A lesbian church leader lights pink, yellow, and purple candles and passes them around to worshippers as they pray for a court decision that will mean they no longer have to live a lie.
“The Lord is in control,” she says, as swaying congregants yell out “Victory!” and a musician shuts his eyes in prayer, his fingers dancing across a keyboard laid on a table covered with a rainbow flag.
The Cosmopolitan Affirming Church (CAC) is a rare space where Kenya’s LGBT community can escape hostility from society, which is often reflected in hatred and vitriol from religious pulpits.
Dozens of LGBT churchgoers and their allies crammed into a tiny room Sunday to worship ahead of Friday’s potentially historic decision by Kenya’s High Court on whether laws that criminalise homosexuality are unconstitutional.
“When this law is struck down it is going to be a huge kind of liberation for us, like a burden has been taken off our shoulders,” said David Ochara, who helped found the church in 2013.
