Nairobi Queer Visibilities/Invisibilities and Forms of Queer Ambivalence

Nairobi, despite limited opportunities for overt public and visible displays of same-sex desire, nonetheless has become a site of queer livability tied, as I argue here, to forms of queer ambivalence. While the legal framework and wider social discrimination against queers in the country is well documented and often indicates a refusal towards queer desire, ethnographic fieldwork among queer communities in Nairobi reveals diverse lived experiences and inventive uses of urban space. This paper speculates how Nairobi's queer residents enable an animation of spaces in which they occupy in ways that not only allow for, help perpetuate, and relate to forms of ambivalence but also offers an alternative reading of queer visibilities in a city where legal protection is absent, social discrimination is very severe, and safety is often at best transient.

Automated summary

Despite legal protection absence, severe social discrimination, and transient safety, Nairobi has become a livable place for queer communities due to their diverse lived experiences and inventive uses of urban space. This paper speculates how queer residents enable an animation of spaces that perpetuate forms of ambivalence and offer alternative readings of queer visibilities.