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I am the host of the morning show at 88.2 Sanyu FM here in Kampala… and on radio I am known as ‘Fatboy’. 
I also produce a personal weekly podcast called Fatboy Unplugged, and in the most recent episode I evaluate – or rather, eviscerate – the common arguments put forward by those who support discriminatory laws against, and attitudes towards, homosexuals in Uganda.
Born Again in the United States of Uganda is the name of a documentary being produced and directed by Samantha Asumadu, who describes herself as a “documentary filmmaker, campaigner & sometime DJ”:
There is a web of entanglement between U.S. evangelicals, fundamentalists, conservatives and African clergy that exists to maintain a power structure and a severe homophobic agenda that serves the hard-core religious groups. This documentary will be the definitive film that shows that the American evangelical right invests heavily in financial and advocacy effort in influencing religious Africans to shun gay rights and that the Ugandan Anti-Gay Bill was an import from the West. Uganda is the test bed for Texas.
In the documentary, Samantha follows the religious fervor surrounding the push to get the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 passed:
She also captures a debate about the bill by members of Freethought Kampala, who believe that people should not be discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation. This was taped almost 2 years ago:
She hopes to complete the documentary soon. Looks interesting so far!
Samantha Asumadu’s e-mail: samantha.asumadu@gmail.com
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Ugandan LGBT activist, David Kato, was found dead in his house on Wednesday 26th January 2011.
From the Daily Monitor:
Mr David Kisule Kato, 46, died after he was hit on the head by unknown assailants at his home in Mukono District on Wednesday. He died on his way to Mulago Hospital.
Detectives and scene of crime officers spent the day picking fingerprints on the furniture and interviewing neighbours of Kato.
Police said his attackers hit him with a hammer on the head at around noon on Wednesday before locking him in the house.
Deputy Police Spokesman Vincent Ssekate said they are taking the case seriously but asked the public to who have any information that may lead to the arrest of the suspects to contact them.
“Since the act happened during day, there may be people who saw the suspects entering the house. They should come and give us information,” he said.
Kato was listed among the 100 people suspected to be homosexuals in the country by the local tabloid Rolling Stone.
Asked whether they were taking it as an attack on minorities in the country, he said it is too early to reach that conclusion.
Residents told police that they saw a man who entered Kato’s house but he moved out dressed in victim’s shoes and a jacket that covered part of his face.
Their suspicions aroused, they told the police, and went to check on him in his house but found the door locked.
“They forced their way in and found Kato lying unconscious,” he said.
He later died as he was being transported to Mulago Hospital.
CNN has a report on this story, which includes a recent interview with the late Kato, who at the time of filming was already expressing fears about his safety:
Although most around the world see this as a hate crime, with many believing that exposure by the Rolling Stone (and its calls for Kato and 99 other homosexuals to be hanged) is what triggered the killing, it is still not yet clear what the motive behind the killing was. It could have been a hate crime, but it could also have been a theft/robbery gone bad, etc… We just don’t have all the facts for now. I do, however, condemn this murder in the strongest terms – regardless of why it was committed.
As the country grapples with the horror of this brutal killing, the death of David Kato will most likely to pave the way for more open discussions about homosexuals, whose rights Kato was a relentless advocate of. In fact, this is already happening. The Daily Monitor newspaper, the county’s second most widely circulated daily, today published an editorial piece called ‘Can we talk honestly about homosexuality?’ In it, the editor writes:
Holding puritanical and extreme views on the matter, whether liberal or conservative, will divide us, rather than help us find a mutually acceptable compromise.
People like David Kato and others who might be gay are Ugandans and enjoy the same rights and protections of the law as heterosexuals. We cannot send them into exile neither, lock them away, or hang them.
We need to have an honest discussion about how to ensure that their rights are upheld without violating the rights of other Ugandans.
Peaceful and stable societies only emerge when we understand and try to accommodate those who are different from us, or who disagree with us – not by ostracising or killing them.
Well said, editor.
In the meantime we at Freethought Kampala offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends and compatriots of David Kato.
He was a brave man – with the courage to stand up for his rights, and the rights of others, in face of the horrendous homophobia that has consumed Ugandan society in recent years. Many Ugandan gays and lesbians choose to remain anonymous out of concern for personal safety, so by bringing himself into the limelight, he risked it all… But he and others who have come forward have helped to put a human face to a hitherto invisible and faceless minority.
David Kato will not be forgotten, and those of us who, like him, recognise the importance of defending the fundamental human rights of others, should continue spreading the message of tolerance.
As Freethought Kampala we also consider it our obligation and mandate to publicly challenge the misinformation being disseminated, and lies being told, about gays and lesbians by local religious leaders. The widely discredited views of quacks like Scott Lively, Richard Cohen and David Cameron whose literature form the talking points of many a homophobic Ugandan politician, such as David Bahati or Nsaba Buturo, shall be exposed as such.
We will not stop.
The hatred must end.
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For a while now, a certain homophobe from Uganda called Maazi NCO (an alias) has been trolling the blog of an American psychologist called Warren Throckmorton, spewing nonsense and hateful garbage. I am a frequent visitor of Throckmorton’s blog because it usually has nice updates on the status of the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 – a bill I am 100% opposed to.
I had observed this particular Ugandan internet troll at work on Throckmorton’s blog for some time but last week I decided to engage him, after I reading one of his recent rants that annoyed me greatly.
For a test case in lack of logic and rationality as you’d expect from a homophobic person who thinks he’s smart, I invite you to take a look at our exchange. In this exchange, I logically, and step-by-step, decimate all of the frequent excuses for bigotry that are put forward by homophobic Ugandans.
The exchange occurs in the comments section of this post.
At BoxTurtleBulletin.com, Jim Burroway discusses the story of the two Ugandan pastors (Ssempa & Male) who have been charged with conspiracy to injure the reputation of Pastor Robert Kayanja.
In the comments section, one of the readers (called BlackDog) posted a comment that I thought very accurately described the primary motivation behind the virulent homophobia being stoked by mainly Pentecostal pastors in Uganda. He wrote:
“If so, it makes them even more cynical and devious that I had previously thought. It’s one thing to support a draconian law because it supports your own misguided sense of morality. It is quite another to support and use that law in order to exploit public anti-gay animus to increase your own religious and political influence by eliminating rivals. That is truly despicable.”
It never was really about the gays, if you ask me. Oh, sure, lots of people in Africa hate gay people…this is something that mostly can be laid at the feet of American missionaries, too. But when it really comes down to it, it’s like this:
A lot of these pastors are Pentecostal. Pentecostals are often manipulative. For example, It was not uncommon to spend 58 minutes out of an hour arguing with my Pentecostal ex-wife, only to find out in the last two minutes what she really wanted…which was often only slightly related to the subject of the argument.
They tell you it’s about the gays, but it’s apparently about having a weapon they can use against their enemies (real and perceived) in their Pastor Wars. What it’s actually about is money and power. Among highly religious or uneducated people, Pentecostal pastors can live…and rule…like kings.
In a country where there’s a lot of Pentecostals and where the elite (See Janet Museveni for example) is receptive to Pentecostalism…to be the Last Man Standing in the Pastor Wars…would be like being a god walking on the Earth.
A false god, yes, but for all intents and purposes what does it matter if the masses can’t tell the difference?
That’s a prize guys like Martin Ssempa would do a lot of things to get, or even come close to. I don’t think it matters to them what the body count might be.
Talk about being spot on.
He added:
Also, certainly I would agree this is just another expression of the inquisition mentality.
Why is it, that people who want to do that sort of thing never seem to remember that it never works out for them in the long run? The medieval inquisitions led to the Reformation, and the Catholic Church lost a lot of power as a result. Witch-hunts in England led to at least one “Witchfinder General” falling victim to his own methods, the “Final Solution” while not a direct cause of the fall of Germany in WWII didn’t help matters in the end, and led to a whole new list of problems in the middle east later and the world is still dealing with that.
Why can’t people see that actions always have consequences? Are they that ignorant, or do they just not care?
If you ask me, I’d say they are ignorant, and short-sighted.
What these pastors don’t realise is that what they are doing will be the very undoing of the Pentecostal movement in Uganda. All indications are that the anti-homosexuality bill will not be passed. The Pentecostal pastors and other social conservatives behind this hateful anti-homosexuality campaign will have thereby proven themselves to be completely incapable of being the engine for ‘social change’ they had deluded themselves into thinking they’d be in this country.
Eventually, Ugandans will realise they have much better things to do than be bothered about what grown men/women do in the privacy of their bedrooms.
And in a few years, everyone will be wondering what the fuss was all about.
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According to Capital FM, Kenya:
Mr Odinga on Sunday said that police should arrest anyone found engaging in such behaviours and take appropriate legal action against them.
“We will not tolerate such behaviours in the country. The constitution is very clear on this issue and men or women found engaging in homosexuality will not be spared,” Mr Odinga said.
“Any man found engaging in sexual activities with another man should be arrested. Even women found engaging in sexual activities will be arrested,” the premier warned.
Speaking at a public rally at the Kamukunji grounds in his Nairobi’s Kibera constituency on Sunday afternoon, the Prime Minister cited the recent population census results which put the ratio of men to women equal and wondered why people should engage in homosexuality.
“This [homosexual] kind of behaviours will not be tolerated in this country. Men or women found engaging in those acts deserve to be arrested and will be arrested,” he told a hilarious crowd.
Sad, very sad. African countries should be moving towards repealing the archaic colonial laws that criminalise consensual sexual relationships between people of the same sex – not reinforcing the irrational cultural and religious prejudices that sustain them. In light of this, one can’t help but appreciate the way such matters have been handled in Rwanda, whose Minister of Justice, Tharcisse Karugarama, said recently:
"the government I serve and speak for on certain issues cannot and will not in any way criminalize homosexuality; sexual orientation is a private matter and each individual has his or her own orientation – this is not a State matter at all."
..and indeed, it should never be. As long as what any two consenting adults do in private does not violate, or threaten to violate, the fundamental human rights of others, what they do should be nobody’s business, but their own.
Africa – stop the hate.
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It now comes as no surprise.
Evangelical pastors are often among the most homophobic, anti-gay public figures one might ever encounter, but in the end, its always the same result. For the more prominent ones, at some point, their dirty little secrets come pouring out and the world gets to see them for who they really are.
Lousy HYPOCRITES.
Here are examples:
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Ted Haggard, who was pastor of New Life Church and former president of the National Association of Evangelicals was found, in 2006, to have been secretly visiting a male prostitute over a period of 3 years. In 2009 he admitted to a second homosexual relationship with a male church member, and has since declined to discuss his other homosexual relationships. Haggard is married, and has five children.
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George Rekers, a far-right Christian leader, Baptist minister and member of the board of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), was in early 2010 photographed at Miami International Airport returning from an extended overseas trip with a twenty-year-old gay male prostitute.
The latest entrant in the string of scandals among anti-gay Evangelical pastors is one featuring Bishop Eddie Long.
The New York Times reports:
Two young men in Georgia said Tuesday that the pastor of a 33,000-person Baptist mega-church, Bishop Eddie L. Long, had repeatedly coerced them into having sex with him.
… and what do we know about Bishop Eddie Long? The New York times article continues:
Bishop Long is an outspoken critic of homosexuality and has been called by the Southern Poverty Law Center “one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement.”
Long currently denies the charges against him.
Bishop Eddie Long
This continuing trend of anti-gay pastors getting exposed proves one thing about them when it comes to homosexuality… he who preaches loudest, and judges harshest, is so very often the greatest offender of the thing he preaches so heavily against.
It would have been one thing for it to just be about these hypocrites. If it were, we would simply laugh them off as the clowns they are and paid no further attention. Sadly, its not just about them. Millions of LGBT people have suffered indescribable misery as a result of the vilification that homophobic preachers like Eddie Long and people like him in Uganda and elsewhere around the world have caused through their sustained public advocacy of bigotry.
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George Rekers, a far-right Christian leader, Baptist minister and member of the board of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), was recently photographed at Miami International Airport returning from an extended overseas trip with a twenty-year-old gay male prostitute. (Get the full story here, and more commentary here).
The list keeps just getting longer doesn’t it? Every other day one of these prominent hateful religious bigots gets caught doing the very things they spend their lives vilifying others for.
Considering Uganda has more than its fair share of prominent hateful religious bigots isn’t it only fair for us to speculate about how many of them actually might be secretly..
You might want to read this.
The Daily Monitor reports:
A committee of Cabinet has made recommendations that could end Ndorwa West MP David Bahati’s proposal to have a separate law punishing homosexuality in Uganda. The recommendations, which Saturday Monitor has seen, come close to dismissing Mr Bahati’s draft legislation.
Dr. James Nsaba Buturo isn’t very happy:
Dr Nsaba Buturo, the junior ethics minister, who has spoken fiercely against homosexuality, never attended this meeting. He has since complained to Local Government Minister Adolf Mwesigye, who chaired the committee, that the report did not reflect his views.
The article ends on an interesting note:
It was hoped, at least according to Dr Buturo, that the Cabinet committee would make certain amendments to the draft law. As it turned out, the committee critiqued Mr Bahati’s work so deeply that no amendments were proposed. Mr Mwesigye said on Thursday that he had no comment to make. Cabinet is yet to discuss the committee’s recommendations.
Things aren’t looking good for proponents of this egregious bill, are they?
Hate never wins.
Jennifer Knapp is a Dove Award-winning Christian folk rock musician. She is best known for her first hit single "Undo Me" from her debut album Kansas (1998), and the song "A Little More" from her Grammy Award-nominated album Lay It Down (2000). Her last studio release, The Way I Am (2001), was also nominated for a Grammy. In total, her albums have altogether sold approximately 1 million copies.
She recently revealed to Reuters that she is a lesbian.
Many homosexuals are devout Christians – which is something I find trouble understanding. Here, I am not talking about those that are Christian and are in denial of their sexual orientation – I am talking about those that have actually embraced their orientation wholeheartedly, are happy with it (possibly even in committed long-term relationships), and are still believing and practicing Christians. (An example might be Val Kalende, a prominent Ugandan LGBT activist, who is not only a Christian, but also serves as a minister, regularly taking her place on the worship team at her church.)
Yahweh, the ‘God’ of Judaism and Christianity is believed (by those that belong to those faiths) to be on record to have said the following:
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"Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. Leviticus 18:22
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"If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.” Leviticus 20:13
You’d think the last thing gays would want to do is to grovel at the feet of a deity who detests what they do and wants them dead for just being who they are.
Now, I do not in any way believe that Yahweh or any kind of ‘God’ exists. But suppose, hypothetically, that Yahweh actually existed. Even so, it would be impossible for me to respect it, worship it, or grovel at its feet. I would proudly raise my head and call it a barbaric moron. I agree with Dawkins who famously said:
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; petty, unjust, unforgiving, control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevent bully."
Indeed.
OK, back to Jennifer Knapp.
For now, it remains unclear how the Christian community is going to react to her revelation about her orientation. She’s fortunate though – if she was alive 3,000 years ago record sales would have been the least of her worries:
Wait… the book of Leviticus only talks about gay men only, right?
Not so fast, you evil lesbians! Paul wrote in Romans 1:25-32:
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
So it would appear that not even lesbians will be spared from the wrath of Yahweh. Ouch. Burn, baby, buuuuurrrnnn!!
Ugandans have been quite happy to use the above verses (and many others in the Bible) in their intended context to discriminate against gays and lesbians – their intolerance epitomised by attempts to introduce one of the most draconian pieces of legislation ever drafted in recent memory.
The question is – why do many gays and lesbians continue holding to a religion, and worshipping a deity, that not only despises them, but explicitly instructs others to despise them also ?
I don’t get it.
James Onen
Ritah Nakuya
Phillip
Hassan Higenyi
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