You are here: Home » Featured » Gay Kenyans still at risk

Gay Kenyans still at risk

03/10/2010 by JR Russell

Perhaps the worst incident of media carelessness was the report of a Kenyan gay couple that got married in the UK. The story was carried on the front page of the dailies but did not solicit the outrage that was apparently expected. So the media sank to even lower depths when they visited the families of the men in rural Kenya and not only shocked the families with the news, but also asked for comments.
Wandia Njoya in the Zeleza Post

via LGBT asylum news: Continuing threats to gays on Kenya’s coast.

Paul Canning at LGBT Asylum News gives a good summary of the anti-gay conditions in Kenya right now. From a radio station inciting anti-gay violence, to Muslim clerics calling for spilling of blood to prevent a rumoured gay marriage.

As Wandia Njoya points out, Kenyan (and African in general) gay people are not seeking gay marriage rights, or ordination. However, the press are doing their best to polarise the population, and are using the politicial hot button issues from other countries to create fear and confusion in their own country. They are aided in this mission by politicians desperate to garner support through providing an enemy and clerics and priests who sell their rules through fear mongering.

A Mombasa Christian radio station has been broadcasting a message that gay people are not human and do not deserve to be treated like you would real human beings. They have also threatened a local medical centre that provides treatment for HIV positive homosexual and bisexual men.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Operation Gay Out: Kenyan Police Rescue Gay Men From Bloodthirsty Mob (joemygod.blogspot.com)
• Massive Assault on Gays Hits Kenya; Mobs Call for Death (towleroad.com)