社會專題系列(一)：肯亞的黑暗面(原文:肯亞當地LGBT性工作者的生活樣貌) @ 譯文大賞

甘迺迪, 一名從事性工作的同性戀者,在肯亞的蒙波薩飯店看著一望無際的大海, 圖片來源 : THINKPROGRESS/BEENISH AHMED

註：所謂LGBT，泛指所有的非異性戀者，是女同性戀者（Lesbian）、男同性戀者（Gay）、雙性戀者（Bisexual）與跨性別者（Transgender）的英文首字母縮寫字

[NOTE: The names of LGBT sex workers have been changed to protect their privacy.]

（註：為了要維護個人隱私，本次訪談中所有LGBT性工作者的名字，會以化名的方式處理〉

“Are you a woman or a man?” the police asked Kennedy when he walked into the station with a massive gash on his head. A gay man and a sex worker, Kennedy was fearful of going to the police since same-sex relations and prostitution are both illegal under Kenyan law.

〝你到底是男生還是女生？〞當發現甘迺迪頭上有很大的一道傷口時，警察問了他這一個問題。甘迺迪，一位從事性工作的同性戀者，此時面對警察的問題，他相當地害怕。這是因為在肯亞，同性戀與性工作都是違法的。

After he was badly beaten by an ex-lover, however, he decided he wanted justice. The police didn’t take his case — or his open wound — very seriously. According to Kennedy, they refused to take his report until he proved he had sex with women. Desperate, he texted a female friend and asked her to pretend to be his girlfriend. It was only after the cops talked to her that they took his report.

儘管兼具了兩個違法的身分，甘迺迪在被舊情人施暴後，還是決定向當局尋求正義。不過警察並沒有很認真地看待這件事情或是他的傷口。根據甘迺迪的說法，警察在他證明他有跟女性發生關係前，都拒絕接受他的說辭。在這樣的危急時刻，甘迺迪只好私訊他的一位女性朋友，並拜託她假裝是自己的女朋友。在獲得對方的同意並與警察取得連繫後，才開始處理他的案件。

“If police have [any reason to believe] you’re gay, you’ll find it rough,” Kennedy said in an interview at a seaside hotel in Mombasa.

“在肯亞這個國家，如果警察懷疑您就是個同性戀的時候，接下來就可能會有很大的麻煩〞甘迺迪在訪談時說著。

Kenya is one of 80 countries that criminalize same-sex relations. Those found to have engaged in homosexual sex, or “unnatural offenses” as the Kenyan penal code describes it, can face life in prison.

肯亞是80個認為同性戀是違法的國家的其中一個。在肯亞，一旦有人被發現是同性戀或是當地法律認為的〝不正常的性關係〞，那麼就會遭受牢獄之災。

Since outing themselves would mean incriminating themselves to the police, many LGBT people in Kenya are hesitant to bring any sort of case to the police. For LGBT people who are also sex workers, the fear is doubled.

除了會受到法律制裁外，這類型的人也不見容於當地的社會，有不少的肯亞人因此常常欺壓他們。許多的LGBT在碰到像是甘迺迪這樣的案例時，都不太敢向警方求助。因此，當一位LGBT同時也是性工作者時，這樣的恐慌是會加倍的。

“One [of my clients] came to know that I’m a lesbian and he beat me up,” Marion a lesbian sex worker told me. “He had a knife. He stabbed me.”

〝當我的一名客人知道我是女同性戀者的時候，就開始瘋狂地對我施暴〞另一位性工作者瑪麗安表示〝那時候他手上拿著刀，不斷地往我身上捅〞

瑪麗安, 一名從事性工作的女同性戀者, 因為不見容於肯亞社會的性傾向，而被許多男客人施暴 , 圖片來源 : THINKPROGRESS/BEENISH AHMED

Marion’s clients are mostly straight men, and she said that some sex workers she knows have outed her to them. She said they did so in order to win the business of her clients.

瑪莉安的客人中，有很大的比例都是直男（straight men, 泛指異性戀男性）。此外她也提到，因為她的性向還有要搶生意的關係，有很多同事因此排擠了她。

The vast majority of Kenyans have negative views towards same-sex relationships. A 2013 Pew survey found that 90 percent of people there believe that society should not accept homosexuality.

大部分居住在肯亞的居民對於同性的伴侶關係都有著負面態度。從2

013年的一項皮尤調查（美國的一家統計機構做的社會研究）中發現，有將近90%的肯亞居民認為這個社會是不能接受同性伴侶的。

[The police] come and take us to the nearby bush or graveyards and force us to sleep with them without condoms. If you refuse, you’re taken to the police station.

他們（警方）走了過來並帶我們到附近的草叢還是墓地之類的，然後強迫我們不用安全措施陪睡。如果你拒絕警方的要求，那麼接下來就會被移送到警局

Even though Marion had been assaulted by a client who she regularly had sex with, she did not feel comfortable reporting what happened to the police, because, she said, police harassed and abused her and other sex workers on an almost weekly basis.

即使瑪莉安已經遭受到這麼大的傷害，但面對警方的盤查，她在講述整件事情的過程時，仍然有著不舒服的感覺。根據她的說法，警方在盤查的時候對她毛手毛腳，而且幾乎每周一次來到她的工作場所對她和同事施暴。

“They come and take us to the nearby bush or graveyards and force us to sleep with them without condoms. If you refuse, you’re taken to the police station, so there’s no way out.”

〝他們到了現場，就把我們帶離原本的地方，讓我們在附近的草叢還是墓地之類的，在那裏，警察強迫我們陪睡然後不能做安全措施。如果您拒絕他們的要求，那麼接下來只有送往警局的命運〞

If she told the police she had been stabbed, Marion felt they would indict her for sex work — or simply not pursue the case.

如果跟警方說她被客人施暴的過程，她會擔心警方接下來可能會告發她違法的工作，或只是不處理這個案件。

“I was so afraid of them,” Marion said.“There was no way that I could think of going to the police station.”

〝我真的好怕他們〞瑪麗安說道〝真的無法想像我進警局會是什麼樣子〞

The vexed relationship is even more problematic because many LGBT people in Subsaharan Africa are blackmailed because of their sexual identities. The issue is compounded for LGBT sex workers because their sexuality is not something they can hide from clients.

令人覺得難過的是，肯亞僅是其中一個對LGBT不友善的國家，許多在薩哈拉地區的國家的LGBT都遭受過這類型的勒索。尤其對於性工作者來說，他們的性向得赤裸裸地攤在客人面前，所以有著這兩種身分的人在這樣的地區生活，實屬不易。

One night, a client refused to pay Musa, a gay man and a sex worker. When he insisted on getting paid, the client turned the table on him.

就像是同樣有著這樣身分的穆薩，也有著類似的境遇。有一晚，有一名客人拒絕付錢，當慕薩堅持對方要付錢時，客人威脅了他

慕薩是一個住在肯亞蒙巴薩地區的性工作者。他的親友們都不知道他是個同性戀，直到他的一名客人以封口費要脅他付給他錢而被拒絕時，才讓他們知道這件事情, 圖片來源：THINKPROGRESS/BEENISH AHMED

“’Now you’ll pay me for my silence,’” Musa remembers the man saying. “’You should pay me or I’ll tell everyone that you’re a sex worker and you’re gay. Choose one.’”

慕薩到現在還記得那位客人的說辭：〝現在是你應該要付我錢，如果沒給我，我會告訴所有人，你的性向還有你的工作〞

He didn’t have the 50,000 Kenyan shillings (about $500) that the man asked for and so he readied himself for the consequences.
很不幸的是，當時慕薩付不出他所要求的50000肯亞先令（相當於500美金），所以在當時就有了心理準備。

The man told Musa’s childhood friends and family about his sexuality.

那位客人發現慕薩付不出錢後，就把他的性向告訴了他童年時期的好友和家人。

“Those friends decided to part ways with me, so I have no friends now. We were raised like brothers,” he said in a mournful tone.

〝那些朋友在客人告訴它們這件事情後，就開始遠離我，但小時候我們可像是穿著同條內褲長大的呢〞他面帶悲傷地說著。

The sun glitters across the turquoise waves and an odd tourist looks for seashells on the shore. The scene is breathtaking in its beauty, but the sorts of things that Musa, Marion, and Kennedy say have happened in this tourist town casts dark shadows over it all.

採訪的同時，從飯店看去，陽光灑落在地面那樣亮晶晶的畫面真是一大享受。不過很諷刺的是，在這樣看似光鮮亮麗的旅遊景點背後，肯亞竟有著像慕薩、瑪麗安和甘迺迪這些遭遇，這樣如此地黑暗。

“When a person is accused of being gay, [the police] can do anything,” Michael Kioko, a Mombasa-based lawyer who handles cases of LGBT people on a pro bono basis told me.

麥可科歐克，協助過許多LGBT的一名蒙巴薩在地公益律師說道〝在肯亞，當有人被認為是同性戀時，警方可以予取予求〞

“Some people call me and say ‘I have not been paid [for sex work],’ or ‘I have been beaten up [because of my sexuality],’ and I tell them you can go to the police and file a report,” he said.

他接著說。〝有些人向我求助，不外乎都是“我沒有拿到錢（在性服務後）”或是“我被施暴了（因為自己的性向）”，然後我都會說您可以向警察告發呀〞

Kioka gives them that advice with a warning, however.

但是，克歐克在勸他們這麼做之前，就先提醒他們

“You might be arrested and charged with unnatural offences,” he tells them, “So they have to choose whether to forego that violation or attempt to report it and be arrested and charged.”

他這樣跟他們說：〝您可能會被逮捕然後會受到一些不公平的待遇〞〝所以接下來他們只有兩條路可選，一個是選擇放棄；另一個是選擇堅持到底，但是會被逮捕接著被警方起訴〞

肯亞的風景優美，只是在這樣的美景背後竟然發生了那麼多的悲劇，圖片來源：
Sergey Pesterev, Unsplash

That leaves many LGBT people trapped between a rock and a hard place. Kioka used to work with one of Kenya’s largest LGBT rights’ organization, said the issues don’t just arise when LGBT people go to the police. Some of his clients were stopped by police who accused them of being LGBT based on their appearances.

這讓許多LGBT進退兩難。科歐克律師過去曾為肯亞在地一個大型的LGBT人權組織服務過，他表示，這些議題並沒有因為LGBT的受害者向警局報案，而受到世人的重視。有些他的客戶甚至被警方阻攔，正是因為他們的外表被認為是LGBT的關係。

“Most of cases that I’ve handled arose because of the way a person was talking or dressed,” he said.

他接著說：〝大多數我處理過的案件都是源自於案發者有類似LGBT的講話或是穿著〞

According to Kioka, Kenyan police feel they can arrest people simply for being gay even though the Kenyan penal code outlaws gay sex, not the sexuality itself.

根據科歐克的說法，肯亞警察似乎認為只要覺得這個人是同性戀就可以逕行逮捕，儘管當地的法律規範只提到同性間的性關係是違法的，而非本身的性向。

“The police, of course, believe that if you are gay, that’s a crime. They do not differentiate between the orientation and the act which is a problem.”

〝警方理所當然地相信當一個人是同性戀，那就是違法的。但是他們並不了解性傾向跟外在行為其實是無法牽扯在一起的〞

If we know that they are really LGBT, then we go in and arrest them because it’s not allowed in Kenya.

如果我們真的確定這個人就是LGBT，那麼就可以移送法辦，是因為這在肯亞的法律是不允許的

Joseph Ole Kina, the head of the police in Kilifi, a county just outside of Mombasa, provided proof to that claim.

約瑟夫.歐雷.金納，一名基利菲地區（蒙巴薩隔壁的一個城鎮）的警方高層，對此做出了解釋。

“If we know that they are really LGBT, then we go in and arrest them because it’s not allowed in Kenya,” he said in a phone interview.

透過電話訪談，他這麼說：〝如果我們真的確定這個人就是LGBT，那麼就可以直接移送法辦，是因為LGBT在肯亞的法律是不允許的〞

The claim made it seem that he believes authorities have the power to arrest people simply for being LGBT.

我們可以推論，這樣的說法似乎是源自於他相信當局有著權力去逮捕人們，只是因為這個人是LGBT。

Still, he said, it is “very rare” that police do so, not least because of the personal nature of sexuality.

但是他也說了，警察不太會因為只是像這樣與生俱來的性傾向而移送法辦。

Ole Kina further said that police would investigate cases of blackmail brought by LGBT people without indicting them for having same-sex relations.

歐雷金納接著又說了，警察應該不會在調查那些LGBT所申訴的勒索案的過程中，去告發他們性向。

“We will not [file a case against someone if he admits to being gay],” he said from Kilifi. “We shall follow the blackmail issue. We shall investigate the blackmail issue [and ask the accused] why are you blackmailing this person? We have never taken anybody to court just because somebody is gay.”

〝當提案者承認他是同性戀的時候，我們不會因此對他提出法律訴訟〞在電話訪談的過程中他接著提到〝我們應該只會調查相關的勒索案，並且偵查這名加害人為何傷害這個人。我們從來都沒有因為某個人是同性戀而移送法辦〞

Kioka, the lawyer agreed that is rare for LGBT people to face trials for same-sex relations in Kenya, he said that more and more such cases are arising.

科歐克律師同意，在肯亞的LGBT很少因為自己的性向而被警方逮捕，但他也表示，近幾年有越來越多類似的案例出現。

Two gay men in a Kilifi County town about an hour’s drive from Mombasa were charged under the “unnatural offenses” provision of the Kenyan penal code earlier this year. They were also charged with producing and trafficking pornography although Kioka, who represented them in the early stages of their trial, said that the police have yet to show evidence of that.

在年初，有兩名居住在離蒙巴薩車程約一小時的基利菲地區的同性戀者，因為〝非法性行為〞而被警方逮捕。此外，他們也因為販售色情書刊而被起訴。但是科歐克，在審判初期就有表示，警方到目前為止都還沒提出相關證據。

The media attention for that case has only heightened distrust between police and the LGBT community, Kioka said.

科歐克也表示：〝媒體在報導這個相關新聞時，只會加大的警方和LGBT社群間的不信任感而已〞

“I think it’s getting worse,” he said. “I can’t say whether it’s because of exposure and [LGBT issues] being discussed more or whether its religious people getting impatient [and engaging in vigilante justice]. Of course there are many factors, but it is getting worse.”

他接著說：〝我想這樣的關係變得更壞了，我不能確定是否是因為LGBT的曝光率變高了，或是很多衛教人士因為見到懸而未決的審判而失去耐性，當然這些都是原因。但無論如何，這兩者間的關係變差的確是事實〞

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