Publication: Struggling Alone: The Lived Realities of Women who have Sex with Women

[moresko]

Copied from QAYN (QUEER AFRICAN YOUTH NETWORKING CENTER)

 

 

Excerpt

 

“Oh, there are lesbians in West Africa?”

“ Where are the lesbians?”

“Lesbians are just too hard to find. They do not want to come out.”

These are some of the questions and statements commonly heard in conversations about human rights, women’s rights, and even spaces where the rights and needs of sexual minorities and people with diverse gender identities are most actively discussed. And yet, there are lesbians and transgendered women in West Africa, as in the rest of the continent. This report is a result of a five-month social context analysis conducted by a young, lesbian-led organization, The Queer African Youth Networking Center (QAYN) to call attentions to the lived realities of lesbians, bisexual, transgendered, queer and women who have sex with women (LBTQWSW) in three West African countries. A group of passionate and resourceful volunteers engaged in cross-country interviews and focus group discussions to uncover the challenges faced and strategies used by LBTQWSW in living their lives as same-gender loving women.

Over a period of five months, we met with the most courageous, daring and exceptional women, both young and not so young, who eagerly participated in this research. This report is a tribute to every single lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, queer, woman who has sex with women in West Africa, who so stoically faces humiliations, harassment, abuse, discrimination, violence at multiple levels, stigma within communities and rejection by family members in order to fully experience her sexuality. These women who are either living in countries such as Nigeria that criminalizes homosexuality or in countries where there are silent or ambiguous laws as in Burkina Faso, are defying everyday patriarchal social systems and the narrowed interpretations of gender and sexuality by conservative religious groups of what forms of identity, expression and relationships are morally acceptable. These women exist; their lives and struggles are real – and deserved to be documented.

QAYN would like to acknowledge the women who shared their experiences and actively participated in this research project. Particularly, we would to thank the members of Sisters and Sisters for Social Justice and Empowerment (SSSJE) and our main contacts in that group, Nii Osu and Victor. We would like to thank Williams Rashidi, QAYN’s Anglophone Program Coordinator for his willingness to engage in this process and for facilitating the first focus group meeting in Accra. Our thanks go to some of the members of Women’s Health and Equal Rights (WHER) who made sacrifices towards the success of the research in Nigeria. In Burkina Faso, we would like to thank Mohamed Barry for being invaluable community resource person, and the entire LBTQWSW community of Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso.

Struggling Alone: The Lived Realities of Women who have Sex with Women was made possible with continuous financial and moral support of our friends and families. We would like to particularly give a big thank you to Connie Tyler, Margaret Westerman with a special thank you to Fabrice Armisen.

 

Caroline Kouassiaman & Mariam Armisen

 

This book is an interesting read, get a copy here Struggling Alone: The Lived Realities of Women who have Sex with Women

[Iris]

Ev-ery-day is one.