Kenya gay sex ban upheld by High Court Nairobi today disappotment for LGBT rights activists Ai - CBS News

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS KENYA: 'WHY OUR FIGHT ISN'T OVER'
• LGBT RIGHTS AI: WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?
• WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?
• KENYA TO LE ON GAY RIGHTS AS AIN NEIGHBOURS LOOK ON
• KENYAN URT UPHOLDS LAW MAKG GAY SEX ILLEGAL
• KENYA GAY SEX BAN UPHELD BY HIGH COURT NAIROBI DISAPPOTMENT FOR AI'S LGBTQ RIGHTS ACTIVISTS
• KENYA’S HIGH COURT UPHOLDS A BAN ON GAY SEX

GAY RIGHTS KENYA: 'WHY OUR FIGHT ISN'T OVER'

It is the culmatn of a -long legal battle, and a victory for the LGBTQ+ a majory cisn, the urt led that the non-ernmental ordatn board was discrimatory and ged on the muny’s nstutnal right to associatn by refg to register any of six nam proposed by the muny’s reprentativ, among them the Natnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Commissn and the Gay and Lbian Human Rights ernment body had said that permtg registratn would ntravene sectns of the untry’s penal that crimalise gay and lbian unns, cludg a Brish lonial law layg down a 14-year sentence for anyone nvicted of homosexual acts. “There may be many people who are stgglg wh different kds of sexual sir but they have not gone to urt for the whole natn to regnise them, ” stat the church, which has a large followg Kenya’s urban Kenyan church lked the urt’s lg to the recent cisn by the Church of England to wele same-sex upl “unrervedly and joyfully” Kaluma, an MP allied to the opposn, vowed to table a bill parliament to prohib homosexualy and impose stiffer penalti, cludg life prison, for those engaged same sex lg will be a btersweet victory for the LGBTQ+ muny Kenya, whose members have been subject to harassment, excln and vlence.

I am source, Gee Wafula/BBCImage ptn, The law banng gay sex is specific to men but activists say that lbian, bi, trans and non-bary voic are val this nversatnBut there many dividuals om the muny who have experienced physil and verbal vlence and var forms of discrimatn. Homosexualy⚢✖ Illegal (imprisonment as punishment)Censorship✖ State-enforcedNon-bary genr regnn✖ Intersex onlyDiscrimatn✖ Illegal some ntextsEmployment Discrimatn✖ No protectnsHog Discrimatn✖ No protectnsConversn Therapy✖ Not banned.

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

Current statSce Aug 1, 1930Illegal (imprisonment as punishment) Article 162, 163 and 165 prohibs homosexualy and offenr is punishable by up to 21 years prison wh hard labor and fSame-sex marriage Kenya? Current statSce Jan 1, 1941Illegal The Internatnal Lbian and Gay Associatn stat that homosexuals are not allowed to serve the Kenya Defence Forc, however, 's unclear if this is a wrten law and if so, when this law was 't Ask, Don't TellNo laws rtrictg or crimalizg lgbt donatns by MSMs Kenya?

(Nairobi) – Kenya’s High Court on May 24, 2019 upheld laws crimalizg homosexual acts between nsentg adults, a step backward the progrs Kenya has ma toward equaly recent years, Human Rights Watch said today. Two other anizatns, the Gay and Lbian Coaln of Kenya (GALCK) and the Nyanza, Rift Valley and Wtern Kenya Network (NYARWEK), along wh dividual petners who had been personally affected by the laws, filed a send petn raisg siar arguments.

After police arrted two people and subjected them to forced anal examatns 2015, the Court of Appeal led 2018 that rryg out the examatns on people charged wh nsensual homosexual nduct vlated the prohibn on torture and cel, human, and gradg treatment. "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.

WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?

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. In Kenya, a Febary lg by the Supreme Court upheld verdicts by lower urts statg that the ernment uld not lawfully refe to register an anisatn llg self the Natnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Commissn (NGLHRC).

KENYA TO LE ON GAY RIGHTS AS AIN NEIGHBOURS LOOK ON

Same-sex relatns are legal only 22 of Ai’s 54 untri, and are punishable by ath or lengthy prison terms some, acrdg to a global review by the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA).

KENYAN URT UPHOLDS LAW MAKG GAY SEX ILLEGAL

But opposn policians boytted a speech by Meveni on Thursday, which he scribed gay people as “viatns”, to prott agast human rights vlatns and the illegal imprisonment and forced disappearance of their supporters. In Kenya, Archbishop Jackson Ole Sap of the Anglin Church speculated that the alleged spread of homosexualy was a sister ploy by environmentalists to populate the globe an effort to addrs climate change. In the latt sign of risg homophobia different Ain untri, a Kenyan opposn MP is leadg a mpaign for parliament to further crimalise the untry's small LGBTQ Peter Kaluma's move after neighbourg Uganda adopted a tough new anti-gay law, rejectg threats by US Print Joe Bin to impose sanctns and travel rtrictns on "anyone volved ser human rights ab" I met Mr Kaluma - a member of veteran Kenyan opposn polician Raila Odga's Orange Democratic Movement - he was stg behd his sk at his office the pal Nairobi, proof-readg and makg rrectns to a bill that he tends to table parliament soon.

"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 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 paras, drag shows, wearg the lours, the flags, the emblems of the LGBTQ group, " Mr Kaluma 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 Kaluma tells me he wants their asylum to be revoked, and for them to leave a small, hidn church set up to offer fort and support to LGBTQ people central Nairobi, the female pastor says Mr Kaluma's bill is g "a lot of panic, anxiety, fear". Although 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 's Mormon founr Sharon Slater ni that the group promot anti-gay laws Ai. "Fay Watch oppos legislatn that penalis a person for havg sexual attractns or for how they intify, " she says an emailed rponse to the Slater addrsed Ain lawmakers, clerics and mpaigners at their fom Uganda's laki cy of Entebbe March, and later appeared a group photo wh Print Meveni at his official more than 20 years, Mrs Slater has lobbied ernments on what she lls "fay valu" and has ma her missn to mpaign agast children and young people beg given Comprehensive Sexualy Edutn (CSE), a curriculum-based sex tn programme champned by the Uned Natns and other c a Uned Natns Populatn Fund (UNFPA) manual for out-of-school youths east and southern Ai, sayg promot homosexualy and is too explic. "It sensis children to sex, " she Slater also quot om the manual, cludg l which say that facilators of lsons should have "a ntral, acceptg attu towards homosexualy" I ntact Maria Bakaroudis, UNFPA's CSE specialist for east and southern Ai, for ment, she says she is not keen to talk about the "opposn", as she refers to adds that the manual is only a guile, and each untry n tailor to su their Bakaroudis fends CSE, sayg provis "life-savg rmatn" to curb high rat of untend pregnanci, HIV, and sexually transmted diseas.

KENYA GAY SEX BAN UPHELD BY HIGH COURT NAIROBI DISAPPOTMENT FOR AI'S LGBTQ RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

The laws create a misguid perceptn society that lbian, gay, bisexual and queer dividuals are crimal; a perceptn that subsets of the state and relig stutns advance to further perpetuate human rights vlatn and acts of vlence. While same-sex relatns (“homosexualy”) have been practiced among var groups Kenya for centuri, is only the last three or four s that Kenyans have begun to self-intify as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, tersex, or (most recently) queer. Efforts to outlaw and elimate same-sex relatns and genr nonnformy durg the lonial perd were so succsful that post-lonial lears joed others cryg homosexualy as “un-Ain” and anathema to Kenyan tradnal valu and ctoms.

Wh this ntext of both symbolic (legal) and physil vlence agast LGBTIQ people, Kenyans mt nstantly negotiate the ntradictns of queer visibily — when and how to intify as gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, tersex, and/or queer.

In 2012, six young legal advot tablished the Natnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Commissn (NGLHRC) and, soon thereafter, held a jot gala event wh the KHRC promotg dialogue on genr and sexual diversy and celebratg achievements the fight for LGBTIQ rights. The NGLHRC also lnched an impact ligatn program and, jt last year, succsfully challenged the practice of forced anal exams; the exams were admistered to men orr to prove their homosexualy and prosecute them. The film premiered at the 2018 Cann Film Ftival, and , too, was promptly banned by the Kenya Film Classifitn Board (KFCB) due to s “homosexual theme and clear tent to promote lbianism Kenya ntrary to the law.

KENYA’S HIGH COURT UPHOLDS A BAN ON GAY SEX

Whatever happens Kenya will have a direct impact on all, ” said Frank Mugisha, an activist based neighbourg Uganda, where homosexualy is outlawed and thori have attempted to impose harsher sentenc on gay people recent years. All the rights will fally be regnised for queer people Kenya, ” said Lelei Cheto, of the Natnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Commissn (NGLHRC) crim agast gay people – cludg physil and sexual asslt, blackmail and extortn – are mon, but most victims are too fearful to go to the police, rights groups say. In several, gay people face life imprisonment or the ath attempt to get the laws repealed is beg opposed by the Kenya Christian Profsnals Fom (KCPF), a aln of Catholic, Prottant and Evangelil church.

In Ai there is a strong sense of muny and a society has the right to outlaw a behavur if is abhorrent and immoral, ” Kanjama urt has heard om expert wns who said there have long been tablished tradns of tolerance of homosexualy mpaign to repeal Sectn 162 received a major boost last year when India’s top urt scrapped a law that punished gay sex wh up to 10 years jail a historic verdict.