african homosexuals come out of the closet

By Lillian Omariba (Source: Pretoria News)

July 13, 2006: Leone Immanuel is an invisible man, part of a minority community that many in conservative Africa prefer to believe does not exist and which is reviled, shunned and persecuted when it dares seek recognition.

But the 27-year-old Kenyan is among a growing number of African homosexuals who are no longer willing to endure such discrimination and are tentatively coming out, speaking out and demanding acceptance.

They are fighting an age-old stigma attached to gays and lesbians, whose sexual orientation has become gradually accepted in the West, but is still considered not only highly immoral, but illegal in most of Africa.

"I was kicked out of a Catholic church because of my sexual orientation," Immanuel says. "When my family learnt about who I was, it was scary. There was rejection and my mum was so depressed."

Now a deacon in another church and involved with a gay pastor, albeit secretly, he says he is completely comfortable with his sexuality, which he discovered while at university where he first had sex with another man.

A four-year relationship followed, but his ex-partner then left and married a woman. Immanuel's journey to self-confidence was hampered by fear, hatred and abuse at the hands of largely intolerant and unsympathetic peers and elders.

It is a common story, according to experts who attended a recent conference in Nairobi on sexual health and rights in Africa where calls resonated for traditional African societies to kill taboos on matters of sex.

"The challenge is being yourself in a country where people discriminate against you for who you are," said David Kamau, author of Understanding Homosexual People in Kenya.

"My wish is we should not be treated like criminals," he said on the sidelines of the second Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights held recently. "It hurts when people talk negatively about us."

Donna Smith, the chair of a coalition of African lesbians in South Africa, agreed and called for gays on the continent to unite and press for equal rights.

"We are marginalised, yet we vote, work and pay taxes in the mainstream," she said.

"We need to develop links among gays and lesbians."

Smith, along with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), launched a book at the conference titled Tommy boys, Lesbian men and Ancestral wives: female same-sex practices in Africa.

It documents female homosexuality in east and southern Africa through personal narratives from women in Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Uganda where lesbianism is little understood and not accepted.

"We are invisible in Africa, but a naturally occurring phenomenon in the universe," Smith said. "People discriminate against us and say things carelessly about us. This has led to suicide and violence."

Cary Alan Johnson, the IGLHRC's senior Africa co-ordinator, says the struggle is difficult and made worse by the refusal of some governments and clergy to admit homosexuality exists in their communities.

"This is our biggest challenge," he said. "People get miopic when talking about same sex sexuality. The reaction is usually hostile and they believe that homosexuals are not part of society. It's very much appalling."

Still the IGLHRC, a US-based group that aims to secure human rights for all people regardless of their sexual orientation, expression, gender identity, and/or HIV status, is not giving up the fight.

It helped organise the Nairobi conference, at which participants adopted a communique identifying and lamenting the treatment accorded to African gays and lesbians as well as those suffering from HIV/Aids.

"Inadequate attention to sexual health rights has led to serious consequences," it said, noting the spread of HIV/Aids, violence against women and children and stigmatisation of homosexuals.

These, it said, "further undermine efforts to promote human and economic development in Africa".