El Hotel Chaotica

Establishing a public profile was a priority for TRP from the organization’s launch in 1997. The first meeting at Sister Namibia’s office drew more than 100 members of the LGBT

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The state used sexuality as a smear tactic to silence opponents. For example, attempting to discredit the opposition party, the Congress of Democrats (CoD), Nujoma alleged that the party’s leader, Ben Ulenga, and fellow councillors in Oshakati were homosexuals who did not have the nation’s best interests in mind (Shivute 2004). Ulenga and his CoD colleagues subsequently demanded that Nujoma apologize for labeling him a homosexual (Amupadhi 2004). Conversely, in August 2004, the SWAPO Women’s Council accused Sister Namibia of being little more than an extension of the Congress of Democrats, a label that Sister firmly rejected (Dentlinger 2004b).

community. Attendees agreed that GLON would not be an appropriate vehicle for their concerns because GLON’s history as a white gay and lesbian organization might alienate LGBT persons of other races and ethnicities. Approximately fifteen core volunteers with the skills, resources, and time enabled TRP to start with great success unlike many other under-resourced African LGBT SMOs. TRP also benefited greatly from guidance from the South African National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality and the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, which taught TRP how to operate in repressive circumstances. A major obstacle that TRP faced in its development concerned the recruitment of nonwhite members. Foreign and Namibian whites dominated the core group of volunteers. TRP began to reach out to different ethnic groups by offering services that diverse communities needed, such as a soup kitchen and a sexually transmitted disease clinic. TRP eventually suspended these “bread-and-butter” activities because they siphoned energy and resources from other projects, such as a legal rights and education campaign. The SMOs partnered with other organizations that provided such services so that LGBT persons could still meet their basic needs.

TRP mainstreamed LGBT rights as human rights instead of treating all problems that sexual minorities experience as LGBT-specific. This strategy recognized how important support from other human rights NGOs was to TRP and the Namibian LGBT movement. To this end, TRP joined the Namibian NGO Forum’s (NANGOF) Human Rights and Democracy Sector and participated in the Multimedia Campaign Against Violence. TRP inaugurated its “LGBT Awareness Week” in late November 1999, an event that ultimately metamorphosed into a Human Rights Week and included human rights NGOs in its planning and execution. In April 2001, TRP and other civil society NGOs staged a human rights march, which marked an important turning point in mainstreaming LGBT rights with human rights. In 2005, TRP returned the Human Rights Week to the originally named LGBT Awareness Week, highlighting LGBT rights and celebrating achievements in the LGBT community.

In March 1998, when TRP held its first strategic planning workshop, attendees “stressed the need for increased visibility of the project at community, national and international level [sic]” (“Adding Colour” 1998). Throughout 1998 and 1999, TRP regularly held workshops for members on themes such as “It Is OK to Be Gay.” After TRP opened its office in June 2000 (Menges 2000), it prioritized giving all members of Namibia’s LGBT community a space in the organization and office, which was concretized in the resource center. Filled with educational

and entertainment materials, the office’s resource center functioned as a safe meeting space for LGBT persons. Additionally, different segments of the LGBT community found a home at TRP. A Women’s Caucus formed in 1998 and was renamed the Different Identities Group. Gay men organized the Male Think Tank, and LGBT youth founded the Rainbow Youth. The office drew visitors, researchers, and members. TRP employed the following staff: a director, an office manager, an information and publicity officer who was designing the organization’s website and produced a weekly radio show, “Talking Pink,” a project director who oversaw a project on incorporating sexual diversity and spirituality, an outreach officer who informed members of upcoming events and ran a video project that traveled to smaller towns throughout Namibia, a part-time housekeeper, and a full-time volunteer who assisted with the production of the radio show.36 Three staff members identified as black, two as coloured, and one as white.

TRP focused on several different projects. First, the organization aimed to build the capacity of staff, trustees, volunteers, and beneficiaries, knowledge that TRP passes on to other African LGBT SMOs. Second, within the broad LGBT human rights and advocacy program, TRP addressed how LGBT Christians could integrate their spirituality and sexuality, and it devised a pilot program for schools in which students would learn about and discuss democracy, human rights, and diverse sexualities. For instance, in June and July 2006, the director met with students and teachers at a secondary school to discuss sexual diversity within a context of human rights; TRP’s director viewed the education program as introducing students and teachers to critical thinking and understanding about democracy and human rights at a time when dissent with and questioning of the state and SWAPO was not encouraged. Two new programs under development would fall under the human rights and advocacy program: later in 2006, the health program would take up the health needs of LGBT persons, and in 2007, the law reform project was intended to inventory existing laws that pertained to sexual minorities and to investigate how TRP could seek changes to laws without upsetting the fragile tolerance that existed under Pohamba’s administration. Third, TRP’s leadership program assembled a coherent strategy for the movement and exported skills training to other African LGBT SMOs. Fourth, under the outreach program fell the yearly LGBT Awareness Week, the award-winning radio show on Katutura Community Radio, “Talking Pink,” one of the few shows in Africa that dealt with

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In 2006, the outreach officer, the project director, and the information and publicity officer took the video project to Tsumeb, Oshakati, and Aranos.

LGBT issues, and a video project that brought LGBT-themed films to different Namibian communities in order to initiate dialogue around LGBT issues.

Sister Namibia and TRP established themselves as credible SMOs working for LGBT rights in Namibia, as demonstrated by their continued funding from international donors such as the embassies of the Netherlands and Finland, HIVOS (a Dutch NGO), and Astraea Lesbian Foundation. Such credibility and success in mobilizing LGBT persons in Namibia enabled both SMOs to lead efforts to broaden the LGBT movement in southern Africa and throughout the continent. Both SMOs contributed to the founding of the Coalition of African Lesbians, the first organization of its kind in Africa to address African lesbian women’s issues, in 2003. The Coalition of African Lesbians met annually, and in June 2006, the organization adopted a constitution and elected a management committee to guide its evolution. TRP managed the All- Africa Rights Initiative, which evaluated the social and political situation in different African countries and assisted fledgling SMOs in applying for funding and developing their internal capacities. At the behest of foreign donors, TRP also joined the East Africa Convening to investigate the lack of LGBT activism in Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. In addition, TRP intended to work with the Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals of Botswana.