If you say beg gay is not Ain, you don’t know your history | Bisi Alimi | The Guardian

Contents:

• LGBT RIGHTS AI: WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?
• IF YOU SAY BEG GAY IS NOT AIN, YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR HISTORY
• ON GAY RIGHTS, YOUNG AINS SHARE THE TOLERANCE OF THEIR ELRS
• GAY HISTORY IS BLACK HISTORY: THE 10 INS PROVE IT
• AIN GAYS AND LBIANS BAT BIAS
• GAY AINS AND ARABS E OUT ONLE

LGBT RIGHTS AI: WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?

Nkoli received several human rights awards globally and was one of the first gay activists to meet wh Print Manla 1994, mpaigng for the protectn om discrimatn the 1994 Constutn and for the repeal of the sodomy law. Jo here and take actn to ensure that everyone gets to have the right to too many Ain untri ntue to monize and crimalise homosexualy to this the world ntu to try and be more acceptg of people om all walks of life, there are still 69 untri where same-sex relatnships are still nsired to be crime. Succeedg this, 1982 Nkoli joed the Gay and Lbian Associatn of South Ai (GASA) as one of the few black members of the anisatn efforts of tergratg his the a Nkoli and fellow Black members endured a seri of racial microaggrsns as part GASA, he went on to start a branch of GASA known as the Saturday Group for people who were exclud by the ma prison 1984 for treason alongsi other anti-apartheid activists  the Delmas Trial, the anisatn cled to support him, statg that the charg were not “gay matters” his release, Nkoli tablished the Gay and Lbian Organisatn of Wswatersrand (GLOW) alongsi fellow LGBTQ+ activist Beverly Dsie.

IF YOU SAY BEG GAY IS NOT AIN, YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR HISTORY

From a very young age, UK-based Cameroonian blogger and LGBTQ+ activist Bandy Kiki, knew that she was Kiki first moved to the UK, she feared for her life whenever she would attend gathergs wh members of the LGBTQ+ muny bee her native untry homosexualy is a crimal offence which n be punishable by maximum of five years Febary 2021 at least 24 people have been arrted and forced to unrgo an anal eximatn and HIV tt  Cameroon. She is a spokperson for Rabow Equaly Hub, which fights for the rights of queer people the April 2021 she publicly stood up for two transgenr women om her home untry who were arrted at a rtrant for wearg women’s clothg and charged for “attempted homosexualy. In 2017, he started A Nasty Boy magaze, Nigeria’s first publitn that was dited solely to the LGBTQ+ members wh the purpose of celebratg and regnisg their liv and experienc the wt Ain he was fally startg to live his tth universy, Akon was met wh a harsh realy after his iend outed him to a mp he scribed as wagg a “war agast homosexualy.

ON GAY RIGHTS, YOUNG AINS SHARE THE TOLERANCE OF THEIR ELRS

Popular thor and gay rights Kenyan activist Byanvanga Waaa first ma his mark when he publilly me out his article entled “I am a homosexual, Mum” later said the article was a missg chapter om his 2011 tobgraphy “One Day I Will Wre About This Place, ” spired by the monizatn of homosexualy on the Ain ntent.

”This g out piece by Waaa not only created nversatns about homosexualy his native untry of Kenya where homosexualy still remas illegal, but lead him to be clud on the TIME 100 as one of the most fluencial people the world.

GAY HISTORY IS BLACK HISTORY: THE 10 INS PROVE IT

In 2010, Mugisha was among the people who succsfully took Ugandan newspaper, Rollg Stone, to urt after they published nam, pictur, home and work addrs of people who were gay for them to be 2013, Mugisha opposed the crimalisatn of homosexualy Uganda. In an say for Global Cizen, Donkor scrib that he knew he was gay om a young age and tried his bt to supprs was only at universy where he started to accept himself for what he tly was and began to be cur about anizatns that help people like him, and to his shock there were no LGBTQ+ anizatns fuelled him to start his own anizatn orr to be a bean of light for people who feel like him.

Same-sex nduct is not illegal  Rwanda, but thori there round up and arbrarily taed people regard as socially unsirable, cludg over a dozen gay and transgenr people, sex workers, street children, and others the months before a planned June 2021 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetg.

At least 21 cultural varieti of same-sex relatnships have long been part of tradnal Ain life, as monstrated a report that was signed to dispel the nfn and li that surround Uganda’s Anti-Homosexualy Bill of 2014 (which has sce been overturned). The followg discsn and the 21 exampl are om that report, “Expand Crimalisatn of Homosexualy Uganda: A Flawed Narrative / Empiril evince and strategic alternativ om an Ain perspective, ” which was prepared by Sexual Mori Uganda:. In their work anthropologists Stephen Murray and Will Rose provi wi‐rangg evince support of the fact that throughout Ai”s history, homosexualy has been a ‘‘nsistent and logil feature of Ain societi and belief systems.

AIN GAYS AND LBIANS BAT BIAS

Amongst Bantu-speakg Pouha farmers (Bene, Bulu, Fang, Jn, Mok, Mwele, Ntum and Pangwe) prent-day Gabon and Cameroon, homosexual terurse was known as bian nkû”ma– a medice for wealth which was transmted through sexual activy between men. Given the overwhelmg evince of pre-lonial same-sex relatns which ntued to the lonial and post-lonial eras, as well as historil evince of diverse unrstandgs of genr inty, is clear that homosexualy is no more ‘‘alien” to Ai than is to any other part of the world. As stated by Murray and Rose: Numero reports also dite that the highly sex-segregated societi of Ai, homosexual behavur and relatnships were not unmon among peers, both male and female, pecially the years before heterosexual marriage.

There are untri – such as Nigeria, Mrania, Sudan, and Somalia – that impose bans, lengthy jail terms, ostracism, or a ath penalty on anyone displayg same-sex affectn and lbian, gay or transgenr inty or existence. "We want to prohib everythg to do wh homosexualy, " Mr Kaluma tells me, addg that his bill will be much broar than the legislatn passed by Uganda's parliament and approved by Print Yoweri Meveni May. The Ugandan law is regard as one of the harsht anti-LGBTQ laws the propos life imprisonment for anyone nvicted of homosexualy, and the ath penalty for so-lled aggravated s, which clu havg gay sex wh someone below the age of 18 or where someone be fected wh a life-long illns such as the other si of the ntent, MPs Ghana earlier this month unanimoly voted favour of amendments to the untry's anti-gay legislatn, phg closer to beg enacted to law.

GAY AINS AND ARABS E OUT ONLE

Though ls harsh than Uganda's new law, the Promotn of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Fay Valu Bill propos a three-year prison sentence for anyone who intifi as LGBTQ and a 10-year sentence for anyone who promot homosexualy. Gay sex is already illegal Kenya, but the ernment n also be tolerant of gay people - for example, has given asylum to people om other Ain untri, cludg Uganda, who faced persecutn their home untri bee of their sexual orientatn.

Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Many Kenyans believe that gay rights are agast their relign - whether Christian or MlimAlthough the meetg Uganda was billed as an attempt to protect the "sovereignty" of Ain stat, was actually -sponsored by an Amerin Christian right-wg anisatn, Fay Watch Internatnal (FWI) Kapya Kaoma, a Zambian prit the Anglin Church and an amic at Boston Universy the US, says Ain untri are beg targeted by FWI and siar US-based anisatns, and that the impact of s lobbyg has been "horrible and humane" parts of Ai, fuellg what he lls "ant homophobia". "It is one thg to say: 'I don't agree wh you beg gay', but we didn't have the ant one, where policians now are sayg: 'You go to jail for life, you go to jail for talkg about beg gay, you go to jail bee you're livg wh your fellow woman', " Dr Kaoma says.