Two Kenyan men on Saturday became the first gay couple to wed in London. Charles Ngengi, 40 and his bride, Daniel Chege Gichia, 39, became civil partners under the controversial Civil Partnership Act which came into effect in the UK in 2005 allowing couples of the same sex to have legal recognition of their relationship.
The couple tied the knot at a civil partnership ceremony at Islington Town Hall in North London at 11.30 a.m. UK time. According to the Act, a civil partnership is defined as a legal marriage between gay and lesbian couples, and any couples who enter into a civil partnership obtain the new legal status of civil partners, instead of the traditional husband and wife status.

Tamaku, a blogger on The Diary of a Gay Kenyan was the first to publish a post expressing his excitement in the transition Kenya is going through and the story hitting the stands:

I am overjoyed that a gay wedding of Kenyans in London has made the news of the national press. We wish the lucky couple all the best in this new chapter of their lives together. George and I are thinking of the same, to deepen our commitment to one another - even though these unions are not recognised here. It's early days yet but we are determined to have a ceremony to exchange rings and vows witnessed by close friends and family. I'll wear white of course, don't even think to mutter but Tamaku's been around the block a few times unless you are a nun yourself. lol!

We hope you'll accept our invitation when the time comes. Tonight we are just both so happy to raise a glass or two to the newlyweds.

Donn, a gay photo blogger says he knows and has heard of a lot of Kenyan gay couples legalizing their union and he is wondering what the outburst is for, he says gay couples have wed in different countries where gay marriage is legal:

The two gay men above, who got married in the UK last Saturday….was really an eye opener for many Kenyans.The news of the marriage was on the airwaves throughout the weekend…I am sure now every corner of this country knows about it…since it was a hot topic in almost every radio station.Well to me they are not the 1st…there are other many Kenyan gay couple i know who got married in Spain, Canada, South Africa, and UK as well, but the

Most bloggers were not happy with the way the story was handled, the journalists have been described as lopsided; hungry-for-story; fame, self benefit and monetary pay. The journalists tracked down the home of the family members of the newly wed and camped outside the compound waiting for a comment from the parents on what they think of their son marrying a man. The family have been tormented as visitors always coming to the homestead just to witness:

Everyone in Kenya is hungry for something, now adding to the pack is journalists, this people are hungry-for-story, they wait for the slightest twitch to hit their headlines. If you think Mohamed Ali from KTN was the only journalist in Murang'a waiting to interview the parents of the newly wed couple, you are wrong, he is not. Well, apparently journalists are actually camping outside his home town, is it Charles, the supposed “bride”, waiting to interview the mother on what she thinks about her son being in a sexual relationship with a man. They went with the wedding pictures to show the parents and the mother was shocked beyond words, she has gone mute, she doesn't talk or eat. The father is since drinking his life away and hasn't gone sober since, but he was heard saying he is waiting for the bride

According to the website misterseed, the newly wed had a telephone interview and they were not pleased in how the Kenya media have portrayed them, they feel journalists had crossed their boundaries, they ask why they had to drag the family into “this”, but they still still remain hopeful that the laws in Kenya are changing and they will have a second wedding back home:

Mr. Seed telephone conversation with Mr. Chege and Ngengi the gay couple who married in London on Saturday 17th October, 2009. “Good morning Ngengi, how are you doing.” Mr. Seed asked on Thursday afternoon (22nd October). “I am fine Mr. Seed although disappointed that the Kenyan media has gone beyond the limits by visiting our parents in Murang'a to interview them. We understand that the KTN and Nation screened the story on Wednesday evening. How can they visit our parents because of our case. The parents and family has nothing to do with our case. We have not committed murder. The law allows this in the UK. Tell them to concentrate on taking the killers to Hague than concentrating with us. We are innocent people. Furthermore we are on honeymoon and they should not try to spoil our honeymoon. You know what Mr. Seed, the law in Kenya is changing soon and we might even decide to go and do another wedding down there.” Mr. Ngengi concluded with a light touch while laughing.

Radio disc jockeys engaged listeners in the debate igniting the rage and callers called in to call the union unafrican, uncultured and sinful:

Interesting, today morning this was a topic of discussion at Kiss 100 and the guy hired to be a comedian a fake ass one said, ” unethical, unpalatable, uncouth and unafrican.” He went further to say that he would throw his brother from a fourth floor flat if he came out to him and said that he was gay. He also said that gays should be burnt. Really! gays have got no place, some callers went on to say not in our culture and again “unafrican” What's that? J

The multiple laws that I will be breaking as soon as the president signs this law. Well, our detractors had already said that we would be stiffed with a tougher law, but this goes way beyond that. If I attempt to commit the offense… (god, the number of times that I have made passes and they have been rejected!) Each of those times was worth 7 years in jail. Good heavens!!!! Before, we could be liable to life imprisonment. gug hereby declares that, when the President of the Republic signs this law, gug will be liable to the death penalty… because I and my lover are serial offenders, breaking this law.

The bill further prohibits adoption by gay couples; any person who aids, promotes counsels any acts of homosexuality in any way will face up to seven years imprisonment, or risk a fine of sh100m. It states the ill effects of homosexuality as:

Research indicates that the homosexuality has a variety of negative consequences including higher incidences of violence, sexually transmitted diseases, and use of drugs. The higher incidence of separation and break-up in homosexual relationships also creates a highly unstable environment for children raised by homosexuals through adoption or otherwise, and can have profound psychological consequences on those children. In addition, the promotion of homosexual behavior undermines our traditional family values.

Given Uganda’s historical, legal, cultural and religious values which maintain that the family, based on marriage between a man and a woman is the basic unit of society. This Bill aims at strengthening the nation’s capacity to deal with emerging internal and external threats to the traditional heterosexual family. These threats include: redefining human rights to elevate homosexual and transgender behavior as legally protected categories of people.
There is also need to protect our children and youths who are made vulnerable to sexual abuse and deviation as a result of cultural changes, uncensored information technologies, parentless child developmental settings and increasing attempts by homosexuals to raise children in homosexual relationships through adoption, foster care, or otherwise.

Producers, publishers and distributors of material containing homosexuality especially if a business, an NGO will have its certificate or registration canceled and the director will face seven years in prison. That includes gay blogs in Uganda:

Poor sympathizers. You are not left to love us. No, all lovers of gays, and gays in Uganda will suffer, and be punished by this law. Any press conferences? Not by gay Ugandans. You see, we are a pariah people that will never be like all other Ugandans. Ha ha ha ha ha!
Oh, the gayuganda blog is one of the things which are illegal, as per that bill. I am furiously promoting homosexuality on this blog, complaining about a law like this. So, 5 years in prison, and my (non existent) bank balance will be set back by 100M Uganda shillings…! And the people who dare to give us condoms and lubricant for sex… Or, if you dare to have an HIV prevention program for homosexuals in Uganda… or even try to teach safer sex. Well, the penalties are stiff. Very stiff. Jail, and jail and other things.

Here are the objective of the bill.

3.1. The objectives of the Bill

The objectives of the Bill are:

(a) To protect marriage as that only between a man and a woman in Uganda;

(b) To prohibit homosexual behavior and related practices in Uganda as they constitute a threat to the traditional family;

(c) To safeguard the health of Ugandan citizens from the negative effects of homosexuality and related practices;

(d) To establish progressive legislation protective of the traditional family that can serve as a model for other countries;

(e) To prohibit ratification of any international treaties, conventions, protocols and declarations which are contrary or inconsistent with the provisions of this Act;

(f) To ensure that no international instruments to which Uganda is already a party can be interpreted or applied in Uganda in a way that was never intended at the time the document was created;

(e) To withdraw from any international agreements to which Uganda already is a party, or file reservations to them, which are re-interpreted to include protection for homosexual behavior, or that promote same-sex marriage, or that call for the promotion or teaching about homosexuality as being healthy, normal, or an acceptable lifestyle choice, or that seek to establish sexual behavior, sexual orientation, or gender identity, or sexual minorities as legally protected categories of people; and

(f) To prohibit Uganda from becoming a party to any new international instruments that expressly include protection for homosexual behavior; promote same-sex marriage; call for the promotion or teaching about homosexuality or homosexual relations as being healthy, normal, or an acceptable lifestyle choice; and/or seek to establish sexual behavior, sexual orientation, gender identity or sexual minorities as legally protected categories of people

Gay Ugandan is urging you to take this cause with him and asks you if he deserves to die because of this:

If you are outside the country, why, that is very good. Your congregation can be made aware of all the good things that some Christians in Uganda wish some sinners called gay Ugandans. I am sure your outrage will help. A letter, a protest match, questions to leaders of Uganda, religious and otherwise traveling outside the country. This is a moral question, how can they justify killing me because I am gay, living in a gay relationship with another gay man?

# Ok, what of gay people in other countries. You are our friends. Yes, we dare to ask our gay brothers and sisters for help, especially when our countrymates believe we should be patriotic enough to ‘die’ in the name of their moral uprightness, for god and country.
Tell your local gay group about it.
Organise protests, big and small. Educate any who doesnt know about it.
Write letters of protest. Be courteous, (the framer of the bill says that we homosexuals want to kill him. He says we have already written him ‘threatening’ letters.)

Afrogay another Ugandan blogger compares the Ugandan to the government to the Nazis, he says the time to flag down the bill is now:

Again, as I have argued here and elsewhere, we are best advised to keep our powder dry for the real battle if the bill is ever passed and signed into law. So, I for one don't plan on saying too much about the nuts and bolts of what is wrong with it. And the reason is simple: if we point out what is wrong with it now, our detractors will use what we say to clean up the bill. Best then to shout foul as loud as we can on the discriminatory elements of the bill without guiding them around the glaring technical, legal, constitutional and human rights minefield they are sleep-walking towards with this bill.

A Nigerian blogger Anengiyefa thinks the bill is flawed and the panel who made the bill are ignorant about homosexuality, He says homosexuality cannot be an offense, you cannot punish someone for having sexual feelings for another person:

Mr Bahati goes on to demand the death penalty for what he calls “aggravated homosexuality”. I read this and I wondered if the said Mr Bahati has ever had the opportunity to sit inside a classroom in his life, given that unless he is starkly illiterate, he ought to know that there are no law books in any Common Law jurisdiction, (including Uganda), that refer to an offense known as ‘homosexuality'. Homosexuality cannot be an offense! You cannot make it an offense and punish a person for having feelings of sexual and emotional attraction towards others of the same gender. You cannot prove ‘homosexuality' in a court of law to the standard of proof that is required in a criminal court.

Anengiyefa sees that Uganda has just seen hypocrisy of MPs who have unified and are ready to pass a law victimizing homosexuality in the name of morality: this beats the purpose why the system is so anxious to criminalize consensual sex amongst two adults of the same gender and omitting important issues like ethnic violence, tribalism, AIDS, child rape etc:

This outbreak of frenzied homophobia is the epitome of the hypocrisy that pervades political life in Africa. At a time when expensive legislative time should be judiciously expended on the issues that really matter to the people of the country; when Ugandan lawmakers and the Ugandan government should be concerned about the welfare of vulnerable Ugandans, (including those same-gender loving men and women in their society, who are susceptible to wanton physical abuse and discrimination); when the Ugandan authorities should be looking to protect those of the country's citizens whose welfare is their responsibility; when the challenges that face our continent in this 21st Century are enormous; what we hear of instead is an Anti-Homosexuality Bill being introduced to Parliament. This bill is deemed necessary according to the MP David Bahati who introduced it. He claims that the purpose of the bill is to protect children and the “traditional family”.

The “unfamiliar gays” or the “newly coming out” are the target for this activity as they are lured into what is referred to as a “honey trap.” This is when unsuspecting persons are lured into dark alleys or traps with promises of sex or sexual favors, but actually meet with wicked characters who threaten, blackmail and sometimes assault.

This always starts with visits to the internet in search of love on dating websites, without suspecting that the alluring profiles on most of the sites are fake.

Easy Track Ghana suspects that the majority of these profiles are fake:

On international gay chat sites, there are a disproportionate number of young men from Ghana professing to search for true love. Many people get excited when first reading all the lovely gay profiles professing a search for romantic love. Well, none of it is true! Let us be direct and say that 98% of these guys online do not rank above a 3 on the Kinsey Scale of Human Sexuality. Only a small 2% of the guys on these gay chat sites are ‘gay' in the sense you think of it in the West.

A page on Squidoo has:

If you look at the online dating sites, you will notice that many of the guys from Ghana claim to be as young as 18. Many of these people are not actually gay. The ones that are, may not be genuinely looking for what they claim. The pictures are often fake and their profiles may well be copied from other peoples.

Due to the governments’ inability to counter assault and blackmail towards people of different sexual orientation, some bloggers have taken matters into their own hands to protect their own by shining a spotlight on the fakers.

An online movement against scammers

Fakers2Go

The blackmailers work in groups; with the police and cyber café owners whose main aim is to squeeze the slightest cash from foreigners and the rich just because they can:

In Ghana, On-line criminals are targeting men who have sex with men (MSMs). They aim to extort money through kidnapping, violence and use of Ghana's archaic colonial law.

As homosexuality is illegal in Ghana, MSM's have no protection under the law and reporting a crime can lead to the victim being criminalised.

Furthermore, the police often work with the criminals to extort money and therefore cannot be trusted.

Easy Track Ghana writes:

Just remember, this is a business here. At many Internet cafes there will be 3 or 4 African boys working together, each having multiple chats with foreigners. This is the reason the chat and profiles all sound so similar. Some people are illiterate and hire typists who move from computer to computer answering chat messages. They work together to help each other formulate responses to questions in chats and email. They cut-and-paste sweet love.
Even more shocking though, there are some Internet cafes that are *completely* devoted to this type of activity. It is truly a business, with finders fees paid for arranging a meeting with a foreigner, and 11 and 12 year old year-old boys watching pornography en masse and learning how to chat ‘gay'. On the Internet, anybody can be anything, so you really do not know who you are chatting with.

Gay Ghana warns visitors to Ghana:

Dating sites are the most frequently used ways to meet a (potential) lover or gay guide in a foreign country. At sites like Outpersonals or Gaydar you will find that Ghana is the country in Africa with the most registered hopefuls. No other country in Africa has so many boys and men looking for a partner on Outpersonals with picture (often naked) than Ghana. Does this mean Ghana is the Gay paradise in Africa? No…! It may mean that there are plenty young men desperate enough to seek greener pastures elsewhere, whilst developed enough to have access to the internet and a digital camera.

GALCK, a Kenyan website, has a post titled, “Have you ever been blackmailed?” where they try to tally the amount of money Kenyan gays have been dishing out to the fakers in return for their silence. Gays are vulnerable and scared of the stigma from workmates, neighbors, friends because they know that their are life would be in danger and profession would wither under the glare of a homophobic community.

GALCK claims that blackmailers ask for as much as KSH 2,000,000 (approx $25,000) and as little as KSH 500 ($6)…

Have you ever been blackmailed because of your sexual orientation, or know someone who has? GALCK would like to establish the true cost of being Gay in Kenya. Blackmail and extortion are the twin crimes that afflict the LGBTI community in Kenya today, but majority of the cases are never reported. By compiling this report we shall be able to establish the extent and total cost of what we have paid to “keep the silence.”

From the stories we have gathered so far, our people have paid from Kshs. 500 to Kshs. 2,000 000. The latter having paid only a month ago. Let us join and compile this report - we shall not use real names, unless you want us to. You may also write your story down, and email it to info@galck.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , if you do not want to come in person. Call us on +254-20-2426060 to arrange an interview.

Some basic safety advice

How do you identify the fakers on the net? Most write with horrible grammar. It is reported that most are illiterate and rely on typists who are hired to do the dirty work. Over-disclosure: they profess their love to you and narrate their background, a family member who needs a hair or nail transplant. At the first meeting, they ask for money even before you know them:

Any person who comes at you with instant love is a faker or a scammer. The instant love they feel for you is love for the opportunity that you present and the money you have. The scams sound sincere, but all involve you sending money. Even if you are a poor person in your country, you are a very rich person by comparison to most of your African chat buddies. This disparity in wealth profoundly affects any relationship you develop.

Safety Tips from Fakers2Go:

How not to get beaten up and robbed
Take great care when meeting people on line. Below are some of the things scammers have said to people when arranging to meet them:

1. Bring your phone (because they want to steal it)
2. Dress sexy / wear your good clothes, etc (because they will strip you naked and sell your clothes)
3. Come alone (so that there is no one to help you)
4. Come to Tema!

Sometimes they might text you a sexy message and ask you to respond. If you text back something sexual they can use that as evidence against you with the police. Yahoo chats and your online photos can also be used as evidence.

GALCK says that the first question a blackmailer asks any unfamiliar gay is whether they’ve heard of GALCK, if response is yes, they leave in a huff:

Secondly spread this information around to your networks. In fact every time you meet a new person, ask him or her if she/he knows about GALCK. This has two advantages, one - if your friend does not know about GALCK, s/he gets to know about our activities which s/he may find helpful some day. Secondly, GALCK is now the code word to ward off blackmailers. Indeed I have been told, the first question blackmailers ask their potential victims nowadays is if they know of GALCK. Do yourself and your friends a service, lets all spread the word, and especially the GALCK contacts so that our people can not just feel but actually be protected at all times.

In addition to having a recreational center library, movie sessions, forums and discussions on men who have sex with men (MSM) and gay pride events (CSWs), they have people who defend the gays and they stress that every lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered or any queer identified persons should have their phone number saved on their phones….

Here is what to do when confronted with challenging circumstances.
First of all, we should all save this number in our phones - 020-2426060. This is the GALCK number, GALCK will always rush to your defence when confronted by difficult legal situations regarding your sexuality. And this includes even when you have been caught in the ‘very act’ - especially if you have been caught in the act. So comrades, shed off the fear!

Discussing anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda Simon Collery argues that criminalization of same sex relationships will make it harder to protect male gay from HIV transmission:

When it comes to preventing HIV transmission, criminalization of same sex relationships will make it more difficult to protect men who have sex with men (MSM). MSM are very vulnerable to being infected with HIV and are more likely to transmit it than those engaging solely in heterosexual relationships.

But this means that it must be made possible for MSM to be open about their sexual practices. If they are not open about their sexual practices it will not be possible to target this group with appropriate HIV reduction programmes. They will do everything they can to remain invisible, they will not be able to seek medical attention safely, they will not be protected by the law; they will become even more vulnerable than they are now and they will represent a greater obstacle to reduction of HIV transmission.

The Director General of Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) was quoted last year saying, “Gays are one of the drivers of HIV in Uganda, but because of meagre resources we cannot direct our programmes at them at this time.” Ugandan homosexuals responded:

* 26 years since the epidemic of HIV started there has not been a single government led prevention programme amongst gay Ugandans.
* That from the very beginning of the world wide epidemic it was known that gay men are a vulnerable group.

The statement by the Director General is particularly sad, following statements of other Ugandan leaders that gay people should be marooned on an island to die2, and from an advisor to the UAC that “Our previous experience showed us that bringing homosexuals into campaigns against HIV only gives them a chance to propagate their illegal and unnatural acts.”3

We are Ugandans. We are gay Ugandans.

We have a right to life.

We have a right to health.

We have a right to be free of HIV.

We have a right to knowledge about HIV prevention and treatment. We have a right to protect our selves, our lovers, our families and our communities.

26 years since the HIV epidemic started, Gay Ugandans believe myths and lies about HIV because of biased and unscientific public education campaigns carried out by the government. Despite the lies we have been told, all people have the right to unbiased prevention, care, treatment, and support.

Being gay in Africa is still like being in the belly of the beast. Culture, religion and homophobia aside, bloggers feel that prevention campaigns on HIV among MSM should be active and negative gay stereotypes should be avoided to make gay men more confident in protecting themselves, and governmments should at least make an effort to try and salvage their people from obscurity.

Sebaspace summarises his feelings on the issue:

Sadly, it is unlikely that any African government is paying attention or interested in paying attention. It's criminal really …. utterly diabolical.

Gay Uganda feels that the community in general has to pay too:

To be fair, the community has to pay it with us. So, who's to blame. Seems as if we can start tossing around the blame too.

Tamaku, who writes Diary of a gay Kenya man, writes:

HIV continues to wreak havoc in Sub-Saharan Africa more than in any other region of the world and it appears African males who have sex with men are particularly affected.

One of his readers comments on his post:

ts unfortunate that HIV prevention programmes in most Sub-Saharan African countries are still geared only towards the heterosexual majority. Until recently, quite a few gay men in many countries even believed that the virus was transmitted only via heteroexual sex. MSMs will have rampant unprotected sex with their male partners and because they sleep with only one woman (perhaps their wife), they believe that all is well.

This is a very opportunistic virus that exploits every single chance its given and the rectum with its profusion of capillaries,
together with its liability to rupture is perhaps the single most probable possible point of infection

In highlighting the plight of homosexuals in Africa,The LGBT Asylum posts an article written by Edward Qooro titled, “Activists petition UN over violation of gays' rights in Tanzania”:

Human rights campaigners have filed a report with the United Nations, complaining against Tanzania's violation of the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) persons .

The report submitted this month to the Human Rights Committee of the UN, seeks to highlight the social and legal obstacles that hinder the freedom of the groups with this type of social relations.

The report was filed by three non-governmental organisations: the Centre for Human Rights Promotion in East Africa, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and the Global Rights.

Tamaku had a 3 month poll on his blog asking readers if homosexuality should be decrimanalised in Kenya. 41% said “No” and 28% felt that homosexuality has no place in Kenya. One post on his blog showed that 96% of respondents were against homosexuality:

However, the danger of public hostility is real. A 2005 poll in Kenya showed that 96% of respondents felt that homosexuality was an affront to their beliefs.

Most gay youth who are proud of their identity are now speaking out and looking for gay role models to emulate. Afrogay, a gay Nigerian now living in the United States, writes:

Now Gen X is living a life of based on what the media has given them. Is this what being gay is all about? The answer is no, there are positive good black gay role models out there , some are out some are not. These older men should be able to mentor the younger ones and not seek just sex from them. Encourage them to be positive to build their talent and use it for a purpose.

This is something I seek as a young gay African American. I seek a mentor a role model, I seek one ready to teach and care for a younger gay man.

IS THERE ANY OUT THERE

HIV on the Down Low: Myth & Reality?:

I think we are getting on dangerous grounds as people are refusing to acknowledge that there are people of different sexual orientations and by this! they might be forcing people on the down low (some).

What people fail to realise is that gay people are social beings too, like all the people in the world, they want to love and be loved and engage in bodily pleasure and satisfaction, so if you force them into oblivion and make them hide their sexuality it puts people in the sexual equation at risk.

For example, a Kenyan blogger Pater Nostra has a friend whose pictures were posted and debated on Wananchi Forums. He exclaims:

I am naturally pissed that the audacity of the member of Wananchiforums.com (to post such threatening and victimizing articles) has been entertained and of the administrators to allow such to be posted. Should anything happen to her, both the member and the administrators of the website have to blame. They have made a person vulnerable to attack, abuse, and assault which is morally wrong and goes against her fundamental rights to protection and security. Her life is in danger.

Keguro, an English professor and a blogger reveals the underlying truth about how homosexuals are named and shamed all over the Internet. “The politics of outing” is the title of his post. While most leaders are squirming on their seats over it, others are trying to smoke them out and stamping on their rights.

He blogs about the traumatic ordeal one has to face while still not comfortable with their sexuality:

Within the context of outing, one’s individual wishes and political stance are subsumed by another narrative. One is positioned as a homosexual, hailed as such, and must respond within the structure so created, a structure in which non-response is not possible. One need not respond to one’s accusers, but one responds to those who know one: family, friends, even to the email that offers information and sympathy.

He quotes a gender and sexuality author, Lauren Berlant:

It is this cluster of desires around one that I term “the political,” borrowing from Lauren Berlant’s notion of cruel optimism. To be outed in a country that provides no official spaces or languages for recognizing outing is to become subject to a host of desires, some friendly, some not, some lustful, some not. One becomes marked. Many years ago, when I first came out, my mother composed a grand narrative of my life that, in retrospect, sounds like something from Austin Powers. I was a mad party animal bottom. Her terms, not mine. When I asked how I found time to study as a mad party animal bottom, she replied, quite rationally, that I was a mad party animal bottom from Friday through Sunday. (In truth, I went out Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and was relatively asexual, which I made up for in that glorious year I turned 24. Ahhh, 24!) (A confession, happy now?)

He concludes:

I have written, previously, about the dangers of homophobic discourse within a space that does not have any homosexual discourse. In such a space, outing becomes impossible as an affirmative gesture. Yet, isn’t it precisely in such impossible spaces that we have become possible?

Samuel Delaney writes that “coming out” used to mean coming out into a homosexual community, not as a performance of truth to gazing heterosexuals. I do not use the word community much, and do not trust it. But it can be a powerful thing to imagine, and wonderful to belong.

Such belonging might be one necessary, useful, and pleasurable afterlife.

Two months ago, Keguro blogged about a woman who had her head smashed with a beer bottle in a club because of her sexual orientation:

[A Kenyan lesbian] was leaving Madd House on the said morning with a friend – (anonymous), when, as they were walking through the exit, a woman shouted out behind them “ma lesbians”…. [The Kenyan lesbian] didn’t recognize the woman and they got into a verbal confrontation during which the woman hit her with her bag and went off to go back upstairs. [The Kenyan lesbian] and (anonymous) followed the woman, later identified to them as Constance Sirikwa Rukia, and saw her being hidden in the changing rooms by the bouncers.

[The Kenyan lesbian] went to ask the bouncers why they were hiding the woman when they should be kicking her out for disturbing them. The bouncers held each of [The Kenyan lesbian’s] hands and attempted to throw her out. Upon seeing that [The Kenyan lesbian] was being held by the bouncers, the woman then hit [The Kenyan lesbian] on the head with a bottle that she’d been holding and she fell down, bleeding heavily.

What most bloggers found surprising was how the security guards were willing to sacrifice core principles of citizen protection, making them less safe. An anonymous reader on Nostra's blog says:

These people are bad. What they have done is wrong and they should not be allowed anymore to do this. Why are they doing this? I cant believe that such hate exist unless they do it for the sake of publicity. They have disseminated the article to many fora and I think that is their intention. They want it to be known. Its wrong. Pouline is strong.

Nigeria introduced a bill in 2007 banning same sex marriage. According to Rod 2.0 the bill is the most comprehensive homophobic legislation ever proposed in the world. Early this year homosexuals in Nigeria stormed the National Assembly seeking for legislation that will guarantee the protection.

Lifestyle, culture and religion have become the invisible fence to many homosexuals in Africa barring them from their freedom of sexual expression. A Kenyan blogger, Wilde Yearnings, was quite optimistic after US President Barack Obama officially declared June being a gay pride month and decriminalizing of homosexuality all over the world earlier this month. He posted Obama's speech on his blog:

My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world…NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.

Naughy Feeling commented on the post:

It is great our comrades in America are getting recognition. In our dear country we can't stick our necks in the sand and tell ourselves all will be well. The gigantous task ahead demands of us that we kid not ourselves of the responsibility ahead of us. It may require sacrifices but all for the greater good. May God bless LGBT kenya n give us strength for what is ahead. But hey, look on the bright side, we can still have fun at it.

But will culture, religion and lifestyle factors derail the decriminalisation of homosexuality in most African countries or will it be as Wilde Yearnings described “meanwhile in Kenya… The struggle continues…”?

It has been said that homosexuality is a lifestyle adapted by Africans from the West, SebaSpace a Ugandan blogger tries to points out that his “sexuality” and “him ” are one, that homosexuality cannot be a lifestyle because for him to be involved with someone it has to be sexually, emotionally and spiritually bringing the fact that homosexuality is a physiological function too.

SebaSpace has been on a constant war with an anti-gay blogger also from Uganda and the war is always revolving around religion, culture and lifestyle. This created a stir in the LGBT blogosphere and another gay Kenyan blogger wrotes a post to answer the three questions The Red Pepper had asked. The questions were:

1. If you try to drink water through the ear, you naturally spoil it because it was created by God to do the hearing function. That's physical harm.

2. when they discovered you were gay. You know very well how we love having grandchildren in Africa. Imagine what goes on in your parents' minds to know that you will never give them grandchildren (I am assuming that you a die-hard gay man but if you are bi, please forgive me). So that is emotional harm.

3. Spiritual harm. You tamper with God's plan of procreation. Understand that the main reason of creating the sexual organs was procreation purposes. For you in an attempt to be very creative, you put your organs at the disposal of pleasure only (I hope it is fun).If you have radical parents, they can start questioning God as to why he gave them such a child. I know parents of a gay boy who visited scores of witchdoctors thinking that their child had been bewitched. I can give you as many reasons as possible. I hope you are an objective gentleman who looks at things objectively.
With so much hate from all sides, will the African Leaders put their priorities in order from all the pressure by the UN, IMF and World Bank and speak out for the sexual minorities or will still hold them in this invisible cage?

His answers:

The Ugandan rag called Red Pepper has been engaging Afro gay, a fellow Gay blogger from Uganda in arguments regarding the situation on Homosexuality in Uganda. Follow this link to see the full post. Recently, the editor of red pepper wrote to Afro arguing that he (Afro) was causing Physical, emotional and Spiritual harm to his family by being gay.

I promised Afro that I will write my responses to the Editor on my blog and link back with him. I have taken their questions, edited without altering the message and I have responded to each question.

I tend to disagree with you when you say that homos have never done anybody physical, emotional or spiritual harm.

Without any prejudice I want to tell you that they are guilty of all the three accounts.

Count 1. If you try to drink water through the ear, you naturally spoil it because it was created by God to do the hearing function. That's physical harm.

Red pepper has made three elementary mistakes (assumptions) 1) The common one that homosexuality is equal to sodomy (their shallow analogy of the ear above) 2) Following number 1 above that sodomy is practiced only by homosexuals and 3) That all homosexuals engage in anal sex.

I will deal with the last one first. Is the paper saying they are ok with someone with homosexual orientation as long as they don’t engage in sex? Have they ever heard of celibate gay people and gay people who don’t engage in anal sex? Well, I have and know both types.

It's worth noting, that from the very beginning sodomy and homosexuality were two categorically separate things. The correct definition of sodomy–then and now–is simply non-procreative sex, whether practiced by heterosexuals or homosexuals. It includes oral sex, masturbation, mutual masturbation, contraceptive sex, coitus interruptus, and anal sex–any sex in which semen does not find its way into a uterus.

The anal sex thing is one elephant in the room, but it's not an inherent part of being gay, it isn't an activity engaged in exclusively by gay people.

SebaSpace refused to answer the questions from Red Pepper. He gives reasons for his refusal:

If you look at the e-mail below, the editor of the Red Pepper has valid questions he is asking and, ordinarily, I would answer them – indeed I have answered these questions over the years more times than I have had hot dinners.

The problem for me now is I don’t believe the people asking the questions are sincere. Rightly or wrongly, I think all they are looking for is material to feed their tabloid frenzy and so I have refused to provide the answers. That said, I think it would be okay for other bloggers to attempt to answer them on their blogs or wherever as they are legitimate.

Here is the e-mail I got from the Red Pepper and the questions they posed [heavily emended for clarity]

Thanks for the reply.

Well, you have not answered Phiona's question and I am sure she will maintain her opinion. I also have a feeling that you don't have an answer for it. The times I have interacted with you I have discovered that you are a clever man who cannot answer a question unless you are sure the answer is convincing.Again I tend to disagree with you when you say that homos have never done anybody physical, emotional or spiritual harm.
Without any prejudice I want to tell you that they are guilty of all the three accounts.

While gay and lesbian bloggers in Africa use blogs to express themselves freely, there are also anti gay bloggers targeting them. One of them, Blake, had a blog called Kenyans Against Gays before it was suspended for violating Blogger's Terms of Service. Kenyan Gay wrote about the suspension:

A couple of years ago, a dude called Blake started this blog and I think the first thing he did was to announce its launch on my blog. Over time, that blog grew with articles explaining why he felt he should take a position against us etc.

However, from propagating his position against homosexuality in recent times he moved to actually calling for gay people in Kenya to be killed. I have been alerted by a reader that the blog has been suspended whilst being investigated for possible blogger rules violation. I suspect it is because of his latest position that was quite militant.

I am a believer in freedom of expression and actually think that blog helped expose that there are some willing to propagate hate to get their point across. But I draw the line when someone advocates for homosexuals to be killed.

I think his blog served us more than it aimed to destroy us. This is because we have many Kenyan gay blogs and Blake used to visit all of them and in the comments section try to drive traffic to his site. If you followed links, you would find that very many of the comments were from people who attempted to engage him intellectually on gay issues. Unfortunately, there were those usual vile comments from both sides with most insults coming from him. He was a troll on my blog until I decided to ignore him.

When you visit Kenyans Against Gays blog you get the following message:

This blog is in violation of Blogger's Terms of Service and is open to authors only

However, Blake went on to start another blog using Wordpress.