Banned gay music video has reverse effect and promotes LGBT rights
Kenya’s first-ever gay music video, banned by the film board, has proved popular anyway.
It was reported last month that the video – which features a half-naked man and his lover in a bed and two women kissing on a park bench – had been denied a licence for release.
The song is a remix of the Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s 2012 hit, ‘Same Love’, which has been remixed by Art Attack, an Kenyan rapper.
The video has already had more than 120,000 views on Youtube, despite only being up for around three weeks.
The hashtag #kenyangayvideo has also been trending locally and sparked debate in the country.
“We expected that this will create controversy, we expected that a lot of people will talk about it but we didn’t expect the amount of publicity it has received,” said the artist in an interview with Reuters.
“The erotic scenes were meant to show that these people also fall in love.”
The lyrics of the song call on the country to have a “sex rights movement” and is one of the first times someone has used the internet in the nation to campaign for LGBT rights.
In a news conference, Ezekiel Mutua, from the film classification board, said the content of the video was inappropriate.
He said: “The video currently circulating on YouTube consists of lyrics that strongly advocate for gay rights in Kenya, complete with graphic sexual scenes between people of the same gender, as well as depiction of nudity and pornography.”
In January, the film board threatened to ban Netflix after it accused it of threatening Kenya’s moral values and national security.
In Kenya, homosexual acts are punishable with up to 14 years in prison.
Across Africa, homosexuality is still considered taboo. Many people are still persecuted for being gay and religious leaders often advocate violence against anyone that identifies as LGBT.
