Njeri Gate | Executive Director, Natnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Commissn | Equas

Contents:

• NJERI GATE | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATNAL GAY AND LBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSN
• KENYA TO LE ON GAY RIGHTS AS AIN NEIGHBOURS LOOK ON
• NATNAL GAY & LBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSN
• NATNAL GAY AND LBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSN (NGLHRC)

NJERI GATE | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATNAL GAY AND LBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSN

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. Natnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Commissn (Kenya).

KENYA TO LE ON GAY RIGHTS AS AIN NEIGHBOURS LOOK ON

In a untry where many nsir homosexualy to be “un-Ain, ” the High Court cisn will mark a watershed moment a twenty-year stggle.

NATNAL GAY & LBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSN

When we refer to “LGBTIQ rights, ” we are referrg to the stggle for social and polil rights for people who intify as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, tersex, and/or queer.

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. Acrdg to the 2013 Pew Global Attus Project, 90 percent of Kenyan rints believe that society should not accept homosexualy as a way of life.

NATNAL GAY AND LBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSN (NGLHRC)

Kenya’s now-ntted penal outlaws homosexualy as an “unnatural offense” which is fed as “agast the orr of nature. 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. Homosexual relatns are now illegal, and vlence agast people who engage same-sex relatns Kenya is well-documented.

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.