BBC NEWS :
Kenya is to carry out a census of its gay population in an effort to bolster the fight against HIV/Aids - despite homosexuality being against the law.
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Today, many people still do not have regular access to an effective method of HIV prevention. To ensure universal access to prevention, we need not only more HIV prevention, but new and better types of prevention.
BBC NEWS | Africa | Kenya to launch homosexual census
Global Voices Online » Kenya: Bloggers discuss first Kenyan gay marriage
Kenya launches gay survey while homosexuality remains illegal | World news | ...
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Well, admittedly Kenya has a lot of issues to deal with, however, its government cannot continue to pretend that there are no gay Kenyans.
One of our writers makes a case for the census ( http://ow.ly/yAdL) arguing in essence that gay Kenyans are much safer with the government protecting them than they are in society.
We don't know the nature of the census, but it is likely to be anonymous, but we can only speculate. It should be in Kenya's best interest to protect the rights of all its citizens.. basic human rights, including access to healthcare, for all Kenyans.
-Nekessa
Publisher,
www.kenyaimagine.com
sounds like a list... legalize it and then ask
Two problems, folks.
A.) Homosexuality is illegal in Kenya, meaning people won't be truthful.
B.) Such a census appears, at least on the surface, to be a pitiful attempt to link HIV/AIDS to homosexuality. Someone is still mentally living in the 80's, when AIDS was a "gay" disease.
Troubling indeed. I thought we'd moved beyond the idea that AIDS is a "homosexual disease," and for the Kenyan government to contend that it is (basically what they're doing here) should be unacceptable to the international community.
As long as they're not enriching uranium, though, I guess we simply don't care...
This is one of the reasons Africa makes me sick. How are you going to help people by exposing them to jail for no other reason than being who they are? If they at least decriminalized being gay, that would help them in their efforts. Backwards laws serve no one.
Africa makes you sick???....the whole continent????....
I hope you don't look like your picture....
Yeah, that's me. I'm not an African, I'm a black American. My last ancestor from Africa was kidnapped most likely around the time of the nation's founding. I don't dislike African people per se, but their horrendous governments. I love the flora and fauna, and I'm a big fan of Egyptian history. Would you ask a European American that actually hated Europe if they looked like their pic?
What, he has to love Africa because he's black? Excuse me?
Although I love Africa (lived in Kenya for 4 years), he's right about this issue. Just because it's someone else's culture doesn't mean we can't condemn it. Gays are in danger, and the ones locked up are often the lucky ones. They need everyone to speak about these atrocities.
The thing we need to teach Africans (and many others in developing countries) is that being homosexual is not a choice. Once people understand that people are born the way they are, these biases should decrease.
Kenya has way too many problems that need imediate attention, hence resourses. Poor people are dyinf from hunger and drought, crime rate is nightmarish...Being gay in Kenya is a no no, but no one will care what goes on behind grown fols bedrooms. As a Kenya, this bugs the hell out of me, why? The amount of money being put into this is a slap in the face of people dying from hunger.
Idiots,
How exactly are gay people supposed to respond to a question that asks them if they are "illegal" ??
They will do exactly what they did here throughout the years of persecution. They will lie and stay in the closet making the value of this escapade worse than useless. Once it is out that only .00000000001% of Kenya is gay you can expect a bunch of homophobes to use the data to Prove that homosexuality is a choice and that Blacks are not gay.
Same thing I was thinking. Just like the U.S. has to guesstimate how many illegals live here. No illegal is going to come forth and do a survey or census.
Africa needs to do something drastic though. There are too many orphans due to AIDS.
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First Posted: 10-29-09 09:20 AM | Updated: 10-29-09 09:25 AM