 | ||
|
Also see Understanding lesbianism.
She tried dating men but failed. “While at Kenyatta University where I went, I dated a guy for a while. It was my best friend and he was convinced I could turn straight. We eventually ended it but remained friends.”
The girls are in agreement that both their parents, although aware of their daughters’ sexual orientation, are not dour about it and seldom discuss the topic.
“When we were younger and living at home my mum found my sister reading a book called Lesbian Love Stories,” Anne says and they both break out laughing at the memory. “She took it away and never gave it back,” Tanya adds between spasms of laughter. “At some point you have to take your friends home and most of our friends, especially the butches and studs, are not hard to figure out,” Anne says Tanya interjects with “My graduation party last year was especially confusing for our parents.
It was full of men dressed like women and women dressed like men,” and everyone breaks into laughter again. Their mother, they say, has always been inquisitive and often talks about it, but not directly. “Our dad, on the other hand, either talks around it or doesn’t talk about it at all.”
But not everyone is accommodative of lesbians. Recently, She and a female friend were arrested by Nairobi city council officers as they came from a party. “My friend is a butch and she was holding my hand.
The city council guys pounced on us and one of them kept saying that he knows what kind of people we were and the kind of things we do. He kept going on about us breaking the laws of nature. We were only able to get out because I pulled some strings.”
While there are a few clubs in Nairobi city that allow homosexuals, the girls agree that gays and lesbians have trouble getting into some establishments. Therefore, the gay and lesbian community usually organise their own events where they can carouse, mingle, and be themselves.
“There are several events that are organised for gays and lesbians like ‘barcode’ and ‘rainbow explosion’. There is even one coming this Valentine’s Day called ‘howlers hook-up party’,” she says.
These parties are advertised mostly through social media like Facebook and Twitter. They say the locations are kept secret until only a day or two before the party. This was after one event was cancelled for security reasons when the organisers received threatening messages.
The twins agree with the contention that lesbians and gays tend to be more promiscuous than their straight counterparts. “It’s because most lesbians are not in relationships. Society does not allow it. Relationships are ideally meant to lead to marriage and since gay marriage is almost impossible in Kenya, most lesbians see no point in them. They just have their fun and move on to reluctantly marry men, as expected.”
She is certain that more women have tried out lesbianism than society cares to admit. “Most girls have tried out another girl at least once. When I was single and would hit on girls in a club, most of them would feel very flattered that they were approached by another girl,” she says
On why they prefer women, ladies say it is about compatibility. “Believe it or not, it is less complicated. It’s easier to open up to a girl. I get everything out of my relationship. There are things that you can’t do or talk about with a man but with a girl you can. Sometimes we have heightened drama because of all the hormones,” she laughs, “but despite this the relationships are awesome.”
No comments:
Post a Comment