Based on a life story interview with Kennedy (21 September 2019)

My name is Kennedy. I discovered that I was gay when, after primary school, I joined a single-sex secondary school. I got a friend who was a very brilliant guy. He was a fellow student, called Richard; he was a brilliant student, one of the best at the school. One day when we were in form two, secondary school, I interacted with him. So, the more we interacted, we became friends. There’s something I discovered that was unique, each time that we were together: the sense of humour. Like there was a good form of communication; we had chemistry. What was so funny is that when we joined form three, we became dorm mates. He was following me and I was following him. I remember one day when I fell sick, he came and looked after me back in the sick bay. So, in a school of a thousand boys, this one individual is taking care of you. I was very close to him and I started feeling emotional attachment towards him. Even if I would go back home for the holidays, we kept communicating. And I remember we first made out in form five. Actually, we were in different schools by then; I think that’s when we missed each other more and when we developed such a strong emotional attachment together. That’s where I discovered that this is who I am, that God has planned this for me. I can’t fight the emotion of being who I am.

Most of the time I would avoid negative spaces, where people talk badly about homosexuality and go against who you are. I would either keep quiet or move away from people who talk like that. You know, there’s this negative perception about homosexuality, they look at it as a sin, and gay people are seen as worse than murderers. But we are talking about people who breathe the same air, people who are human beings. You can choose what you want as long as it doesn’t affect the space of others.