Uganda: Mothers defy anti-gay law to support children
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This week, we start in Uganda, where mothers are breaking the law to support their queer children. Next, we travel to Kenya, where the new disability law promises more rights and access for PWDs. Finally, we stop in Germany where a nursing home is creating a safe space for queer seniors.
But first, in Nigeria, the stigma against trans people runs so deep that even finding something as basic as a place to live becomes a daily struggle. In our latest article, in collaboration with Obodo Nigeria, we follow one trans woman’s search for housing and the many barriers faced by Nigeria’s LGBTQ+ community every day.
Read an excerpt here👇🏽.
“We don’t rent to people like you”: A trans woman’s search for a home in Lagos
This story is published in collaboration with Obodo Nigeria as part of Intersect, a series on the ways queer love, trans identity, and cultural expression collide with and sometimes push back against social expectations. Read a foreword from the editor, Richard Wills and other stories in the series here.
For Kim, a trans woman living in Lagos, the search for a home began like any other: visiting apartments, speaking to agents, and making plans for a new life. But each time she thought she’d found a place, something changed. “I’d walk in, and the caretaker or landlord’s face would shift when they saw me. It was always the same reaction—shock, discomfort, rejection,” Kim recalls.
It didn’t take long for her to realise that the door to safe housing was not easily opened. Her identity as a trans woman was a dealbreaker for many landlords.
“It’s not even about the money. If you’re trans in Nigeria, you’re not welcome. I had the cash to pay, but they would look at me and see someone who doesn’t belong,” Kim explains. Landlords rejected her, with a few bluntly stating they “didn’t rent to people like her.”
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In his sophomore year of college, 21-year-old Alex came out as gay to his middle-aged conservative Yoruba mother. He had gotten tired of the hetero-normative ideals his mother forced on him. “She was always going on about when I’ll get a wife and kids,” he says. During one of her tirades about having a traditional family, Alex snapped and decided to come out.
“I had considered it for a while, but the thing about coming out is that you don’t really plan for it. It just happens, it’s not like today you wake up and say you’re coming out,” he says.
Much like many conservative parents, Alex’s mother viewed his sexuality as a problem that needed spiritual intervention and she immediately dragged him to see a pastor to “cure” his homosexuality. Conversion therapy is an all too common problem that many LGBTQ+ youths from conservative backgrounds endure.
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7 queer African works of art: new directions in books, films and fashion
Queer African creatives have been making their mark around the world through a range of forms – books, films, fashion, art, music. Their work wins awards, sets trends and is studied by scholars. Most research on African queerness, however, comes from outside the continent.
So, we put together a special journal issue to celebrate some of these works that have appeared over the past decade or so. And also to create a space for African and Africa-based scholars to reflect on what’s happening on the continent.
The contributors don’t only examine what these creative works reveal. They also consider how these artists are experimenting with style, voice, genre and imagery to express queer lived experiences.