Kenya Might As Well Be Uganda For Many LGBT Refugees

[DonViejo]

“I’m tired of this life, honestly. I feel like poisoning myself,” said one gay Ugandan living in a refugee camp in Kenya.

posted on April 29, 2014 at 11:19am EDT

J. Lester Feder
BuzzFeed Staff

NAIROBI — George fled his home in eastern Uganda when his aunt found out he was gay and called the police. He was 18 at the time. First he made his way to Nairobi, where he was forced to sleep on the streets. When he finally got to a refugee camp in northwestern Kenya, it was a relief.

But now, after several months in a desert facility that houses hundreds of thousands of refugees from countries including Ethiopia, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, George is too frightened to even go regularly for food and water. (George’s real name has been withheld to protect his safety.) People call him names, he told BuzzFeed from a borrowed cell phone, and throw dirt at him. A man recently struck him so hard in the stomach with a bottle that he wound up in the hospital. He is afraid of going to the police for protection — homosexuality is technically a crime in Kenya, and other LGBTI people in the camps have warned him that authorities will arrest him.

“I’m tired of this life, honestly,” he said. “I feel like poisoning myself.”
This is what refugee life looks like for many LGBTI people who have fled Uganda. Some activists from Uganda and other countries where anti-LGBTI sentiment is on the rise can quickly reach Europe or the United States if they have money or international connections, but most go to neighboring countries that aren’t much safer than where they left.

more
http://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/kenya-might-as-well-be-uganda-for-many-lgbt-refugees

[shenmue]

1. The U.S. should offer asylum

That will make a huge statement for human rights.