the phone and talk to one of your friends from Kenya and they just but can’t help to say how your accent has changed, then one is left in the middle which in deed can be frustrating! With the recent trend of reality TV, Africans in Diaspora have not been left behind. Shows like 10 minutes fix and Living my life African have indeed opened up the world into understanding the worlds of the Africans in the Diaspora community. Though of diverse backgrounds, the cultural bond and sense of community has continued to knit these communities tightly close together. Most importantly and highly commendable is the sense of community and togetherness and the ability to be there for each other in times of need. When a loved one dies for instance, it’s only other African’s who would totally understand the need to transport the deceased back home for final resting arrangements- cases like these can indeed be overwhelming and require people to get together and this is an area indeed that the communities have come in a large way to support each other. The spirit of togetherness can be seen not only in times of need but throughout the daily lives of people i.e. weddings, birthday parties and indeed the holidays where you will always find a get together at one of the homes where one would enjoy foods like Ugali, nyamachoma and other African delicacies. A trip to Nai Sports Grill in Addison left me wondering if it was still in the States for it felt almost like being in Upmarket in Nairobi. The fact that one would get a cold Tusker while catching up with friends in the midst of the Lone Star State, with some of the Naija, Genge, Bongo and a mix of other African tunes in a club filled to capacity is indeed an experience many would wish to be a part of just to feel closer to home and celebrate with this new bigger happy Diaspora family. It’s a small world they say, yes it is! I actually even met someone I was with in High School and had not seen for almost 10 years. Places like Nai are not exclusive to Texas; there are different places that offer services to different African communities across the US including Television channels, cinemas, restaurants and annual activities that bring people together like the Rugby trips to Las Vegas. Remarkably, there are even service organizations i.e. the African Services Committee dedicated to improving the health and self sufficiency of the African community. The million dollar question then indeed is the inclusion of LGBTQ people and voices. Whereas there has been coverage of same sex issues with a recent post on Jumbo News Spot from a KTN article that ran an interview about homosexuality in Kenya. Same sex practices are however still considered moral decadence which abuses and erodes the traditional African values that the diasporas community has continued to uphold. This stigma impedes the acceptance of same sex practices in very real ways that it has encouraged alienation of the LGBTIQ people from the wider Diaspora community. Some people have decided to live in seclusion from family, friends and the wider community and found their niche in different queer communities.
Identity Kenya Having come out and pretty much lived my life as an out gay man for more than I can remember; I was recently caught in a rather awkward situation. I have over the years transcended the boundaries of masculinity and femininity to embrace and be happy as a person. I have a gay roommate; I am out at work and get along pretty well with my Boss and Co Worker who I get along well with regardless of my sexual orientation. Basically, I’ve pretty much embraced who I am and chosen to surround myself with Positive energy. Act straight!!! That word makes me cringe, not like I am the most flamboyant person as I’ve always had my don’t ask don’t tell moments depending with where I am without nonetheless being who I am without hiding- Yes, someone asked me during my Grandma’s memorial who my guest was and I told her he was my date. When I worked at a warehouse, I had one of my workmates ask me are you married. And I said No, she then asked, do you have a girlfriend and I rolled my eyes and said NO, I am gay! When I say I found myself on the other side and for the love of a dear friend who I did not want to out in anyway, it was one of the most uncomfortable and awkward moments of my life! I salute all my brothers and sisters who are not able to fully be themselves in their daily lives, continue to maintain a façade of heterosexuality and often assimilate to be accepted within the Diaspora and wider general community. It can get very lonely in this country and there comes a time when one may need their statesmen to come through for them for whatever reason, be it just to share a rough day at work or an encouragement for people who have gone through the same to just moments of enjoying a cold beer and winding down at the serenity of exotic Lake Front. I wouldn’t trade myself for anything! I however do acknowledge that we do have different journeys. To think its rainbow bliss is however far from the lived reality of many in Diaspora. How disheartening can it be than to stand the humiliation of standing in front of the synagogue to receive sacrament and you are skipped and told you are not welcome to partake the Holy Communion because of your sexuality? In deed it’s this fear of seclusion from that has continued to further drive internalized homophobia. None withstanding, it would a misconstrue to say that the whole African Diaspora community is homophobic- if at all, we have seen unwavering support from great scholars from our communities like Professor Makau Mutua who have come out strongly in support of human rights and dignity for all including for LGBTIQ people. Besides, one of my closest friends here is a noble non gay person, and while I know she gags sometime at my drama- I do appreciate that we are always there for each other and able to share more than anyone would fathom! And on the backs of many that I stand tall, for I wouldn’t be here without their selfless love and support. (Image | EthioSun)
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Identity Kenya
(Image | HOYMAS banner at their launch | Identity Kenya)
'We also hope that with provision of safer sex materials and commodities, the rate of infection and re-infection will reduce,' John added.
HOYMAS recently launched in December at an event attended by stakeholders drawn from the National AIDS and STI Control Programme (NASCOP), the Sex Workers Outreach Program (SWOP), UNAIDS, and the Network of Persons Living with AIDS in Kenya (NEPHAK) among others. HOYMAS is hosted by SWOP in Nairobi. Other awardees include Icebreakers from Uganda, CEDEP in Malawi, Mouvement pour les Libertés individuelles (MOLI) in Burundi, WhyCan’tWeGetMarried.com (WCWGMC) in Sierra Leone, Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA) in South Africa, and Espoir Vie Togo (EVT) from Togo. IDENTITY KENYA
STUDY: Homophobic? You Might Be Gay A study has found out that homophobes may actually be 'secretly attracted to persons of the same sex' and are finding it hard to admit this to themselves. The study showed that 'homophobic people tend to repress their true sexuality as they've often been brought up in families where being gay is not acceptable.' Additionally,
who identify as straight but in psychological tests show a strong attraction to the same sex may be threatened by gays and lesbians because homosexuals remind them of similar tendencies within themselves'.
In the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers provided empirical evidence that homophobia can result, at least in part, from the suppression of same -sex desire.
'Many cases homophobic people are 'at war' with themselves over the issue and 'are turning the internal conflict outward,' it added.
'Individuals
GALCK: Contractual Videographers Wanted
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GALCK is conducting a project titled: The Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights Project that will document and analyze criminalization of LGBT people, flight from violence and persecution, resistance to criminalization, and Interaction between International Human Rights Mechanisms and LGBT rights ini-
tiatives. GALCK is looking for two suitable persons to participate in the project as Videographers. The persons are expected to available for intense work, which may include travel within Kenya for a month long period starting from May 14th, 2012 – June 14th 2012.
Applications accompanied by copies of certificates, detailed curriculum vitae, testimonials and a sample of videography work done and documented well, should be sealed and sent to GALCK offices or e m a i l e d to envisioning@galck.org b y 3rd of May 2012.
Identity Kenya
GALCK: Communications & PR Officer Vacancy The Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK) is looking to recruit a highly qualified and motivated person to fill the position of a Communications and Public Relations Officer who should start working officially on June 1st 2012. Reporting directly to the General Manager, this is a particularly important position for GALCK given the rising interest in, misinforma-
tion around matters relating to sexual and gender minorities in Kenya as well the need to use communications and public relations as a strategic tool in advocacy work.
number should be sent to board@galck.org by 30th April 2012.
Qualified persons identifying as either LGBTI are highly encouraged to apply. Applications accompanied by copies of certificates, detailed curriculum vitae, testimonials and a day time telephone
Fahamu Seeks Director of Advocacy-Utetezi Fahamu is
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tor of Advocacy – Utetezi
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Leading a dedicated team to
Location: Nairobi, Kenya or
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on
Fahamu Call for Application for Consultancy Fahamu is commissioning
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the
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Identity Kenya There is this particular queer couple I always run into anytime I’m at The Junction. Reason we hate them? They make us look bad! We don’t actually hate them. Join me and let's say it together: We want to be like them! We just don’t want the baggage that comes with it. Leo and I were having some lengthy phone conversation earlier in the week and one thing I took a mental note of was the fact that everyone will always feel empty at times even if you are an advocate for single hood! An example was this guy who was recently found dead in his place. Maybe if he had someone then it wouldn’t have taken all those days to notice he was long gone. I’ve also been having misgivings about this whole swag of dating older men despite them being respected for their experience and spoiling a pretty boy as my acquaintances put it. Wait a minute! Am I ready to deal with the occasional tantrums and constant reminder that he had to sit through his PhD while I was still being weaned? I have also heard my peers say that they want a husband with a checking account and a life in the leafy suburbs. This has also added to the whole confusion in queerdom. I have no qualms about such arrangements but you can never close your eyes to the fact that these guys are very smart, calculated and they got a ‘PHD’ in screwing up with a juvenile mind…they’ve been in this business for a while. They spoil yes, pounce at the opportune time when you decide to be ‘generous’ and then disappear! Recall recently when I went for a date with a man (note I haven’t called him a boy) who's significantly younger than me? Three years my junior, more experienced, sophisticated? His idea of a romantic date wasn't sneaking into a There is this particular queer couple I always run into anytime I’m at The Junction. Reason we hate them? They make us look bad! We don’t actually hate them. Join me and let's say it together: We want to be like them!
movie at Sarit Center after some Hawaiian Pizza and doing it quick in the back row before the manager kicked us out. We went to a real restaurant with cloth napkins on the tables and a Menu that you don’t read on a wall. He maintained eye contact listening to me and I listened to him. He was great eye candy and I was like when is he going to hint where we are going after this? Dick alert! Dick alert! He later dropped me on my doorstep and since we were just the two of us I felt obligated to give him a soft peck on the cheek. I also had to ask him whether he was really gay before he left since he didn’t want to get in saying that he would blemish the evening. Awww! Anyway to cut the long story short he's just a boy. A young boy. He’s got college; he’s got to hang out at Mpaka road with his friends. He’s not my future. I
will however put him on the good friends’ zone and here I was thinking romance is dead! Yes, judge me as much as you can I don’t know what I want in this life but since it’s still my orientation I’m still in a phase where I need to balance things just a little bit more. One thing with being declared a b*tch in an online magazine is that you have to exercise your aggression in this queer life upfront where you can see it. You step on peoples’ shoes, apologize only if you are genuinely sorry but make sure you learn something in the process. I always say all gay men you meet regardless of the losers you meet in the process have some valuable lesson for you to learn. Friends don’t mean much; a better class of enemies works the magic. I long ago realized that if everybody likes you, you're really not even close to maximizing your true Heartless Bitch Potential (HBP). We’ve all been pissed off by one too many immature, disorganized and emotionally spastic guys to take any shit from any sweet-d*ck-BMW-owning-engineer just because we need to satisfy some overactive libidos. The principle is: Put your balls in your pants and USE THEM." Page 32
Identity Kenya
Coming Out Story: My Father Beat Me BY NJOROGE JOE I am four months shy of my twenty eighth birthday and last month, I finally came out to my surviving parent, my father. I was tired of the questions and the innuendoes by family members and the incessant shoving of girls to my face by my dad who is a devout Catholic and believes in the marriage covenant and procreation. My aunts baptized me a spoilt impotent brat. My cousins said I didn't have any clue on how to get into a girl's pants and they would dare me to woo a girl and if I showed no interest they'd crack hurtful jokes. I came out to my brother Dave, who is three years younger than me, when I was twenty. We've always been close and we share a lot and I felt like I was lying to him by keeping this huge secret from him and it was taking a toll on me so when one day he asked me if I was okay, I just broke down and revealed everything. I was so scared he would get repulsed by me but surprisingly, we became even closer. I decided to come out to my dad in January when he sat me down and gave me a three hour lecture on how I should marry and enjoy the 'fruits of my labor' with a nice Christian girl from a humble background and he even went ahead and suggested the families that I should consider. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed because at the time I was in a relationship. My father held a bash for my cousins and even invited my boyfriend (he thought we were just best friends) and he asked them to get me drunk enough and have a girl sleep with me. I was alerted before it could happen but I developed cold feet and didn't come out. I actually got a girl to appease my dad so he could leave me alone but I couldn't even touch her and she started asking questions and that's when I knew enough was enough. I could not pretend anymore and I knew I had to do something about it. On that fateful day, I could not eat anything because it wouldn't stay down. My stomach was in knots and I was nervous because I knew I had to tell and I knew dad would not react well to it. Dave was with
me and it gave me some assurance but it did not ease the tension and nervousness I felt and for a split second I wanted to bail. Before we could eat, I told him I had something important to tell him and that's when weight of what I wanted to say came crashing on me and I suddenly could not remember the speech I had prepared for weeks. In a very unorthodox and primitive manner, I blurted out that I was dating someone, a man. I'll never forget the look on my father's face. He froze, and then blinked in a confused daze which soon turned into a look of disbelief. Finally he got angry and his face changed into a strange grey, making me think he was going to have a heart attack. He never uttered a single word. The silence in that house was deafening and I started wishing he'd react rather than just sit and glare coldly at me. My wish came too soon because before I knew it a bowl came flying and I dodged it. That's the distraction he needed because in one swift movement, he was before me raining blows and kicks on me. He roughly pushed me from the chair to the floor and continued hitting on me and stomping on my ribs. My brother would scream at him to stop but it would just fuel dad's rage and he'd hit me harder. It became clear that he wanted to really hurt me when he broke the thin wood that served as the leg rest from the dining chair and started choking me with it. My brother Dave (I usually tear up when I remember this), came and pulled dad, trying to get him away from me because I was air deprived but dad slapped him so hard that the impact threw him against the
counter and his ring cut him on the cheek. I couldn't even try to get away because he had me pinned between the floor and the counter wall that separated the dining and the kitchen area. What Dave did was he came and lay on top of me and screamed at dad saying, ‘If you kill him you kill us both.’ I don't know what exactly happened after but I think dad realized what he was doing because he got off me and stormed out of the dining and it gave Dave and me the chance to escape. We got into the car just as he came out with this hockey stick he keeps and he tried smashing the wind screen with it. It cracked but it didn't completely fall off and Dave pulled out of the compound as fast as he could thanks to the unknowing gateman who as usual, quickly opened the gate. I didn't go to the hospital despite pleas from Dave. I went home and soaked in hot water and drank lots of whiskey. I stayed in bed for two days unmoving and in pain and my brother stayed with me till I got back on my feet. Dad called me the following Tuesday and apologized for beating me up but he made it crystal clear he wasn't on my side with my 'peculiar lifestyle'. He also turned some members against me. I've since forgiven him and still go to Friday dinners as is tradition but he makes hurtful remarks every time. We don't discuss serious business like we used to and if he wants something from me he goes through my brother. It hurts me because I miss the relationship we had before but I'm accepting slowly that it may never be and it gets easier. I owe my brother everything. I've made friends, some that I knew when I was a kid. One is a close female friend of mine who is now a great friend and not an ounce of homophobia in her. I've retained a few friends who already knew that I was gay before and those are enough because someone once said it would rather be better to have five real friends than five thousand fake ones.
Identity Kenya
Who Is Family? BY AKINYI OCHOLLA Image | Erik Brewer
The other day I went visiting an old friend who had had a sinus operation. When I approached her bed, she had covered half her face with her blanket. She cautiously uncovered it to reveal a large wad of gauze and plaster right under her nose, making it look enormous and bulbous. It would have been comical had I not felt very sympathetic for her condition. Besides she was like family to me. And it’s not nice to laugh at family in distress. My friend was soon discharged from hospital and recovering nicely at home. Then I got to thinking. Who’s my family? And I soon began to realize that family isn’t just your biological family. It’s a lot more than father, mother and siblings. Family can be the friend who works as a curator at the National Museum, whom you’ve known for over a decade, and travelled to the furthest corners of Northern Kenya with.
The same woman, whose kids you ‘adopt’ regularly to go watch a movie with, followed by a bout of ice-cream eating. Family can be the old childhood friend, whom you’ve accompanied through teenage, and adulthood. The friend whose father neglected to support his family and started a new one, then tried to run for public office and ran up a KShs 1 million loan debt; the same friend who now has a little baby girl, whom you held in your arms not very long ago. Family can be the ex girlfriend, who’s helped you when your parents died and trusts you with her money more than she does her brothers. The woman who’s entire family knows you so well that their mother calls you her d a u g h t e r . Family is about understanding each other’s hardships, giving them a listening ear when they need it and growing old together
Family is the neighbor next door, whom you can confide in about your neurological disorder and ask to take you to hospital if you should ever get sick.
Family is the woman who’s name you put down under ‘next of kin’ on the hospital form, the day you have your first MS relapse, that’s made you numb from your toes up to your waist, leaving you in a panic.
And sometimes biological family lets you down - maybe even disowns you. It could be your own parent who feels you’ve brought shame on the family name. It could be your own sister who feels she has nothing in common with you and that it’s best to go separate ways.
Or the sibling who is so private, he doesn’t want to reveal a serious mental illness that he has lived with for years. Sometimes you yourself let your biological family down – often unintentionally. Diverting away from humans, we can explore family amongst animals. Family is the cat you keep at home, who sleeps on your feet or curls up in your lap every evening, giving you companionship and affection. Family is the pet dog who protects you. Family could even be that parrot you keep at home, who greets you with “I’m home dear! Love you!” or screeches at unfamiliar visitors. It seems to me that family is more about shared interests, love, humor, common work, affection, mutual support, companionship and visits to each others homes. It’s about trust, empathy and acceptance of each other’s idiosyncrasies and characters even though you don’t necessarily understand them.
Family is about understanding each other’s hardships, giving them a listening ear when they need it and growing old together.
Identity Kenya
SOUL MATES
MEN SEEKING MEN Willy, 32, looking for a male intimate friend from 30 years to 40 years. Text or call 0775324038 I am 35 years gay in Nairobi, need a partner to call or SMS to 0739263936 Muriuki, 29 year old HIV positive top man is looking for a bottom HIV positive, be above 30 years, color, height and financial status doesn't matter to me. Get me on Facebook—Denis Muriuki Felix, a 25 year old bottom gay is looking for a top gay 27-50 he should be handsome straight acting and mature for long time relationship 0725263367 / felixwilliams_2007@yahoo.com I am Collins, 20, Arts student looking for a white top guy aged between 2650 very financially stable, romantic and not a perve, very kind and organized and loves frequent dates. I am petite, dark, very cute and not an elaborate queen. I am simple so any whites out there ready for a relationship call 0704632242 Philip Philippian (FB) in Westlands Hi guys and men am bottom in Nairobi Kenya wanna meet a sugar daddy or stable man for serious fun and relationship add me if interested. John, 26yrs, hunk and athletic body, chocolate in color. I want a dark or chocolate between 33 and 43. He must be tall and loving, a top, mature, learned and professional because I am a graduate and I hold a senior position in a company and its very sensitive to me. He must also be well groomed just msirlike me and lovely las@yahoo.com
Lee Jay needs a serious guy between the age of 27-40 and working class. Must be educated, a Christian, medium tall, average in size, brown or chocolate, a real gay and not bisexual either a top or versatile. 0706331074 Seith, a Kenyan living and studying in South Africa is looking for a gay Kenyan for a serious relationship. Contact him on wekesaseth@gmail.com R U 26-29, BOTTOM, NAIROBIAN, EMPLOYED, KIKUYU, FAITHFUL, ROMANTIC, NON-PARTY SMOKER DRINKER, SINGLE, FAIR TONE? HOLA Martin Muchiri on FB
AGENCIES / SERVICES Cyrus, looking for accommodation or housing? Are you a gay tourist or traveler and want peace, quiet and affordable housing while here in Kenya? My house is available for rent; spacious, warm and comfortable. Call or SMS on 0735221314
Do you want to document your activities on DVD? Do you want to accompany your reports with evidential research? Do you need assistance in capturing all your date on video? Ndoto Zetu, one of the best equipped unit will follow you to any part of the world, record your activities, edit, voice over and present it in a format suited for your donors. We have three top of the range cameras, two 9 seater vans fitted privately, MaC PRO computes for editing sound equipment, lights, a recording studio and a well trained security team for your event, we offer private party organized to your needs and we know ho tot protect your name, privacy and our work can be secured at any time. Call us on 0735221314 or e-mail us on info@ndotozetu.com
WOMEN SEEKING WOMEN Faith, a 28 year old lesbian is looking for a lesbian chick, must be bottom, white women encouraged to apply. She must be above 25. Call or SMS 0728345968
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Be careful when meeting someone for the first time. Meet in a public place, let a close friend know where you will be and carry enough money to take care of your expenses and transport back home. Identity Magazine cannot authenticate the validity of the messages or ads that appear here. No claims or liability will imputed on Identity Magazine for any loss or risk that arises from the same.
Identity Kenya
Survey On Sexual & Gender Minorities In Kenya Launched An online survey that seeks to monitor, investigate and document human rights conditions of sexual and gender minorities in Kenya has been launched. Eric Gitari, a human rights lawyer who is the lead researcher of this survey said that ‘The research will ultimately provide government, international and national civil society organizations with policy recommendations in order to improve the lives and human rights conditions of sexual minorities in Kenya.’ The first phase of this research seeks to identify human rights themes and ends on May 12, 2012. Quantatative follow ups will be conducted from June to August 2012. The survey, available here, http:// kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php? surveyID=LBHENI_a260c4db asks participants on their lived experiences as sexual and gender minorities. The various questions focus on health, relationships, family and social supports for LGBT persons. The survey comes two years after the passing of what Eric calls a ‘progressive constitution for LGBT person sin Kenya.’ The survey also aims to document a human rights analysis of LGBT persons in Kenya. The assessment aims to provide a legal social documentation and analysis of human rights conditions, as expressed,
cacy or prove any violations on account of sexual orientation ad gender identity,’ said Gitari. Also targeted are government institutions and community, civil societies that work on equality and human rights.
narrated and experienced by sexual and gender minorities in Kenya through qualitative and quantitative research tools,’ read a statement from Gitari, the lead researcher. The survey targets persons who face discrimination on account of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Additionally, LGBT groups and organizations will be required to respond to the survey as they have on the ground information. The survey will be launched in September of this year and will be preceded by follow up interviews and forum group discussions. The data will then be analyzed before released publicly. According to Gitari, the survey was done since there was no documentation of human rights abuses meted on persons who identify as LGBT. ‘The motivation to do this survey was the absence of research data to inform advo-
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‘State agents and representatives from CSOs working on equality will be interviewed as well using open-interview methodology that would take into account the specific context of their programmatic approaches and the identified themes and case or events provided by the state agents and civil society organizations from their interaction with sexual and gender minorities,’ further read the statement from Gitari. The survey will identify key themes for possible recommendations to the Government, civil and human rights practitioners. ‘In addition these themes will be compared with the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, other existing domestic legislation, international human rights instruments and treaty bodies’ decisions to produce actionable recommendations to government, CSO and practitioners in the human rights field,’ said Gitari. The survey is targeting to reach over 150 correspondents all over Kenya. ‘This will give us a general outlook of things as they are all over Kenya as opposed to focusing on just one area,’ said Gitari in conclusion.