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GAY, OUT AND ON THE AIRWAV IN KSHASA
Stg at his sk a stuffy office wh a rabow flag hangg behd him, 31-year-old Patou Izai says tak a lot of urage to e out as gay Kshasa, the sprawlg pal cy of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Although this vast, volatile Central Ain natn do not have the harsh anti-gay laws adopted by neighbors such as Uganda, eply graed nservative cultural norms routely stigmatize, silence and lead to physil threats agast LGBTI (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and tersex) people. Them range om basic sexual health tips to alg wh prsn to rencilg homosexualy and relign.
A particularly popular episo asked Kois, as Kshasa rints self-intify, how they'd react to fdg out a close fay member was gay. He draws hope om the ttimony of a listener who said he regretted mistreatg his brother, who had e out as gay.
He remas unsettled by repeated attempts, most recently 2014, to pass an anti-gay bill DRC's Natnal Assembly. The proposed bill would make homosexualy punishable by prison sentence. This adds urgency to his work wh "Jniai, " Izai says: "I feel obliged to speak, to ll out, to keep remdg society that we homosexuals exist.