Fun Fast Facts:
- Both male and female homosexual activity is illegal. Under the Penal Code, “carnal knowledge against the order of nature” between two males carries a potential penalty of life imprisonment.
- Laws prohibiting same-sex sexual acts were first put in place under British colonial rule in the 19th century. Those laws were enshrined in the Penal Code Act 1950 and retained following independence
- On 29 September 2005, President Yoweri Museveni signed a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage.
- In August 2006, a Ugandan newspaper, The Red Pepper, published a list of the first names and professions (or areas of work) of 45 allegedly gay men. In October 2010, the tabloid paper Rolling Stone published the full names, addresses, photographs, and preferred social-hangouts of 100 allegedly gay and lesbian Ugandans, accompanied by a call for their execution.
- Activists estimated in 2007 that the Ugandan gay community consisted of 500,000 people.
- In December 2008, a Uganda High Court ruled that the Uganda Constitution applies to all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. specifically that “No person shall be deprived of personal liberty.”
- In June 2012, the Ugandan government announced the ban of 38 non-governmental organizations (NGO) it accused of “promoting homosexuality” and “undermining the national culture”.
- In November 2012, the speaker of the Parliament promised to enact a revised anti-homosexuality bill, providing for harsher penalties against suspected LGBT people and anyone who fails to report them to authorities, including long-term imprisonment and the death penalty.
LGBT-friendly organisation: Sexual Minority Uganda Group (SMUG)
- To strengthen organising efforts of all LGBT organisations in Uganda.
- To draw national attention to legislation concerning LGBTs at the state level.
- To unite across state lines through nationally coordinated actions and strategies.
W3JOY interviewed: Cleo Kambugu, a Ugandan trans-activist
It’s quite hard being transgendered in Uganda because you feel quite camouflaged.
Our African culture, we don’t feel so comfortable. If you end up being homosexual, you are seen as a paedophile.
If the bill actually gets passed, people will feel like they have a right to act on their homophobia and transphobia and they’ll feel like they have the right to kill anyone.
If the bill is passed, we’ll see the community go deep underground…you will see them ostracised…And people will feel that they now have a right to actually kill gay people.
We feel threatened all the time. Being an activist means that…if anyone recognises your face, like they’ve seen you on TV or somewhere before, they may attack you or something. You’re always in the constant fear of being killed or being attacked.
At some point you feel numb, because that’s your reality. You sort of forget how serious it is.
There is a lot of ignorance going around.
The problem with the people that you are working with internationally is that most of them do not comprehend our people.
When people here see our connection with Dutch people, they sort of feel like homosexuality is a Western influence.
W3JOY interviewed: Katherine Fairfax-Wright, director of the documentary ‘Call Me Kuchu‘
In the early stages of their movement, they really wanted one term to unify them and be able to differentiate themselves….It was too confusing to describe right off the bat with all these different terms–transgender, gay, lesbian, bisexual–so they just chose one term.
We were increasingly disturbed with what was happening in various places with anti-gay legislation and increasing hostility.
Uganda in particular interested us because we were hearing about an increasingly organised LGBT community there.
About David Kato, the murdered LGBT activist:
[David Kato] was tremendously devoted to his cause. He was very good at wrapping his head around every aspect of building a movement from the grassroots level.
He was a really charismatic guy, a really fun guy to be around.
Sometimes he was the first one to get angry in a public gathering, other times he kept his cool.
We felt that tremendous sense of responsibility to push his story as widely as possible.
On promoting pro-LGBT viewpoints:
Americans sadly just aren’t informed about this at all. It’s one thing to really make a choice a choice to believe what your pastors are doing with the anti-gay rhetoric, but it’s another thing to not even know what’s going on.
We let the people speak for themselves as much as they could.
Published on: May 13, 2013 @ 21:32
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:01 — 35.7MB)