“In Our Community, it’s a Sin to be Gay. We are Afraid” – The Relationship between the Police and Gender and Sexually Diverse People

Almost all Gender and Sexually Diverse (GSD) people we talked during the fieldwork said that their relationship with the police is bad. If they report a case, and the police officer sees that they are behaving like a girl, they do not handle their case well. The police may even end up imprisoning the GSD member, though not in the wrong.

Julkaistu

8.8.2025

Text: Vincent Jumbe | Image: Joanna Kędra

One of the people we interviewed, biologically born a man but self-identifying as a woman, told us this story:

In 2024, a guy from within my community came home. He said his apartment is leaking, and he sought temporary accommodation in my apartment. So, I took him in. I looked after him. The other day, we had drinks and were tipsy, and we went home to sleep. When I woke up the next morning, he was gone. I discovered that he had locked me in. I had to call people who were outside to open the door for me. I discovered that he had stolen my brown bag and a phone. There was an equivalent of 70 USD in the bag.

I reported the case to a woman I trust, a member of our Gender and Sexually Diverse community. She assisted me in getting hold of the guy. But he had already squandered my money and only had a bag and the phone on him. I didn’t accept either, because I wanted my money back too. So, I reported the case to the police. The police asked him where the money was. He said he had squandered the money. And that was the end of it. I did not recover my money. I only recovered the bag and phone. I suspect that the police knew about my gender identity. I was afraid to pursue the case further.

On the streets or in communities, GSD people encounter stigma. They are referred to using demeaning and dehumanizing words. They are threatened, blackmailed, or beaten for being accused of being gay. But they fear taking these cases to the police or the chief. As one interviewee told us: "We are afraid of being punished. It’s a sin to be gay, trans, or bisexual in our community. But we have friends and allies among the police and the church, and we tell them our issues. If the ally is not there, we cannot tell anyone the issues concerning our community."

Psychological of physical violence among GSD people is commonplace, as reported by one of our interlocutors: "These things happen a lot in the community. But you know that you cannot take the matter to the police. Some people in the community plan to 'f**k and rape you so that you should not use your anus for anything meaningful.' They may come and steal your things forcefully, knowing that you cannot report them to the police."

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