GALCK: Gay And Lesbian Coalition of Kenya
The Gay and
Lesbian Coalition of Kenya was established in May 2006 and consists of eight
local LGBTI rights
organizations, namely; Minority Women in
Action (MWA), Gay Kenya, Ishtar, GALEBITRA, TOMIK, Diverse Outing, Changing
Attitudes and Equality Now!
The eight organizations have focused on
different aspects of the broader rights issues. The oldest organization is
Ishtar, which was started in 1997, and the youngest is MWA, the only
LBT-organization, formed in 2006 by the female members of other organizations.
It is not possible to give a full report of the history or work of them all
here, but a short list of their main focus gives a sense of the width of the
movement:
- Minority Women in Action
(MWA): The
primary agenda is to form a network to give
support and voice to LBT women. MWA promotes and advocates for LBT women’s
political, sexual, cultural and economic rights. The first aim is to
create awareness in Kenya of LBT women’s existence.
- Gay Kenya was
started in the year 2004. The main aim was to bring together likeminded
people to address acceptance, stigma and HIV among men who have sex with
men through the website www.gaykenya.com.
Key activists in the organization have also worked on lobbying LGBTI
rights issues both nationally and internationally (e.g. through the
African Commission of People and Human Rights)
- Ishtar is a community-based organization working with men who have
sex with men (MSM) in Nairobi. Currently the organization deals with
HIV/AIDS awareness and substance abuse among its members.
- GALEBITRA is an organization that was formed with a mandate of advocating
and championing the rights of GLBTI in Kenya.
·
TOMIK is a small group of well-connected gay men
who lobby the political environment in Kenya towards decriminalization and
better understanding of LGBTI rights.
- Diverse Outing is gay and lesbian organization working in the peri-urban
areas of Nairobi. Diverse Outing strives to offer medical support through
its own physician to its members. Divers
Outing has undertaken to create HIV/AIDS awareness in its area of
operation, which is primarily Kangemi (a slum area in Nairobi’s
catchments.)
- Changing Attitudes is a faith-based organization that works with the religious
community to create acceptance of sexual minorities.
- Equality Now! Development Group is an
organization whose membership is drawn from outspoken and committed
lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transsexuals in a community in Western
Kenya (Kisumu and surroundings). This organization was formed in the year
2000 with the purpose of pursuing the rights of LGBTI people to co-exist
in the society.
GALCK also have a close working
relationship with some LGBTI-friendly organizations, the two main ones being
Urgent Action Fund-Africa and Liverpool VCT Care and Treatment.
In its constitution GALCK has defined its
vision and mission as:
- Vision:
A safe and enabling environment for LGBTI organizations and individuals in
Kenya.
- Mission:
To promote the recognition, acceptance and defend the interests and rights
of LGBTI organizations and their members
Situation in Kenya – the need for GALCK
Consensual sex between men
is criminalized by Section 162, 3 and 5 of the Penal Code of Kenya under
‘carnal knowledge against the order of nature’ and ‘gross indecency’. This is a
law rarely enacted; very few cases are brought through the juridical system.
Even so it constitute a dangerous threat to sexual minorities. The public
understanding of it is that being homosexual is forbidden. It is
a signal from the state to the general population that gays and lesbians can be
treated like criminals. Any ‘non-normative’ sexual behavior or expression
remains heavily sanctioned against by the local socio-cultural, political and religious
frameworks.
In
this setting GALCK has formulated its objectives to be:
- Create
a safe space for LGBTI people in Kenya
- Educate/enlighten
the LGBTI of their rights
- Promotion
of human rights for the LGBTI.
- Engage
in activism for the abolition of unjustified legal and extra-legal forms
of discrimination encountered by LGBTI.
- Advocate
for the provision of health information, and medical amenities required by
LGBTI.
- Sensitization
of the public on LGBTI issues and enhancing the political visibility of the
LGBTI community and organizations.
- Formation of strategic alliances with relevant institutions
and organizations.
GALCK’s major accomplishments
GALCK has undertaken several key activities
that have become landmarks in the East Africa region in terms of LGBTI rights
activism and organizing.
- GALCK (led largely in this activity by Ishtar) engaged with the
National AIDS Control Council (NACC) to be involved in the national events
on World AIDS Day, 1st December 2006. GALCK actively took part
in the AIDS procession, carrying a banner and demanding gay and lesbian
HIV concerns be recognized. GALCK also staffed a display stand and
answered many questions from the public and other HIV/AIDS organizations,
raising awareness of gay and lesbian issues and fuelling social and public
health discourse.
- Perhaps GALCK’s biggest achievement to date was organizing and
hosting the ‘Q-Spot’ at the World Social Forum (WSF) in January 2007. This
event, organized and led by the entire GALCK body, was the first time in
the history of the LGBTI rights movement in East Africa that gay and
lesbian people had publicly claimed social space and explicitly ‘come out’
demanding LGBTI rights concerns be addressed. This landmark event marked a
change in the social discourse in Kenya on homosexuality and remains the
‘reference point’ in gay and lesbian history. Our very own ‘Stonewall’
event! Activities during the WSF included free HIV counseling and testing,
poetry readings, an oral histories installation, an exhibition of art by
local gay and lesbian artists, discussion groups and plenary sessions
including speakers from India, Uganda and Nigeria.
- Further to this, GALCK (led by MWA in this activity) attended
the recent International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) Conference in
South Africa, where the GALCK representative was voted onto the African
Governing Committee to represent the East Africa region – further
demonstrating GALCK’s recognition as a key player in LGBTI rights on the
African continent.
- Meetings
and social gatherings: Galck has since its inception held monthly meetings
for all the member organizations.
GALCK has also organized to big social events for the whole LGBTI
community – the “Celebrating Diversity”- party on January 21st
2007 and the ‘The Q-bash 2007’
on 31st May 2007.
- Building relationships with national and international LGBTI,
human rights and other friendly organizations. Already GALCK has a
well-developed African network of LGBTI organizations, with a special
focus on the East African region. GALCK has also worked with international
organizations like ILGA, IGLHRC, UAF and others. The past year GALCK has received funds for projects from
HIVOS (NL), The Ford Foundation (USA), Queer solidarity (N) and LVCT (see below)
- Finally, GALCK has recently been invited the Sexuality
Convening organized by UAF, LVCT and Makerere University to further social
and political discourse on sexual rights and freedoms in the region. GALCK
will be presenting a paper on the history of the gay and lesbian rights
movement in Kenya and linkages with the woman’s and human rights movement.
LVCT and GALCK
Liverpool VCT Care and Treatment (LVCT),
a Kenyan NGO, has offered assistance to GALCK throughout the first year of
existence. LVCT was the first Kenyan organization to offer VCT to men who have
sex with men, and have done a huge job lobbying the national AIDS policy makers
to include this group in its programs.