How An Underground Church for L.G.B.T. Africans Has Thrived in Kenya

For nearly a decade, Kenya’s only church led and attended by L.G.B.T.Q. people has been chased out of one location after another. Vandals hit the first location, a center for sex workers, church members said. When they moved to Nairobi’s Central Park, the police arrested them. A city building barred them from entry, and at another site, neighbors attacked them with stones.

After 10 locations over 10 years as a fugitive church, they have finally found a sanctuary. But the site is a secret.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, down an empty street, in a room filled with nearly 100 worshipers who had been checked by a team of church members at the entrance, tears flowed freely as a pastor delivered his sermon: “Family may kick you out, and the church you once attended could not understand that kind of expression, demonizing your life,” preached the pastor, as murmurs of recognition rippled through the congregation.

“But today,” the pastor’s voice rose with conviction, “I found a place for you in the Bible. Praise the Lord!”

“Amen,” the congregation cheered in unison.

Many in the room fled neighboring countries where being L.G.B.T.Q. is so dangerous it can be fatal. This weekly service is their chance to worship openly, embracing both their faith and their gender and sexual identities.