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• Two openly ���Ǻ��� candidates are running for office
• Gay rights improve but hate crimes rise
• Candidates call for anti-discrimination provisions

CAPE TOWN - The first openly ���Ǻ��� candidates to run for office in Namibia say young voters want change even as hate crimes rise on the streets and many older Namibians oppose equal rights.

Two out candidates - one gay, one pansexual - are running in the Nov. 27 elections, with younger voters making up the lion's share of the electorate.

“It’s quite exciting to see that young people are saying 'we've had enough'. Young people are saying that we need to take up space,” said Kevin Wessels, a 28-year-old candidate for Namibia's Republican Party.

Wessels spoke to Context at a conference in Cape Town hosted by ILGA-World, a federation of ���Ǻ��� rights groups.

Namibia, which gained independence from South Africa in 1990, criminalising male same-sex relations in June, but a run of bills that could threaten ���Ǻ��� rights has put activists on alert.

Already, many ���Ǻ��� Namibians say they face an uphill fight to access basic services, live in safety or enjoy the same benefits accorded to heterosexual couples.

“We are ready for change, even though the older generations are fighting us back and not ready for that change,” said Wessels, who identifies as pansexual, someone attracted to people regardless of their gender.

About 1.5 million Namibians are registered to vote next week and 62% of them were born in or after 1982, according to the Electoral Commission, affording a loud voice to the under 40s.

Despite June's landmark ruling that decriminalised sodomy, many young voters say political parties continue to pay scant attention to social inclusion or ���Ǻ��� rights.

Hate crimes also rose last year, according to campaign group Equal Namibia, which said six ���Ǻ��� Namibians were attacked and killed because of their sexuality.

Sodomy law

Despite growing up in family that “never made an issue” of his homosexuality, it was his country’s discriminatory laws and its widespread religious conservatism that prompted 22-year-old William Minnie to run for parliament.

“When I started reading legislation and came across the sodomy and unnatural practices law, I simply asked myself: 'who gets to decide who I am supposed to be?'" said the college student turned candidate for the Landless People's Movement.

Now he and Wessels are testing whether Namibians are ready to back candidates who are out and proud when they pick their new president and parliament.

Despite a reputation as being one of the most gay-friendly countries in Africa, sexual and gender minorities in Namibia say they lack widespread support in everyday life and politics.

Only one party openly supports ���Ǻ��� rights - the All People's Party - but it only has two seats in the 104-strong National Assembly and has never gained more than 3% of the vote.

A survey by the research network Afrobarometer this year found that more than 60% of respondents were against ���Ǻ��� people

For Minnie, becoming an MP is only the first step in what he sees as a long-distance race to improve life for ���Ǻ��� people.

“We need to start with society," Winnie said. "The main challenge will be to change people’s mind."

Last year, a court ruled that Namibia must recognise same-sex marriages that were carried out abroad, but gay and lesbian couples cannot marry or adopt children at home, and trans people face myriad obstacles to change their gender and access care.

Wessels said Namibia urgently needs anti-discrimination provisions to overcome widespread stigma and protect ���Ǻ��� people, be it in their search for a home, job or medical help.

“If you go to a healthcare centre, you're not afforded the same services because you’re queer,” he said.

“Regardless of how progressive the laws are or the judgments are, the issue is still changing the mindset of the people, and introducing laws and policies that would force public officials to provide a service - whether they like it or not."

This story is part of a series supported by Hivos's programme.

(Reporting by Enrique Anarte; Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths and Sadiya Ansari.)