Kenya's Gay, Bisexual Men Being Trafficked In Arab Gulf Sex Trade: Report

A Kenya-based gay publication is shedding new light on the nation's clandestine gay and bisexual male population, menbers of which are being lured into Arab Gulf-based trafficking rings where they end up as sex slaves for the wealthy.

As reported by Identity, many gay and bisexual men from university campuses -- particularly from Kenyatta University -- have been transported to labor as sex workers for men in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. According to the magazine, many victims have been fooled into the trap by false promises of high-paying jobs, sadly not a difficult task for the traffickers given Kenya’s soaring unemployment rate.

Cracking down on the practice is made more difficult given the destination countries such as Qatar, which reportedly remains on the U.S. Department of State watch lists for showing no progress in identifying victims of trafficking, lack appropriate legislation. In addition, homosexuality is illegal in both the Arab states as well as Kenya, so many victims feel they are unable to report such cases of abuse to police officials.

A gay man familiar with the LGBT community in the United Arab Emirates who identified himself only as Mark tells Bikyamasr.com that the report is "not surprising." He went on to note: “We have seen a lot of the elite and super wealthy want to be gay, but that would go against their traditions, so instead they often marry and then hire or do this kind of thing, to have their real desires met. It is a problem of society not opening up to the gay lifestyle and forcing it to the background."

In May 2011, the Kenya Human Rights Commission accused local police of sexually assaulting gay men in their custody. "Some police officers even demand sexual favors in exchange for release from custody," Tom Kagwe, the commission's senior program officer, was quoted by LGBT Asylum News as saying at the time.

Comments

[liguyusa]

12:58 PM on 01/06/2012

I was in Egypt about 20 years ago, in Cairo, and it would be common to see many men who are close friends walking in public holding hands. Wonder how many of them were straight, gay, or bi?

[jglalone]

08:26 AM on 01/06/2012

It is really obvious, even if one has not seen the documentaries about the very wealthy Arabs basically having "boy ranches" where they use young boys to fulfull their sick satanistic desires, and the articles about the slave trade of men, NOT TO MENTION THEIR EXPRESSED HATRED OF HOMOSEXUALS/HOMOSEXUALITY. I would bet a considerable amount of money that the Arab nations have the highest rates of sex crimes in the world. It has proven to be true in our nation's government and ultra right christians........If one has no tendencies, no desires, no conflicting feelings, one does not hate or say hateful things about gays. You would just not care as long as it did not affect your or yours. Our anger and distaste should be focused on pedophiles. They should be rooted out of our society. This is not about hatred, but about protecting children, since WE KNOW pedophiles do not change their ways. It is the ONE crime that should ALWAYS lead to a life sentence in prison, and they should always be sentenced to death for torture or homicide of children.

[gayandmarried]

03:12 PM on 01/04/2012

Remember that those muslims raped the DEAD body of khadafi ,,MULTIPLE times,,,
I dont remember the koran saying anything about necrophilia as acceptable in the muslim religeon,,,

[jph4evr]

01:36 PM on 01/05/2012

Is that true?

[bellsblu2]

01:46 PM on 01/04/2012

It's the Arab gulf....They, like Republicans believe in slavery.... something for nothing.

Just like American farmers who visit their barns in the middle of the night, these folks visit camels.... So of COURSE, a Nubian would interest them.

But wait.. I thought there were claims there WERE NO gay people in the middle east...

I guess that too is a lie..

Go figure.

[frycat44]

01:15 PM on 01/30/2012

demOcrats voted for slavery,know history,sen.byrd kkk,woodrow wilson fired every black when elected,MLK was republican.wake up

[robjh1]

10:44 AM on 01/04/2012

I couldn't find any research to support the claims in this story.

[awckid3]

06:35 AM on 01/05/2012

Therefore, because you couldn't find it, it doesn't exsist. Is that right?

[jglalone]

08:29 AM on 01/06/2012

I wouldn't think it would be "research," but criminal investigations. Internations crime investigations. Why would you even say such a thing?

[MOhamed Mido]

08:39 AM on 01/04/2012

Check this link from more than 2 weeks ago.
http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/sex-slaves-trafficked-kenya-qatar

[LoyalBob]

07:30 AM on 01/04/2012

*sigh* Yet another story where religious and cultural oppression leads to pain. I don't even know where to begin to remedy this problem. Just makes me sad.

[bellsblu2]

01:53 PM on 01/04/2012

Easy solution:

FIRST: Imagine there's no heaven.

SECOND, KNOW that everyone in power is in it for themselves...

NEXT: Don't believe a word religion, financial institutions, and politicians have to say.

LAST: NEVER believe anything on TV unless you KNOW it to be true.. That includes your weather-person, sports, traffic, and most of all, the anchor who's opinion you don't need and who's personality is being used to (As G.W.Bush once said) "Propel the propaganda".

From there, life gets simple.

[joe1964]

06:10 AM on 01/04/2012

Interesting that an article on 'gay sex slaves' (typical AOL incendiary column title) would feature two dark skinned men tenderly kissing, because that is exactly the same thing as 'gay sex slaves' and represents the article perfectly.
Honestly, the internalized homophobia, it burns.
I DARE the moderators to let this one pass.

[jglalone]

08:34 AM on 01/06/2012

Come on, they had to tone down the photo, though they could have skipped it, because people shy away from disturbing imagery. So, you see, it is actually a sign of acceptance, that photo.
Get off you high horse when it is not an important issue.

[joe1964]

10:11 AM on 01/06/2012

I like the view from up here. As for toning down the photo, they could have used a map of the area. As a sign of acceptance this photo was anything but. Frankly, apologists like you need to think about your won internalized homophobia. Why are you making excuses for this? I guess sex slavery just "is not an important issue" for you.

[bluntobject]

02:58 AM on 01/04/2012

To all Gay and Lesbian Citizens of Kenya - this is a tragedy of epic proportion and a huge embarrassment to Kenya's inaction and disinterest in stopping this trafficking. We are with you in spirit. To the Arab World, particularly to Ahmadinejad in Iran, your religious leaders think twice about the level of hypocrisy they rise to when denouncing Homosexuals. They should sit back, think twice, and then have a big Tea Dance! Come festive! Then they can all sit around and nurse their freshly popped backsides back to good before in turn, sitting in hypocritical judgment of other people who express their Homosexuality and get caught up in institutionalized, religious bigotry. Homosexuality among species is a naturally occurring phenomenon in the animal kingdom. These theocratic zealots and corrupt dictators should reconsider their draconian and barbaric policies toward their own country's Gay citizens, especially since a certain percentage of their ranks are just as Gay as anywhere else, albeit hidden. What hypocrisy! It's almost unbelievable that such a disparity between truth and action exists anywhere on the planet, yet here it is.

[lovingthismoment50]

12:58 AM on 01/04/2012

All caused by the sickness called homophobia.

[arimoore]

02:10 AM on 01/04/2012

So true - patriarchy plays a part as well.

[jglalone]

08:40 AM on 01/06/2012

But it is not really. These trafficers, these wealthy who use men and boys for sex ARE homosexuals, but they think it is depraved, yet the depravity makes them obsessed (it lures them) The sickness is the lack of respect for another human's right to dignity, respect, safety and life. These men are Homosexual Sadists and Power Junkies. That is the sickness.

[lakefront liberal]

09:44 PM on 01/03/2012

The confluence of economic exploitation and religious based repression has produced these horrible results. Until the world begins to address religious fundamentalism and extreme income inequality, which causes people to try to repress who they are and wealth that gives them the ability to act on their desires in extreme ways, we will continue to have sex trafficking and severe exploitation.

[spidermom]

08:42 PM on 01/03/2012

a gay friend of mine worked in the Middle East for a couple of years and had several boyfriends that were married. One had an apartment above his house where my friend would stay and the boyfriends wife would bring them their meals. Women were for marriage and babies and men were for love.

[gaydood]

09:24 PM on 01/03/2012

Same here amazzzing huh?

[spidermom]

08:12 AM on 01/04/2012

I've been meaning to fan you...love your peace flag

[joe1964]

09:45 PM on 01/03/2012

Sounds kind of like New Orleans. I have lost track of the successful, society lawyers and bankers here in the city who have wives and social standing, but who also have a 'boy' that they keep in the French Quarter.

[Kellen Andry]

11:49 PM on 01/03/2012

Im from Louisiana and thats the repressed Deep South for ya....

[joe1964]

05:43 AM on 01/04/2012

Sad and disingenuous. A lot of this has to do with social standing and economics. These same guys will have a successful career, marry a trophy wife, have a few kids, then they get a divorce, retire and start hitting the gay bars in their 50's. It is an interesting cultural phenomena that I've never really seen investigated.

[Atwill]

08:26 PM on 01/03/2012

So the muslims like to have gay sex, in the side and sly, but then turn around and kill gays if they are out in the open. sick.

[Justin Werner]

08:51 PM on 01/03/2012

No, not "the muslims". *Some* Muslims. C'mon, let's paint with narrower strokes. And before you ask, no, I am not a Muslim. I am a gay man (agnostic or atheist, depending on your definition).

[Atwill]

09:23 PM on 01/03/2012

No. not all. I know that. After all we ae talking of sex, not terrorist acts.

[gaydood]

09:34 PM on 01/03/2012

i understand thats what they belive and do, do

[Christian Figueroa]

10:57 PM on 01/03/2012

sound like republicans to me.

[bluntobject]

02:00 AM on 01/04/2012

You beat me to that statement..lol

[itzadundeal]

08:00 PM on 01/03/2012

This comes as no surprise at the dawn of 2012- where there is wealth, exploitation will be rampant. I hope that two realizations can be had and one possible accusation can be debunked right here, right now:

1. The West is NOT the only country where being LGBT is both [attempted to be] suppressed and openly expressed simultaneously [openly expressed in terms of people being involved in "the life" so much that it can make news in the Huffington Post].
2. Being 'down-low' is not and NEVER was solely a Black/other relevant minority concern. If these men come to the West and de-garbed, they would be considered white until they speak or express their culture. Catch my drift?

The debunked myth/possible accusation- that being homosexual/Bi/Trans was ALWAYS a Western phenomenon that has seeped in and heavily influenced the rest of the world. The last I checked, the U.S. was not the birthplace of the entire modern world- and these are [more than likely] GROWN men with $$$ in the Arab Gulf. And men will be men, regardless. HAPPY 2012 y'all: let's strive to BREAK oppression, depression, myths and recessions.

[Atwill]

08:28 PM on 01/03/2012

I agree. You wrote a nice post and very honest.

[Justin Werner]

08:47 PM on 01/03/2012

F/F

[Birdman 49]

04:42 PM on 01/03/2012

Well this does not say good things for straight people does it?

[Justin Werner]

08:51 PM on 01/03/2012

All of them? Perhaps you meant just *some* of them.

[bluntobject]

02:05 AM on 01/04/2012

Of course not. When people speak in general terms, they usually don't mean "all" of any group...do you need to go in behind people and correct every word?

[Birdman 49]

09:15 AM on 01/04/2012

There are those straight people who like gay people to make a profit and yes some or many in this case

[bellsblu2]

02:04 PM on 01/04/2012

I am of the opinion that being str8 is natures abomination.

After all, evolutionary forces require the widest possible range of permutations to decide what stays and what goes, and yet gay people have been here from day one.

Those who claim they've never had ANY gay experience are depending on their own narrow interpretations for that belief... EVERYONE has had a gay experience at SOME point in their lives, and either went with it, or decided it wasn't for them..

So, the pretense that heterosexuality is the "established norm" is just that.... a pretense.

[Birdman 49]

02:48 PM on 01/04/2012

ok