Kenya: Researcher! Leave those gays alone…

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/323/43668-GALCK.jpgA few months ago the leading dailies reported an event about unknowingly gate crashing a conference on various health issues surrounding the gay population in Mombasa. Apparently, a reporter took a fancy to one of the participants until he realised that ‘she’ was indeed a ‘he’. The media where around to cover some other talk shop in the same hotel and ‘coincidentally’ bumped into this closed door session. Of course this gave rise to much more interesting reportage and the next day an article appeared with the journalists stating their homophobia and reinforcing the Muslim Council’s views that Mombasa should be purged of these mutant humans.

It is no secret that our coast is not only well known for its white sand and plethora of sexy commercial working girls but also for its time immemorial reputation of being a hub of male sex workers (I have been informed that the term, ‘prostitute’ is no longer politically correct as it is too loaded with negative connotations – I wonder when and what they are going to replace ‘CEO’ with). It is also no secret that homosexuality has always been present in all societies for as long back as we have historical documentation but until very recent, eyes, ears and mouths have been shut in Kenya with an attitude that we know exists (big surprise?!) but it’s illegal (bigger surprise?!!) so we’ll just pretend that it’s not there.

Then came HIV and AIDS. People starting dropping dead; mortality rates shot up; orphans increased by the dozen and the President finally declared it a national disaster. The donor dough started to pour in and 4wd sales rocketed.

CODE ECHO: We now have yet another donor epidemic on our hands and many stand to die while others stand to thrive. Proposals are being churned out at unprecedented rates as the body count ticks away. Time is of essence…

While in the northern hemisphere the virus entrenched itself predominantly in minority populations, particularly intravenous drug users and the homosexual population, the virus in our part of the world hit hard and straight at the majority – the heterosexuals. Nobody was immune.

And until recently, not many people were liberal minded or brave enough to talk about sex but this time we had to; for the sake of our sons and daughters. The campaign took all sorts of forms with the cool and famous stating they use protection, to the rich and infamous holding hands and stating that we need to fight this together.

And the dollars continued to flow in...Hold on for a second: donors are always looking for new, unique and creative ideas to throw cash at, and what could fit the tick box more than a homosexual population in a politically and social hostile environment. After all (and rightly so), they too needed public health attention, they too are at risk and perhaps even more at risk. Some have even been brave enough to publicly address this issue and projects and programmes were formed to increase sexual awareness issues amongst homosexual populations and investigate what the rate of incidence might be. Some organisations have even gone as far as to open public drop-in centres. Hands down to them!

Let’s go back to the beginning: until recently, the gay population lived in closets and still continue to; but with an additional extension that is a little more exposed – it’s called, “homo health matters too.” Initially, I was elated to know that even in Kenya where certain populations are persona non-gratis, that at least, they can get the occasional human right.

So out our fellow citizens come to talk about their problems and of course the first thing that happens is the equivalent of a fatwa. Regrettably, this sort of thinking is expected - but what I am really concerned about is the thinking behind those that are supposed to be helping with health issues but also feel that this is a golden opportunity to launch a salvation crusade and not only reduce people’s risk of HIV but also help them to become ‘normal’ again. Unfortunately, I have been privy to several statements from all sorts of medical professionals who ‘feel sorry for them’ because ‘they are not normal’ and ‘if we can just help them to become normal again’ then ‘we might sleep better.’ God, I am told never intended for same sex creatures to indulge in lascivious acts (I can’t quite seem to get that into my cat’s head though who hasn’t quite figured out what to mount, let alone which sex). Perhaps, our dear do-gooders might want to start with their own attitude change before they commence dealing with other people’s medical matters.