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).

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

KENYA TO LE ON GAY RIGHTS AS AIN NEIGHBOURS LOOK ON

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.

NATNAL GAY & LBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSN

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. 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.

NATNAL GAY AND LBIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSN (NGLHRC)

” As noted on their webse, “this play created an open and safe platform to discs and reflect on what means to be a homosexual. The Gay and Lbian Coaln of Kenya (GALCK) set up a tent that they dubbed “the Q spot” and distributed poetry, displayed artwork, and answered qutns om the public.

Both of the activist groups began to document the mistreatment of LGBTIQ people Kenya and to argue support of the crimalizatn of homosexualy. 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. In 2010, KTN published “Gay Kenyans Come Out, ” a report on the public celebratn of Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia. The report not the legal punishment for homosexualy, implicly regnizg the urage of the activists, and, to date, has over 91, 000 views on YouTube.