RESILIENCE AMIDST ADVERSITY: Being gay and African in the new century Case Study Commissioned by The Atlantic Philanthropies and the OTHER Foundation Written by Marian Nell and Janet Shapiro, February 2013 Photograph: Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya © Front cover: Participant in the first ever Pride celebrations in Uganda, August 2012 Photograph: David Robinson © Abbreviations ACHPR AfricanCharteronHumanandPeoples’ LGBTI(s) Lesbian,gay,bisexual,transgenderand Rights intersex(people) AIDS AcquiredImmuneDeficiencySyndrome LGEP LesbianandGayEqualityProject AJWS AmericanJewishWorldService MDC MovementforDemocraticChange amfAR FoundationforAIDSResearch MP MemberofParliament AMSHeR AfricanMenforSexualHealthand MSM Menwhohavesexwithmen Rights NGO Non-governmentalorganisation ANC AfricanNationalCongress OSF OpenSocietyFoundations AU AfricanUnion OSF-SA OpenSocietyFoundationforSouth BtM BehindtheMask Africa CAL CoalitionofAfricanLesbians OSISA OpenSocietyInitiativeforSouthern CSO Civilsocietyorganisation Africa DRC DemocraticRepublicoftheCongo ROHR RestorationofHumanRights ECOSOC UnitedNationsEconomicandSocial SIDA SwedishInternationalDevelopment Council Agency EU EuropeanUnion SIPD SupportInitiativeforPeoplewith FARUG FreedomandRoamUganda atypicalsexDevelopment GALA GayandLesbianMemoryinAction SMUG SexualMinoritiesUganda GALCK GayandLesbianCoalitionofKenya STD Sexuallytransmitteddisease GALZ GaysandLesbiansofZimbabwe STI Sexuallytransmittedinfection HIV HumanImmunodeficiencyVirus TIC TheInnerCircle Hivos HumanistInstituteforCooperation UHAI-EASHRI EastAfricanSexualHealthandRights withDevelopingCountries Initiative IAM InclusiveandAffirmingMinistries UK UnitedKingdom IGLHRC InternationalGayandLesbianHuman UN UnitedNations RightsCommission UNAIDS JointUnitedNationsProgrammeon ILGA InternationalLesbian,Gay,Bisexual, HIV/AIDS TransandIntersexAssociation UNHRC UnitedNationsHumanRightsCouncil KHRC KenyaHumanRightsCommission US UnitedStates KNCHR KenyaNationalCommissiononHuman USAID U.S.AgencyforInternational Rights Development LeGaBiBo Lesbians,GaysandBisexualsof ZANU-PF ZimbabweAfricanNationalUnion- Botswana PatrioticFront RESILIENCE AMIDST ADVERSITY: Being gay and African in the new century Table of Contents I. Introduction 5 II. Methodology 6 III. Some background and context 7 IV. Human rights 12 V. Religion 18 VI. Violence against LGBTIs 22 VII. Sexual-orientation refugees 26 VIII. Snapshots of Africa from a queer point of view 30 IX. Beyond the snapshots 38 Kenya 38 Malawi 41 Nigeria 43 Uganda 45 Zimbabwe 50 X. Supporting LGBTI Africans 54 ArcusFoundation 59 AstraeaLesbianFoundationforJustice 61 TheAtlanticPhilanthropies 63 FordFoundation 65 Hivos 66 OpenSocietyFoundations 69 SigridRausingTrust 72 UHAI-EastAfricanSexualHealthandRightsInitiative 73 XI. Where to? 75 SituatingtheLGBTIstruggleintheAfricancontext 75 Directingsupportappropriately 76 Directingadvocacy 78 XII. Conclusion 79 Appendix: Potential donors to the LGBTI community in Africa 81 Bibliography 85 RESILIENCE AMIDST ADVERSITY: BEING GAY AND AFRICAN IN THE NEW CENTURY 3 Acknowledgements Most of the people we spoke to in the course of putting together this report did not want to be acknowledged by name, but we acknowledge them all with grateful thanks for speaking to us and for sharing with us their concerns, pain, dedication, determination and hope. A special thank you to Gerald Kraak of The Atlantic Philanthropies, who shared every internet article and piece of paper involving gay activity in Africa that crossed his desk with us – without his invaluable help and support this publication would not have been possible. We also want to thank: • Shaun de Waal, for editing; • Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA), for being a rich source of contacts and for giving us access to their archives; and • Helle Christiansen, for copy-editing, proofreading and facilitation of layout, design and dissemination. A lot of people and organisations provided generous assistance at no cost on the visual side of this report. We are very grateful to the following for facilitating, sharing and granting us special permission to use the remarkable images in this report: • Evan Abramson, Davyd Pittman and Sarah Gunther (American Jewish World Service – AJWS) • ArtX • Martina Bacigalupo, Graeme Reid, Anna Lopriore and Ivy Shen (Human Rights Watch) • Håvard Holme and Kari Amble (Rafto Foundation) • Graphic Maps/World Atlas • Yemisi Ilesanmi (Nigerian LGBTIs in Diaspora Against Anti Same Sex Laws) • Gabriel Hoosain Khan and Anthony Manion (Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action – GALA) • Nthateng Mhlambiso (Hivos South Africa) • Anna Mmolai-Chalmers and Thuto Rammoge (Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana – LeGaBiBo) • Juliet Mphande (Friends of Rainka Zambia) • Tsvangirai Mukwazhi • Zamanguni Mzimela (Eastern Cape LGBTI Organisation) • Claire Ngozo and Walter Garcia (Inter Press Service – IPS) • Jabu C Pereira (Iranti-Org) • Gordon Rainsford • David Robinson • Denise Ryan (Front Line Defenders) • Chesterfield Samba (Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe – GALZ) • Ian Southey-Swartz (Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa – OSISA) Use and distribution in any way, shape or form of any of the photographs in this publication is prohibited. Copyrights © rest with the credited photographers and organisations. About the authors Marian Nell has an MBA from the University of the Witwatersrand and has worked in the human rights field for the past 40 years. Janet Shapiro has an honours degree in sociology and has spent more than 30 years working in the same field. As a lesbian couple with two sons conceived by artificial insemination during apartheid South Africa, they have a passion for human rights and a special commitment to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. Disclaimer The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and are not necessarily shared by The Atlantic Philanthropies or the OTHER Foundation. 4 RESILIENCE AMIDST ADVERSITY: BEING GAY AND AFRICAN IN THE NEW CENTURY I.Introduction his report gives an overview of what it means to be gay and African in the early Tpart of the 21st century. Commissioned by The Atlantic Philanthropies and the OTHER Foundation, it also highlights organisations working to improve the situation and the funders supporting such activities. This is not an academic publication. It is meant to provide information about the conditions facing gay people throughout the continent and show that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people are often pawns, vulnerable pawns, for those seeking power. But the report will also show that there is a groundswell of gay people doing it for themselves Photograph: Martina Bacigalupo & Human Rights Watch © throughout Africa. Our overall feeling, despite some depressing scenarios, was a hopeful one. We found the remarkable scattering of LGBTI organisations and people prepared to fight for their rights all over sub- Saharan Africa particularly exiting. We had a sense that sexual orientation and gender identity are important parts of the human rights agenda, and that the LGBTI community was producing human rights ‘warriors’ who play a significant role in the battle to develop LGBTI and human rights in Africa. RESILIENCE AMIDST ADVERSITY: BEING GAY AND AFRICAN IN THE NEW CENTURY 5 II.Methodology e worked on this report consistently between August 2011 and March 2012, although we began collecting information long before Wthat. As the sands were constantly shifting, it was necessary to review and update the report in December 2012/January 2013, immediately prior to publishing. Throughout the research process, we read countless documents, articles and books, interviewed and spoke to a large number of people individually or in groups – face-to-face, via Skype or telephone, or through e-mail – and tapped into social media conversations and debates. In short, we used every possibility we could think of to try to find out not only what was happening in the gay world of Africa, but also what people thought and felt about it. Some of the foundations and donors profiled in this report are undergoing, or have recently undergone, executive leadership changes and/or initiated strategic reviews of their work. The world of grantmaking and development aid is an ever-changing one, and as such we cannot vouch for the current accuracy of the donor information presented here. We refer readers to the websites of individual donors (see the Appendix) for the most up-to-date information on objectives, priorities, focus areas and grantmaking figures. We have decided not to name any of our interviewees. Most of the people we spoke to specifically requested us not to, often for reasons of security, and we got a clear sense that many other interviewees implicitly felt the same – typically due to organisations, strategies or situations being in a more or less continuous state of flux. Our interviewees included LGBTI organisations, activists and donor representatives. We spoke to LGBTI refugees and interviewed LGBTIs who had been victims of xenophobia and found friendship in gay groups. Without the input of all these people, we could not have written this report. We hope it provides a fair, realistic and informative picture of what African LGBTIs are confronted with in their daily lives. 6 RESILIENCE AMIDST ADVERSITY: BEING GAY AND AFRICAN IN THE NEW CENTURY III.Somebackgroundand context The2011‘Arab frica is no longer the ‘dark and unknown heart’ once imagined 1 spring’broughtdown by