There is only one gay bar left in Kampala. Photograph: Mathias Christensen
Five police officers force three young men out of their one-room
slum dwelling in Kampala, with no explanation. As they are dragged down
the slum's main shopping street, their neighbours' hateful shouts make
their "crime" all too clear: "Beat those gays up!" "Kill those
monsters!" "Give them what they deserve!"
Threats were also issued – threats they had heard before:
"We'll burn down your house!"
After two days in a small, dirty prison cell they are released. Now they've gone underground, and hope to gain asylum in another country.
"We don't dare to live here any more. We have felt unsafe for a long time and it only gets worse. It's all the talk about that law that agitates people. If it is passed I am sure they will burn down the house," says one, a 23-year-old transsexual who prefers to be called "Bad Black" for safety reasons.
The law he refers to is the so-called "Kill the Gays" bill, which is set to become reality in Uganda within days. It is already illegal to commit a homosexual act in the country, but a unified parliament now supports a tightening of the law, which, among other things, will make it punishable by death to be a "serial offender".
The parliamentarian behind the bill is David Bahati. He describes homosexuality as an evil that has to be fought. He also says that he and his peers "do not hate the homosexuals but the sin in them".
Bahati's reference to sin reveals the direct connection between Uganda's politicians and a group of very influential pastors. One of these pastors is Moses Solomon Male, who travels the country presenting his talk, Understanding the Challenges of Homosexuality (Sodomy).
"Those homosexuals … They call it anal sex. It ruins the anus. And they say they enjoy it," said Male in a recent speech to Sunday-school pupils in a Kampala suburb. He also described the cornerstone of both the pastors' and the politicians' argument against homosexuals: That they are "recruiting" innocents to their side – especially children.
LGBT rights advocates are doing their best to challenge these views – and the bill. One of these, transsexual activist Pepe Julian Onziema, has courageously come out with his message as well as his sexuality. Homosexuality is not something you become, it is something you are, he stresses.
"The only thing we can do is to try to inform as many people as possible about how we're human beings just like them – just with different sexual preferences," he explains.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/04/gay-people-uganda-love-run
Threats were also issued – threats they had heard before:
"We'll burn down your house!"
After two days in a small, dirty prison cell they are released. Now they've gone underground, and hope to gain asylum in another country.
"We don't dare to live here any more. We have felt unsafe for a long time and it only gets worse. It's all the talk about that law that agitates people. If it is passed I am sure they will burn down the house," says one, a 23-year-old transsexual who prefers to be called "Bad Black" for safety reasons.
The law he refers to is the so-called "Kill the Gays" bill, which is set to become reality in Uganda within days. It is already illegal to commit a homosexual act in the country, but a unified parliament now supports a tightening of the law, which, among other things, will make it punishable by death to be a "serial offender".
The parliamentarian behind the bill is David Bahati. He describes homosexuality as an evil that has to be fought. He also says that he and his peers "do not hate the homosexuals but the sin in them".
Bahati's reference to sin reveals the direct connection between Uganda's politicians and a group of very influential pastors. One of these pastors is Moses Solomon Male, who travels the country presenting his talk, Understanding the Challenges of Homosexuality (Sodomy).
"Those homosexuals … They call it anal sex. It ruins the anus. And they say they enjoy it," said Male in a recent speech to Sunday-school pupils in a Kampala suburb. He also described the cornerstone of both the pastors' and the politicians' argument against homosexuals: That they are "recruiting" innocents to their side – especially children.
LGBT rights advocates are doing their best to challenge these views – and the bill. One of these, transsexual activist Pepe Julian Onziema, has courageously come out with his message as well as his sexuality. Homosexuality is not something you become, it is something you are, he stresses.
"The only thing we can do is to try to inform as many people as possible about how we're human beings just like them – just with different sexual preferences," he explains.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/04/gay-people-uganda-love-run
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