BOYS AND BOYS, GIRLS AND GIRLS

“Remarks attributed to Special Programmers’ minister Esther Murugi that Kenyans should acknowledge that homosexuality is amongst us and learn to live with it has sparked a heated debate…” I quote the Daily nation dated Wednesday October 6^th 2010. I wonder what is there to be debated about, homosexuals are here and they have been here for years, we have been having a blind eye not to not to notice them but now that someone noticed them and raised an issue about them we want to condemn them, question is, why? My life as a lesbian in Nairobi has been in the closet for a long time, I never wanted anyone especially in my family to know that I am lesbian, I wanted to hide no more and so I came out to them, first my sisters then my brothers and lastly my parents, trust me it was not easy, coming from a conservative environment, my parents faced the wrath of their own child growing up to be a lesbian, they finally came to terms, but their friends did not. Now their friends wanted to play my parents in my life and I did not agree to it so I have kept off from them. The article on the daily nation reminds me when I was outed by the same paper in May during the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO), I felt like my privacy was invaded and my life was taking a different twist. At that moment I hated my life and what it was becoming, I wanted to run away and leave my fears behind, the fears of being shunned away by the community I knew as home, by people I called family and by the person I loved most. My life was a living hell, things I only dreamt about, I stood strong to face the fears and I should say it never killed me but made me stronger. The media has a way of really making our lives hell, something that we all hate, we wish to have something positive in our lives but the media will always make our lives look so negative, comparing us to rapists, thugs, thieves and classifying us with sex and drugs. Something that pulls our ego down to the drains.

If I could just highlight some of the issues brought up in this article, talking of homosexuality and morals I believe that morals are personal matters, you fear what you do not know but once you know then you get comfortable with it.  Is it that people need to be told about homosexuals to accept them or what? I believe all those religious leaders and homophobes out there who are really against the homosexuals have a dark part of their lives that once is let out will be a shocker. They look at the speck in our eyes and forget to remove the logs in their own eyes. They forget we are humans and classify us to aliens of which need to be evicted from what they called home to God knows where. For how long shall we live in fear and hide from what we call life and live a life full of lies for the rest of our lives? As an African as they say do you think a white guy took a piece of chalk and some black board somewhere and taught me how to be a lesbian? The same people who condemn us are the same people that have a hidden part in their lives that they deny; they live in denial and hence put all their pain and wrath upon the homosexuals. Kenya has far much bigger issues like corruption, poverty, ignorance and disease to deal with, instead of homosexuality. It is to these issues that we should devote our attention.