The Somali LGBT community have launched a website in the UK which is brilliant news following their formation in 2005. The site is comprehensive with a forum and chat rooms, advice and news.
The aim of starting this group is to create a space and medium for somalian gay and lesbians to access information, share experiences and develop support networks.
When we found one another through various means such as meeting in clubs, the internet and through friends, we quickly become a tight-nit family who look after each other. As Somali gay and lesbians, we have and are facing common issues, thus, we want to share our experiences and most importantly build a welcoming and supportive community.
We also aim to provide a pathway and support for our brothers and sisters who are coming to terms with their homosexuality and feel overwhelmed through this transitional, and to many, difficult period. It is important to remember that you are not alone and there are not only fellow Somalian gays that you can talk and relate to but also wider gay and lesbian organisations that can offer you a range of services and advice, from sexual health to housing and immigration issues.
Not surprisingly, however since the launch, Somali forums have been full of the most vile hate comments against the site and the Somali LGBT community. The hate comments are in Somali and in English and are mainly on Somalinet.com
One individual calls for them to be ‘hunted down in the street and stoned like dogs’ while another said, ‘Allah will
punish them’, another, ‘It’s a western illness’, and yet another, ‘motherfocker if i ever see you on the street, am gonna chop you to pieces then feed ur crap to dogs’, this last one from a Muslim woman. One Somali woman even mentioned that there was less than 100 gay people in all of Somalia. How does she know this? Did she take up a census? Then there is that old nemisis in African countries that seems to keep rearing it’s head throughout all this. The clan. North Somalis blames the south Somalis saying that is the part of the country where all the gay and lesbian people come from.
Despite the homophobia displayed on the Somali forums and hate speech, the site is excellent news for both the Somali community and the wider Black LGBT community in London and the UK. What needs to be appreciated is the courage it takes to create a a group and a website in communities who express such homophobia and who are prepared to ostracise and use physical violence against the LGBT people in their communities.
