Stories of Change

David Kuria Mbote is a community activist and a leader of the Kenyan gender and sexual minority rights movement.Barbara Bompani is Reader in Africa and International Development at the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK. She is co-editor of Christian Citizens and the Moral Regeneration of the African State (2017).Adriaan van Klinken is Professor of Religion and African Studies at the University of Leeds, UK. He is the author of Kenyan, Christian, Queer: Religion, LGBT Activism and Arts of Resistance in Africa (2019). Damaris Parsitau is a scholar of religion and a former Director of the British Institute for Eastern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. She currently serves as President of the African Association for the Study of Religions.

For decades Africans have been fed a steady stream of loud, poisonous and alienating anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric from dogmatic religious leaders. This rare gem of a book gifts readers with the hitherto-muted voices of 24 religious leaders from E. Africa who have taken a strikingly different path from the mainstream; evoking empathy, love and compassion. To crown it all, they speak with dignity, intelligence and a calmness that is so refreshing and authentic. A must read.

• Foreword: A testament and source of hope, by Ezra ChitandoIntroduction: Religious leaders and LGBTIQ inclusion in East AfricaPART I: Stories of LGBTIQ religious leadersChapter 1. Pastor Caroline: ‘God is like a mother who holds you when you cry’Chapter 2. Reverend Jalendo: ‘I have learned from my own woundedness’Chapter 3. Pastor Trevor: ‘If there is anything that has taught me about God, it is my same-sex attraction’Chapter 4. Mama Annette: ‘My existence as a trans pastor is a manifestation of God’s love’Chapter 5. Pastor Aggie: ‘I am learning to accept and live with my scars’Chapter 6. Pastor Ria: ‘We need to remember that God does not make mistakes’Chapter 7. Pastor Deron: ‘The Lord has a reason why I am a transwoman’Chapter 8. Bishop James: ‘Some of us are martyrs by doing this work’PART II: Stories of LGBTIQ-allied religious leadersChapter 9. Pastor Silvana: ‘My role is to be a tree that bears fruits’Chapter 10. Pastor Neema: ‘My task is to respect divinity as reflected in each of us’Chapter 11. Evangelist Vincent: ‘My hope is that LGBTIQ people will know God’Chapter 12. Pastor Stephen: ‘I arrived at the point of repenting for my homophobia’Chapter 13. Pastor Dorcas: ‘I persevere with my calling to preach love in the community’Chapter 14. Evangelist Josephine: ‘As a mother in the community, I should have no boundaries’Chapter 15. Pastor Laura: ‘I feel like Queen Esther, who put her life at risk to save others’Chapter 16. Bishop Roger: ‘When you start being inclusive, you are branded’Chapter 17. Reverend Kimindu: ‘This can only be a calling, or I would have stopped long ago’Chapter 18. Fr Marangi: ‘I do not support LGBTIQ people as an activist, but as a Christian’Chapter 19. Sheikh Dawoud: ‘I do not promote homosexuality, I just protect people who are part of our community’Chapter 20. Sheikh Abdallah: ‘LGBTIQ people have gifts which we need for the umma to grow’Chapter 21. Youth leader Abdul: ‘We have to stand with them because of that brother- and sisterhood’Chapter 22. Bishop Joseph: ‘We will come to accept our LGBTQ+ children as a blessing’Chapter 23. Professor Vashti: ‘My grandmother taught me that faith and activism go hand in hand’Chapter 24. Bishop Senyonjo: ‘God is still creating, and he continues to reveal things’ConclusionBibliographyIndex