ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the convergences between African church leaders and transgender and intersex (LGBTI) activists in Africa. It draws attention to the tension and rapprochement between LGBTI activists and church leaders, with particular reference to East and Southern Africa. The chapter explains dangers of generalisation and, place greater emphasis on how church leaders and organisations from a relatively liberal Protestant background have engaged with LGBTI people in the region. However, it is vital to acknowledge that most of the organisations discussed below operate ecumenically and across religious traditions. Consequently, they are informed by an ecumenical theology, they interact with Catholics, Pentecostals, African Indigenous Churches, and Muslims and followers of other religions. The struggle of African churches to address human sexuality in its diversity has come to the fore more prominently in the discourse on LGBTI rights. The resistance to homosexuality by many African church leaders may also be attributed to their conservative theology and interpretations of the Bible.
