When 20 year old Gilberto was asked by members of his church if he was gay, he said yes. “They told me to stop singing because God is against it. And if God is against it, they are against too. It was very sad.” A week later he returned to church, but the pastor called him: “He told me that I had the evil spirit of homosexuality. They tried to shape my mind. They said I had to go there every Monday at 10 o'clock for advice, so that it would leave me, because that was an evil spirit.” As well as removing the ‘evil spirit’ the church tried to isolate him form the LGBT community by destroying his SIM card. As much as he loved the church, in the end he left realizing they would never accept his sexuality. Maputo, Mozambique. 15 February, 2018. Photo Robin Hammond/Witness Change

Gilberto /

“Once in my life it happens that when I confessed myself as a homosexual several things in my life have changed. One of them is when my sister finds out I’m gay. She told me she would not pay for my school, because she paid for my school. So I thought it was very sad of her to refuse paying my school due to the simple fact that I am homosexual. Soon it hurt me. And another episode was when in my church found out that I’m gay. They told me to stop singing because God is against it. And if God is against it, they are against too. It was very sad. Remembering also that I was already barred at the nightclub because of being a gay. The security guard told me I was in the wrong place because that nightclub was not a pussy centre.”

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