Kenyan President William Ruto. (Photo via The Washington Blade)
Kenya’s LGBTQ community has decried homophobia in the country’s places of worship leaving some of them with the option of embracing a new queer-friendly church in the capital Nairobi.
The queer people, while sharing homophobic experiences they encountered in Kenyan churches, stated that clerics and other believers have weaponized religious faith as a tool of violence against them.
This hate and discrimination, according to the LGBTQ community, has driven most of them into religious trauma and they are seeking spiritual refuge in the Cosmopolitan Affirming Church (CAC), which is open to queer individuals.
“As a pastor, I have worked in a [religious] space that as someone who I identify myself as a queer priest, I have been excluded from that very space out of lies that lack the truth to justify my exclusion,” said Godfrey Adera, an associate pastor at CAC.
Adera spoke during the International Day commemorating victims of violence based on faith and belief marked last Thursday where more than 1,700 queer Kenyans engaged in an X forum.
The forum organized by the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) noted that Uganda’s enactment of the draconian anti-homosexuality law last year has contributed to an increase in homophobic hatred and discrimination in Kenyan churches.
“I have seen a queer person talk about how he was in a church just last week and there were overtly no queer undertones going on in the church and the pastor unprovoked spoke about how he supports President Yoweri Museveni’s decision to deal with gays in Uganda, which is basically calling for a lot of homophobic violence,” said Elle Khaoma, the forum’s moderator from NGLHRC.
The queer community also noted that the plan by Kenya’s opposition MP Peter Kaluma to introduce a punitive anti-homosexuality draft law in parliament and supported by religious leaders and others has increased homophobic hate and stigma in places of worship.
Such actions have seriously impacted the LGBTQ community in terms of religious trauma, mental health, falling away from faith, feeling discriminated against and being perceived as outcasts, and battling stigma to the point of dying by suicide, according to experiences shared by several queer persons.
Some disclosed they decided to flee their homes after being disowned by their parents and siblings for identifying as LGBTQ contrary to religious faith and belief their families and churches subscribe to.
“After the hate and discrimination, I started to recognize my religious trauma. My motivation to overcome it has been that I’m not alone as a queer person to be impacted by religious trauma,” said Wanjiku, a journalist and lawyer.
She reiterated that sharing experiences with other queer persons about religious trauma from various churches, how they have dealt with it, and deconstructing hateful religious ideologies have helped her overcome the stigma.
Pastor Adera affirmed that queer persons should first acknowledge that religion and belief are used as a tool of violence in diversity to target them.
“After acknowledging, it is important to ask critical questions by interrogating the scriptures and finding alternative messages of love, justice, fairness, and God the creator of all humanity then making these messages more heard than the messages of hurt and hate that come with religious narratives,” he said.
He stated that alternative and balanced scriptures that promote inclusivity, diversity, and love that every church should stand for are what the Cosmopolitan Affirming Church teaches to demystify religious narratives of hate against queer individuals in mainstream churches.
“Religion comes with social control in terms of shaping what morality and norms look like and how we relate to each other, which is not a positive thing as it forms the basis of excluding other people like the queer,” Adera said. “It needs to be talked about and challenged in queer forums and advocacy by calling out people using religion to fuel bigotry, hate, and hurt in the nation.”
The CAC cleric asked the queer persons to take religion seriously since it has a huge influence on society and also urged them to examine it critically to push for inclusive conversations and accommodative norms to enhance social cohesion.
Adera assured the queer Christians that CAC is one of their alternative religions with resourceful materials like theological books, articles, and scriptures that are interpreted to suit their faith and belief.
“Mainstream churches have been more of gatekeepers by barring us, the queer persons, from experiencing our religious beliefs like other believers,” he opined.
During the forum, the queer persons were advised to have trusted and supportive allies who readily come to their protection and deconstruct religious narratives of hate and homophobia passed from generation to generation.
The LGBTQ community was further urged to be alert and proactive in countering legal, social, and cultural norms or violence that come with religious stigma both at small and large scale.
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