Denis Nzioka is a sexual and gender minorities activist based in Kenya. He openly identifies himself as a member of the LGBTQ community.
"I was born gay and I grew up attracted to men," he told the Star.
Nzioka’s focus is on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people, as well as sex workers in Kenya.
He
says
everyone should be given a chance to be who they want to be in the society. He breaks down the LGBTQ community as follows:
A lesbian is used for women in terms of their sexual identity or sexual behaviour, regardless of sexual orientation.
Gay is a person who has
same-sex
attraction to someone of the same gender.
Bisexual is either a man or a woman who has
sexual
relations
with both men and women. That is, if it is a man, they are attracted to both male and female, and if it is a woman, they are also attracted to both male and female.
A transgender person is a person who
has
changed their gender to become someone different from what they were born to be. If they were initially female, they change to male and vice versa. Transgender people have various degrees of being a trans. That means some may decide to change their names, others change the way they dress, walk or even the way they talk.
There are others who go
the extra
mile and do surgery, which is very expensive. This is because it involves removal of organs and it is normally a long process. Even before you are given the surgery, you have to be put on medical/hormones, so your body can adapt to being the gender that was there before.
Queer is
a person
who
chooses
what to be identified as, be it straight or any distinction in the LGBT community. They may
choose
not to be in any category, and they are not defined by
the society
or other people.
Nzioka’s message as the voice of the LGBTQ community is:
“Kenyans and the government should treat us the same way the Kenya Revenue Authority treats us because we are paying taxes. It does not matter if you are gay or straight; we deserve to get the same treatment. No one should be victimised or arrested because of identifying themselves as a member of the LGBTQ community.”