As an openly gay man in Papua New Guinea (PNG), where sex between men is illegal and stigma and violence widespread, 24-year-old Kapera Patrick remembers thugs pelting him with abuse, stones and bottles.
His life changed when he was taken in by a family in Hanuabada, a settlement in Port Moresby that has become a haven of tolerance, offering sanctuary for dozens in a gay community that is gradually coming out of hiding.
A ramshackle collection of thousands of dwellings built on stilts over the water and connected by rickety wooden planks, Hanuabada is a world away from the sanitized districts of the capital that last month played host to APEC leaders.
Photo: AFP
The sprawling settlement was built over the sea as locals believe the water protects them from sorcery coming down from the mountains.
A caged pig squats outside many of the huts — for meat or barter — and naked children squeal with delight as they skip expertly on the narrow and often broken planks that serve as the village’s “streets.”
Home to as many as 50,000 people, Hanuabada has become synonymous with a small, but thriving LGBT community that has flocked here as word spread that they would be safe.
“I used to live in a place called Joyce Bay and I got abused. They threw bottles at me, stones at me, and then I heard about this place. I came here and the family brought me in and accepted me,” said Patrick, who does informal jobs to get by.
Hanuabada is “a very free place and the people know me. They don’t abuse me. I’ve been accepted for my sexuality,” he said.
While not as open as the West, the community has still hosted small drag parties, and men both gay and curious come to Hanuabada to meet up, many having their first sexual experiences here.
Patrick’s adoptive “sister,” Marelyn Baita, explained how the community grew.
“They used to live outside, but some of their friends brought them here,” she said. “The community knew them and protected them.”
People in the village have accepted the LGBT community “because that’s the way they are,” Baita said.
Gay rights advocates in PNG detect a gradual improvement in hostile attitudes, but say real change cannot come until sodomy is decriminalized.
Parker Hou, who was once beaten up and deliberately burned for his sexuality, said the law means that “illegal” gay people lack access to medical services — explaining the high rate of HIV.
The law “causes most of our friends to go into hiding. If I’m infected, I’m too scared to go to the clinics,” said the 44-year-old, who is campaigning to change what he derides as an “English Victorian law from the 1800s.”
“We are using this English law to discriminate against our own Papua New Guinean citizens. I find it just silly,” he said.
Low levels of education also plays a huge factor in prejudice faced by the community, gay rights advocate David Lawrence said.
Bullied and hounded out of school, Lawrence twice attempted suicide, but has since become a vocal campaigner and met Queen Elizabeth II in 2015 after winning an award for his work.
He said he has met gay people raped for their sexuality and at least three have been murdered, allegedly by “ashamed” members of their family or community.
However, social media has transformed life for PNG’s gay community, said Lesley Bola, who works for the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS.
Members of the community mainly contact each other via Facebook — often using fake accounts — and “can express themselves freely” without fear of retribution, Bola said.
Bola works with clinics on changing attitudes in the medical profession, but said that it can be a struggle at times.
Being gay in PNG is “like survival of the fittest,” the 51-year-old said.
However, small pockets of tolerance show that attitudes can change with increased “exposure” to the LGBT community, campaigners say — something Baita has seen firsthand with her father.
“When he first came here, seeing gay people, my father couldn’t try to understand them. He was so angry. They are men, but they tend to ... dress up like ladies,” she said. “He was angry, but they continued to live with us year after year, and he came to accept them.”
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
RSS