Source: ABC News (US)
It's far from a comprehensive portrait, but ABC News (US) offers a few snapshots of gay life in a country where being gay is illegal -- Kenya.
As part of a series on nightlife around the world, ABC's Dana Hughes reports from the country's vibrant and cosmopolitan capital of Nairobi.
Hughes reports that the city has a wide array of clubs for both locals and tourists -- everything from upscale all-night dance clubs to dives where locals gather to talk politics.
What it doesn't have is a gay club.
The closest things come are a few bars that tolerate a small, discrete gay clientele as long as they're not too obvious about why they're there.
"It's straight clubs and mixed clubs," said Steve, a 37-year-old gay Kenyan who did not want to give his real name, but who talked to ABC News over a couple of drinks at a bar he described as not too open to homosexuals. He said he likes the nightspot because of the amazing live band that plays.
"If you go to a club where there are too many gays, you have to pretend you're straight," Steve explained to Hughes. "I wouldn't want my parents or my brother to find out I was at a gay club."
In Kenya, homosexuality isn't just socially unacceptable -- it's illegal.
The penalty for homosexual acts for men is seven years in prison, although gay men are only rarely arrested, according to Hughes. Openly gay men, referred to as "queens," are more likely to be beaten by homophobic Kenyans, ABC reports.
A snapshot of gay life in Kenya, where being gay is a crime [contd.]
A 21-year-old gay man Hughes talked to said his generation worries more about the social consequences of being openly gay than about the government and law enforcement.
The man -- "Paul" -- said his family refuses to acknowledge his homosexuality. Like many young gay men in Nairobi, he is not from the city, but lives in Meru, an area of Eastern Kenya that is likewise intolerant of homosexuality, Paul said.
"My father would say 'This is not my son' if he found out," Paul told ABC News. "I am forced to have girlfriends. . I have a girlfriend in Meru now."
Unlike most gay men in the country, Steve, who is from Nairobi, has come out to his family.
"Most people have no choice in leading a double life," he said. "I was very lucky. But still in the 15 years I've been out I've faced things that sometimes make me think if I could, I might have done things differently and not been."
Both Paul and Steve explained to Hughes that there are clubs that are known to be "gay friendly." Gypsies, for example, is sometimes referred to as Kenya's most closeted gay club. Other clubs have certain nights when the gay community knows it is welcome.
But only to a point. Paul likes a club called Tacos. He and his gay friends are allowed in "[depending] on the mood of the management," he said.
Steve hopes Nairobi will eventually be as open to gays as other cosmopolitan cities, such as Johannesburg in South Africa, within the next five to 10 years.
The fact that a few clubs let in gays at all is a huge sign of progress, said Steve, who remembers how, 15 years ago when he first came out, gays in Kenya used to resort to "secret" codes to meet one another.
"You used to go to the Stanley Hotel bar and wear a pink shirt," he said.
Hughes reports that there is "a substantial gay population in Nairobi," although he says it's hard to find exact numbers.
The progress made so far is a combination of Kenyan attitudes evolving and the gay community slowly coming out of the shadows and banding together.
Some who are willing to stand against intolerance have founded an organization called the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya. Steve is a member.
Though they are demanding their rights, group members are forced to "walk a fine line," said Steve, who worries about getting arrested. The group is trying to force the government to recognize the rights of homosexuals without causing a backlash.
"It's a bit like pushing out a boat without having a lifesaver," he told Hughes.
The one exception to homosexual intolerance was, and continues to be, sex tourism, ABC reports. For several years during a previous regime, there was a club in downtown Nairobi, frequented by British sailors and ex-pats, Steve said, where men could pick up other men, often male prostitutes.
In the coastal town of Mombasa, male prostitution continues to be part of the tourism trade without much scrutiny from the government -- or even the local community. "If you have money in this country you can do whatever you want," Steve said.
But, he added, the history and prevalence of male sex tourism in Kenya has only added to the country's general intolerance of homosexuality.
"It's a perversion of being gay," one that only confirms the idea homosexuality is "dirty" and "unnatural," Steve said.
Hughes ends his report with a bit of wisdom from Steve: "You can't spend your whole life obsessing about what you can do or can't do," he said. "You have to start to concentrate on being who you are."
Full article: Finding Love Where Being Gay Is a Crime | ABC News (US)