I am really about to despair at this drip-drip stuff coming out of Western left and right field, propagated by our friends and sympathizers which, however, has no bearing on the truth whatsoever.
Before I shed tears at this latest offering from Roger Ross Williams, via the New York Times, let me make it clear:
There is NO violent anti-gay movement in Uganda, really there isn’t, and we who know the truth and, dare one say it, live it, need to say it loud and clear. The evangelicals are doing what they can to foment anti-gay sentiment, using well-known proxies, but it is a travesty of the truth for the New York Times (Roger William Ross) to claim that they have succeeded. These kinds of “cry wolf” reports might just be what drives the movement to take effect.
We, gay men and women on the ground, need our Ugandan neighbors to understand us, something that might never happen fully in my lifetime. But these hackneyed videos of recycled, clichéd stuff, only serve to create indignation in the minds of people who would otherwise see our point of view, however gradually that may be. The reason for this is that stuff such as Roger Ross Williams’ video perpetrate the impression that Ugandans are hateful, vengeful homophobes, something that is a caricature of the truth.
Watch Williams’ snippet; you will not see the evidence of a violent anti gay movement and the reason is simple: Ugandans are quite simply not that kind of people.
Let’s be clear. Pockets of influence are trying to make political careers and money off of the backs of homosexuals in Uganda. They don’t speak for the majority of Ugandans, however. Indeed, with the level of anti-gay sentiment (not violence!!) in Uganda many of these people who are making videos about homophobia in Uganda would really best be advised to put things in perspective.
They might be surprised to learn that far more gay men and women are being killed in South Africa, which has solid anti-gay laws on its statutes. Indeed, more gay men and women have been killed in Washington, DC in the last three years due to direct homophobic attacks than in Uganda in the past 10 years. Roger Ross Williams cannot contradict me on this because, of course, I am right.
Martin Ssempa and his homophobic friends are in cahoots with American evangelicals, mostly for money. Ssempa, however, has a following of perhaps 2o0 die-hard souls, in a country of 34 million. For any writer to use this man as a representative of “violent” Uganda is, frankly, offensive. And I am saying this as a gay man who lives in Uganda, not some fly-by-night film maker who makes a whistle-stop tour and then reaches the conclusions he was looking to reach in the first place.
Mr. Roger Ross Williams, I feel more threatened by your scare-mongering hyperbole, which might push the Ugandans who already know I am gay to turn against me because they may finally decide to live up to the rash claims you are making against them. It is half-baked, hastily scrambled stories like yours that will likely make Ugandans indignant enough to act on their antipathy towards homosexuality – antipathy they are entitled to but which they are not acting upon in the ruinous way your video tries to claim they are.
And, no, I am not on the payroll of the government of Uganda. I am a gay Ugandan who sees this kind of wild, baseless, self-serving, ‘cry wolf’ journalism as more harmful than helpful to our cause and case in Uganda.
I don’t know of any gay violence in Uganda that is unique to Uganda alone. I hear of more frequent anti-gay horror stories coming out of South Africa and, dare one say it, the USA. I know of Ugandan politicians and evangelical barracudas trying to make a living by inciting gay hatred, but I don’t know of any mass action by Ugandans against gays. No one I know of has ever illustrated that that sort of thing is happening – yet.
Enough on this already.
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To quote one Barry Goldwater “Moderation in the pursuit of Justice is no virtue and Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice!”. I think the purpose of this type of report by Mr. Ross Williams is to point the world’s attention toward what MIGHT be in Uganda (and elsewhere in Africa, if it can get passed in Uganda) BEFORE it gets to the complete outrage stage. To be MODERATE and FAIR in this effort would be risking allowing what is now only a threat, to metastasize into something more ominous. Clearly, without the world’s focus on the Bahati bill, it would have been passed into law by now, and some poor Ugandan would have been put to death through the devices of the bill by this point. Without the world’s attention, the conditions in Uganda for LGBT people would be a lot worst then they actually are on the ground today, simply because when people get the taste of blood from acting forcefully against those they choose to demonize, it may take a while to slack that blood lust (e.g. Nazi Germany and Rwanda). It is better to be EXTREME in the defense of Liberty at this point, even if it actually mischaracterizes the conditions on the ground, because to wait until later risks being consumed in the bonfires.
It’s interesting that you would cite Barry Goldwater as a model. America, at the time, rejected Goldwater’s extreme right wing philosophy by one of the largest landslides in American history, didn’t they? And now we should take on in Uganda the extremism he espoused – regardless of the social and/or cultural context in which we are operating?
“Moderation in the pursuit of Justice is no virtue and Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice!”
Should that extremism be based on falsehood, hyperbole, and exaggeration?
Hi there,
I’ve been trying to tell this story for ages. Uganda is one of the more tolerant and least violent countries I have lived in.
Last year I produced a comedy drama for ugandan theatre that became famous cos it had a gay hero(tho the story was not about sexuality). People assumed that because I was producing a play that had 1 gay character in it, in “the worst country to be gay” (!) I must be an activist, and a ‘very brave one’ at that. Sorry to disappoint my admirers, but one is more likely to be a victim of gay-bashing in the UK or USA (according to criminologists anyway).
However, I’m sorry that Roger Ross Williams has been dragged into the category of wolf-criers. I know people who worked on his film and met Roger and I know he is not a hysteric on the issue. His intention was to show the full-breadth of the effect of evangelism in Uganda, as much as is possible in 90mins anyway. The sheer quantity of material on the sexuality issue alone was enough to make a whole series, but in September, against the wishes of one of his investors, he apparently remained resolute that the evangelist story was way bigger and had far-wider-reaching implications than the sexuality issue, and should therefore be treated as a political issue as much as anything else. The documentary therefore (apparently) focuses on far more than “Martin Ssempa vs. the gays”. This much should be obvious from reading a number of interviews he has given this month. We should also bear in mind, before judging him, the economic imperative to play up the sexuality aspect of the documentary – it sells, so emphasise it in publicity (says the producer).
I don’t work for the production team and have no direct interest in the film, but feel that maybe people have judged the film according to the way it has been represented rather than on its own merits.
Here’s a press kit FYI: http://www.godlovesuganda.com/press-files/God-Loves-Uganda_PRESS%20KIT.pdf
Anyway, respects to you and your blog and I agree that the wolf-crying may well be more damaging than the wolf…
Dear David Cecil,
I like what you said about the economic drivers in the scripting of God loves Uganda. Apparently as we say in Kampala, I am on market.
“The sheer quantity of material on the sexuality issue alone was enough to make a whole series, but in September, against the wishes of one of his investors, he apparently remained resolute that the evangelist story was way bigger and had far-wider-reaching implications than the sexuality issue, and should therefore be treated as a political issue as much as anything else. The documentary therefore (apparently) focuses on far more than “Martin Ssempa vs. the gays”. This much should be obvious from reading a number of interviews he has given this month. We should also bear in mind, before judging him, the economic imperative to play up the sexuality aspect of the documentary – it sells, so emphasise it in publicity (says the producer).”
Here is a story whose script is determined by investors and the acceptable message for the American audience. The current hatred for evangelicals in the US is a good target. But this totally misses out the factual outset of Uganda’s Anti homosexuality bill.
In 2008 France and Netherlands sponsored a bill in the United Nations seeking to forcefully export sodomy in the whole world whether people wanted it or not. This was the beginning of our attempt to protect our culture by locally coming up with a bill to defend ourselves from the proudful and arrogant view of these nations. This issue is never brought up in why we came up with the bill.
It is comical to think that Scott Lively could make a miracle of causing an anti homosexuality bill within 30 days of his coming and holding a small conference where neither I or Bahati ever attendended. But it sells in America if you show that some white Americans are going overseas and telling people what to do and how to leave their lives. Most Americans Hate telling people what to do and change their cultures.
But the real issue is the fact that a sustained well funded campaign with millions of dollars has been sent to Uganda to fuel and push sodomy down our throats. I am willing to say that American funded Sylvia Tamale a beneficiary of Fulbright Scholarship has done more to fuel heterophobia in Uganda than Scott Lively. I am reliably informed that 44 million US dollars have been set apart specifically for sodomy activities in Uganda. This is more than the money set apart for “poverty alleviation” in the presidents office. Imagine all the partying, the projects and the recruitment taking place.
Roger Ross Williams should get an African trained Anthropologist to give him a brief view on homosexuality in Uganda or Africa.
Nevertheless I have asked Cecil, that I would be happy to feature in a joint play where we can actually tell the truth. Maybe Father Musaala can compose a song for us.
Pr Martin Ssempa
Briliant!. I am a Christian Ugandan and a believer that a gay person, however inclined to the same sex genetically or otherwise he is, Can be transformed to the definition of “normal” as is understood by the Christian. i take no pleasure in antagonizing the homosexuals that choose of their own free will to stay that way.
This is the best article on Homosexuality and Uganda that i have read in a very long while. Thank you.
Blessings.
Do you think the research of Kapya John Kaoma, and US based Political Research Associates for which he works, is exaggerated? Much of the extract from the God Loves Uganda documentary is devoted to him and his work. [it is this extract on which you base your commentary above, I believe, rather than the full documentary.] Reading the findings from PRA’s research, I perceive a voice of scholarly reason. Terrible things have been done throughout history in the name of God! Terrible things are being done in the world today in the name of God against LGBT people – not least by my own beloved Catholic church. Missionary zeal has wreaked havoc in the developing world – not least the colonialist homophobia which is the original source of the current trouble – including in more recent times, not just in Africa. Nothing to do with sexuality, I saw in my own country, Ireland, the way the voice(s) of Christianity, on both sides, we’re used to rabble rouse: just because the priest/minister didn’t have his finger on the trigger didn’t mean he had no responsibility for the actions of those who listened to him. I do not know Uganda. But too often I have heard not just the voices of politicians or church leaders, but ordinary people, say they don’t want homosexuality in Uganda – including a documentary where a group of young students in their blind beliefs had no inkling that any one of their number could possibly have been gay. Coupled with the nonsense belief that homosexuality is a western import – never mind that homosexuality and paedophilia are one and the same thing – I wonder could you be mistaken about the potential powder keg you have on your hands in your country? Even if local politicians are using the issue as a smokescreen for other critical issues, or in righteous spleen, no matter whether the proposed law is passed by parliament, let alone implemented – it still legitimises the current inappropriate actions of the police, blackmailers, queerbashers and church leaders. If Barry Goldwater’s credentials for wisdom don’t impress you, I expect Martin Luther King’s do.
Kapya funded by George Soros could not come up with a different report than Roger Ross. I have asked to debate him on his myths and urban legends but he has refused. I make the offer again and will willingly expose his lies which are being swallowed by a gullible and evil American audience. Money, Money Sex and more lies.
Pastor Ssempa, Why is it that you are so unChristian towards homosexuals?
‘Uganda: World’s Best Place to be Gay’-Who wants to join me in shooting this documentary?
me!
Thank you. This is a brilliant post and a good slap in the face of those who just seem to be enjoying themselves, flinging mud at Uganda and manufacturing panic/indignation in the hearts and minds of people who themselves, need to turn their* focus on the ugly things being done to minorities in their* own societies.
Enough. On this. Already.
Indeed! Very few people seem to realise how colonial this all looks from Uganda…
@Gideon Muhima. Just a point of correction. Homosexuality is not a choice. They are simply born that way. So there is nothing like them choosing of their own free will to stay that way as indicated in your comment above. Nuff said. Ta. Jsm
Well said. I also felt compelled to respond:
http://olejr.com/2013/01/24/where-are-the-ugandans-ny-times-op-doc-the-gospel-of-intolerance/
I haven’t seen the film, but it seems to me it’s more about American evangelicals trying to recolonizing African values (to borrow Kaoma’s phrase) than it is about Ugandan homophobia. And while I don’t get the sense that most Ugandans are violently homophobic, I’m still very concerned about the crack-down by powerful lawmakers and law enforcement. Not only have they broken up meetings by sexual minority rights groups and jailed their leaders (*before* any bill banning such meetings has actually passed into law), but they are monitoring both domestic and foreign researchers’ and NGOs’ activities, on the lookout for groups they suspect might ‘promote homosexuality’. This is what threatens people’s safety and freedom all around.
The so called ‘kill the gay’ bill was against rape of young boys and is even still in initial stages, wrist out of free will of mature persons, homosexuality falls among other sins of sexual immorality, like bestiality, prostitution, etc, what the evangelicals have been trying to do is to demystify the ‘born this way’ notion which is fronted by homosexuals…If you recognize your same sex attraction as an anomaly and seek help, every and any church will welcome you and help you along, but to promote it as a way of life? Is well, against God’s plan for man…
Totally off point Emmanuel but what would the world be like without people who always run off with their [stale] agenda regardless of the topic in question.
Hey, SebaSpace, i don’t think I agree with you about this at all. I am also a gay man but from Tanzania and I have lived in Uganda. I was once arrested and maltreated by your useless policemen one day in Kampala because they heard we were having a gay event. Have you watched the video ” the world’s worst place to be gay” and several other videos. You can’t come here to brainwash us or give us a wrong information. I have been following the Ugandan case closely and I have watched several interviews done with different LGBT Ugandan activists, Ssempa, David Bahati and many others including the extreme homophobic words of people on the street calling for the death of gay people or life imprisonment. Have you been physically abused as a gay man? If you have not, then shut up. I know how i was beaten by your wicked policemen despite the fact that I explained that i was Tanzanian. If you give a wrong impression to outsiders that everything is fine for gay people, LGBT people will continue to suffer. Just as i did not share my experience with anyone, do you know the hundreds of LGBT Ugandans and foreigners who would have experienced abuses. Don’t get on my nerves please. I am still angry with your policemen for attacking me when i did not hurt anybody or do anything wrong.
and not forgetting those “normal” people who use that excuse of being haunted to live abroad. they go on and tell stories how they are hated by society and their own families. some of those people leave families behind and then start to regret when they realise they wont come back to Uganda to see the families after making money. it is very sad. We have had a number of gays living with us and we dont care about them. just about five people cant make every Ugandan bad. its just crazy whenever i watch such stereotypes or read about them.
Yes, understandably truth is the casualty on both sides.
The difference,however, is that the anti-gay lobby tell their lies with profit. They effectively promote the anti gay cause to the so-called tolerant majority in Uganda( terrifyingly,including some of my own close family). This they will do by ANY MEANS
Gay activists and sympathizers on the other hand, with or without misrepresentations and exaggerations, have failed to make much headway..Why? They have not grasped fully the more ”political” significance of their struggle.
Never has such a small and seemingly insignificant group of people been able to ruffle the feathers of so many people in an African country , from the very top levels of society to the bottom. Surely much more can be milked from this.
True, we have not yet seen extreme manifestations of the gay-bashing in Uganda. If, however the anti-gay lobby is not quickly and decisively taken-out, I forsee even more so called tolerant Ugandans signing up for prejudice and hate.And for this there will have to be more than one strategy.
I for one, don’t believe in our much vaunted Ugandan ”tolerance”..Actually it is mostly opportunistic these days.Since Amin’s times Ugandans have become grossly duplicitous and there seems always to be some underlying aggression and resentment.Museveni’s double talk on the subject of homosexuality reveals much in that regard.
Banking on Ugandan tolerance is not a long term investment. One must be doubly prepared for what comes next which could be anything’
The way I see it,every Ugandan is at least a potential homophobe, unless proved otherwise.I say this as a direct and ongoing victim of it. This includes those Ugandans who enjoy gay sex but have deeply internalized homophobic attitudes.
So,if more Ugandans will become more homophobic as a result of exaggerated statements about gay oppression in Uganda,we need to remember that the political opportunism around that is as much to be dealt with as the homophobia itself.
Discrimination of the homophobic kind must be dealt with at the level of political rights, rather than philosophically or even ethically, since there will always be subjectivist views.
Fr. Anthony you will find if you make a cursory check that the use of large sums of money in this struggle is no longer the preserve of the right wing evangelists. In fact the sums of money doing the rounds (mostly abroad) in the name of fighting against Bahati’s anti-gay bill are quite staggering.
Can Fr Musaala show any body who gives money to fighing for gay causes. I desparately need their address as I have a proposal which not been funded for the last 10 years. Please Father GIVE ME ONE DONOR OR CONTRIBUTOR OR OTHERWISE Repent!
Show me the donor or the money or really be quiet. But I can show you funded projects of gays.
James Onen (a Ugandan radio personality) has a take on this issue that I think resonates loudly:
*****************************************
This stopped being about you {gays in Uganda] a long time ago. In fact, it probably never was. What is going on in Uganda is a PROXY culture war, you see, between Conservative Christians and Western LGBT movement. Uganda is simply the turf on which this proxy war is being fought. The facts don’t really matter. Each side fights to sensationalise the issue and distort the facts in a way that panders to their respective audiences at home, who in turn reward the players in this proxy war with prestige, power, and yes, money.
I hate to say this, but you local LGBT people in Uganda at this point might merely be pawns in this global game. For most ‘social justice’ movements (whether addressing gender, race, etc), the objects of their “pity”, or the people they purport to be ‘fighting for’, are usually just pawns used to acquire power and money. Notice how social justice crusaders often make things worse for the people they claim to be ‘fighting for’, while they get paid ever increasing salaries to continue the ‘fight’.
Homosexuality is illegal throughout the Arab World, and executions (whether judicial or vigilante) are quite routine… Russia’s proposed anti-gay bill is just as odious as Bahati’s… but the west is SILENT about these countries, and focusing on Uganda. With regards to “Gospel of Intolerance” I watched the trailer and 8 minute clip on the New York Times website. Sensational, to say the least.
As you correctly pointed out in your article, violence against gays is much much more rampant in the west than even Uganda (where I am yet to hear of a credible case of such an attack). And yet Uganda is supposed to be the hell hole where gays cannot even breathe.
Well said and well thought out. In the grand sweep of history, big wars are won often on the basis of little battles. Uganda is clearly a little battle, but forces are trying to win a war on its back.
The Russian bill being put forth is also the handywork of a Mr Scott Lively fyi. And I dare say that a dj from Uganda would have any capacity to know what is being done to stop Lively there.I will agree to an extent that there is a proxy war happening, but it is being waged up until recently secretly for years by American Evangelicals. The Ugandan GLBTI community discovered quickly that it must fight this colonial homophobia in much the same way the American GLBTI community has had to for the last 30 plus years against similar hostilities. Some history, as it relates to current events.
http://www.publiceye.org/publications/globalizing-the-culture-wars/scott-lively.php
Do I sense a train of thought, Wendy, that a dj in Uganda isn’t capable of knowing what is going on in Russia? No, I am sure that isn’t what you mean – it would be too condescending and, even though I don’t know you, I doubt you would go in that direction.
Wendy, Scot Lively has absolutely nothing to do with the Duma’s passing of so called anti-gay propaganda laws. Shows what you know. The Duma has been passing bills to restrict activities of foreign NGOs,, and this flurry of bills has occurred post-election. Again you’re into that exaggeration. The gays in Russia too have found themselves in the midst of a proxy war, between the Russian government and it’s perceived enemies, and this proxy war hasn’t spared even Russian orphans.
FYI: Scot Lively doesn’t need to inflame anti-LGBT sentiment, that runs deep in this region(Ukraine and Russia).
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Yes Seba I am fully aware of the big funding to LGBT activists and how that funding is also queering the pitch…
Thanks also for Onen’s piece about the proxy culture war in Uganda between conservative christians and western LGBT groups. Very important observation.
The opportunism of the likes of Georgina Oundo and Paul Kagaba who defected from SMUG to the conservative christian group at the Scott Lively 2009 conference and then back to the LGBT camp , is an alarming example of how Ugandan gays can be used by both camps.
However, most of us in this struggle, have never been funded by either side.Some of us are just being severely traumatized by fellow Ugandans, people we know and respect,people whom we thought loved and respected us; for no reason other than for being perceived to be one of those immoral people called ”gay”.
Some of us are still harassed at our work places, punished,suspected,investigated, interrogated, falsely accused , transferred, labelled for no other reason than identifying sympathetically with the gay orientation.
Being a well-known clergyman doesn’t help of course, since I am expected to fit someone’s bill of ”uprightness”, and being constantly observed for slips. .And then there are threats of blackmail which still find their way into my sms box.
For me these persecutions are real and terrible,even though they may seem to others mere background stuff and not that dramatic.Nevertheless one constantly asks oneself where one should go. One dreads living in constant apprehension that one will always be misunderstood…..
Though these episodes may rank fairly low on the world wide gay- persecution index, they HAVE changed my perspectives profoundly, about my culture, my workmates my friends and my relatives.. about Uganda….! What then should I say about goodly Ugandans? Three cheers?
.
Fr. Musaala – with all due respect, since you are the who has been in the firing line, and not I, the attacks on you illustrate for me the inherent fair mindedness of the Ugandan populace.
I have followed comments by incendiary enemies of the gay community such as Martin Ssempa who have tried to sully your reputation, as well as other pit latrine attacks on the social networks.
The main view one notes is the overwhelming support you receive from the majority of Ugandans who care to comment. Indeed I have pointed out to the gay community on private groups how it must be a cause of frustration that the rabid attacks on your person have thus far been like water off a duck’s back to the public.
That the Catholic powers-that-be might react in detrimental ways is regrettable but it is indeed a reflection of the hypocrisy and vindictiveness of individuals, not the entire Ugandan population. I would thus presume to argue that you, of all people, have first hand experience of how reasonable most Ugandans are where this debate is concerned, contrary to these claims by journalists sitting in lofty New York City offices that there is a violent anti-gay movement in Uganda. That’s arrant nonsense and I would think that Uganda’s reaction to the scurrilous attempts that have been made over the years to pull you down should make you agree with that assessment.
But it may very well take root if these self-serving videos are left unchallenged.
@jsm,dont confuse facts,no one is born gay.people choose to be gay and they can stil choose to dump the vice
Facts? It would be interesting to hear where you get your “facts” from.
Seba, I am deeply grateful for the overwhelming support I have received and continue to receive through this saga,especially yours. I’m sure that without it I would have long since sank without a trace!
However, I am still sober enough to know that much of that support,except from a few of the ”enlightened”, may not be down to the kind of Ugandan ”reasonableness” you articulate. To you this may be neither here nor there, but I wager that in the overall picture it does.
When my supporters and fans say to me, as most do that: ”Father Musaala we support you because we know that YOU Fr Musaala could never be that ”horrible thing”( i.e,. a homosexual / muli wa bisiyaga) they are not actually being reasonable about homosexuality, which is actually my concern. Quite the opposite.
They are persisting in their unreasonableness, but willing to give me, Fr Musaala, the benefit of the doubt concerning what seem to them to be only media allegations and rumours, rather than irrefutable facts; and that, largely because of WHO I AM.
In other words my status and public profile have a strong bearing upon the public’s reactions towards accusations of any kind which could be made against me. My status and profile are what make my supporters ”reasonable’ towards me’.That kind of ”reasonableness” would be the same for any kind of accusation made against me, not just the gay kind.
Also please consider that the kind of trauma I mentioned, and which many others have been through is actually violence, and when it is through the media, it is mob-violence anyway.
My point is that although there is not yet, as a matter of fact, general anti-gay mob-violence of the physical kind in Uganda, there are strong and deep roots of homophobia growing at every level of society here, which to my mind are a pre-cursor to the kind of violence we dread.
So,by all means challenge those ”self serving” videos from New York or wherever, which you mention. True, they can unwittingly (or wittingly!) feed into the undercurrent of gay hatred in Uganda. But are they really that important? To me they seem small fry compared to what we must do battle with here…
Part of the general African problem is that we fail to see ourselves as originators of our own evils, and so never deal with them. As we do battle with ” manipulative foreign forces” as we should, let us not seem to perpetuate the myth of African ”innocence”, by absolving those who create conditions for the worst human rights abuses.
Is there really any place in the world where the reaction (or its motivation) would be different from what you describe? Where accusations of homosexuality against a Catholic priest are the issue?
Forgive me. In the earlier stages of this discussion, I was beginning to question whether it would be more appropriate for me to ‘keep my big mouth shut’ rather than contribute on this issue the way I have here and in other places, both connected with Uganda and with other countries around the world. As an outsider, I do not want to make life any more difficult than it already is for LGBT people in your country in my enthusiasm to spread the gospel of gay human rights. Yes, there are excesses (sometimes inadvertently even by me) in trying to state that case.
At the end of the day, though, righteousness and homophobia – in whatever mix you might assess them – has for many centuries given LGBT people a very raw deal. That is now changing, slowly but surely – though not without its setbacks even in the most progressive political environments. LGBT people in less progressive environments, through the wonders of modern communications, see this. If for no other reason, they can perceive possibility for change for the better that was not there before: only fifty years ago, such possibility for change was nowhere to be found virtually anywhere in the world. I see numerous incredibly courageous people in extremely oppressive environments for LGBT people trying to influence for the better in those environments. Whenever I see this anew, I care to express my admiration for it in whatever way that I can, sometimes privately, sometimes publicly like here. Yes, what they are doing is fraught with danger. Harvey Milk [San Francisco, 1978] and David Kato Kisule [Kampala, January 2011] are just two examples of people who paid the ultimate price for their activism. Yet, a better world is possible for LGBT people. Every day, somewhere in the world, human rights for LGBT people takes another small step forwards. Sometimes, but definitely no longer as often, such human rights are taken a step backwards, Russia as already cited being just the latest example. It’s not that Uganda is the worst place in the world to be gay – sadly, far from it. It’s that Uganda is one of the few places in the world that is in the throes of prospectively deliberately taking such a step backwards. And there’s a subtle difference between a law prohibiting propaganda in Russia and one potentially killing gay people in Uganda – no matter what the truth of the latter may be: it has a way if getting attention, doesn’t it? [I'm reminded for some reason of the guidance given to politicians of the futility of stating party policy while the cameras are focused on a mother with a dead child in her arms.] Significant, for me anyway, is the almost universal support for this supposed death penalty that I have come across again and again in commentaries on media and other public fora emanating from Uganda. Rarely if ever have I read an anti-gay opinion that suggested the death penalty should be dropped. My apologies, Seba, if I’m being extreme in my assessment here.
Let me sign-off with the Martin Luther King Jr quote I particularly had in mind in my earlier post on this subject. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Maybe I’ll continue to mouth off after all.
Let me use the blog to try and respond Frank. Give me some time. I suspect that this comment thread is already too long.
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Gay priests in Europe or USA or SA, by dint of the fact of just being gay, rarely if ever make headline news anymore, nor do they get slagged off by name, in the pop media, unless of course they get caught in some compromising act Mubiru style. Of course that would be no different for a heterosexual priest caught doing the same.
Also, no bishop in those countries aforementioned would dare to sanction a cleric simply because of his sexual orientation, or worse, because of rumours about it, since there is no basis in church law for that.
Here things are very different, due to the intermix between religion, politics and culture. Add to this the economic problems
A catholic priest like myself, or pastor being accused of homosexuality in a country like Uganda which is manifestly anti-gay (ask the next ten Ugandans you meet) and religiously minded to boot, is not only faced with defence of his name, but of his ministry, because of the demonic and other stigma attached to gays . The inference being that you cant be religious and demonic at the same time.
In any case we must root out the lies and prejudice wherever we find them and wherever we are called to do so, even if we find them in ourselves. Each in his own way yet with a common goal must fight
Our goal is freedom to be who one is in Africa, in Uganda. The struggle for sexual identity, though seemingly new , must be introduced and engaged in; fought on many fronts, for many days and nights, with advances and setbacks, wrong turns and right ones but in the end I believe we shall have some success.
Dear Sebaspace,
I am deeply shocked that you have written a non “repeat as I say” opinion which has made my day. Roger Ross Williams like many of the homos of today is making fame and money out of a sad situation. You have actually captured how we in Uganda are anti Sodomy but we are not violent as constantly insinuated. As you recall in my last tweet to you was not a threat of death, but reminding you as “Kabaka’s Man to abandon Sodomy, marry and give US a musika”!
I did not see a day that I would side with you on the issue of facts and truth aganst your fellow homosexuals.
I am glad that Fr Musaala is sharing his heart OUT… I think more candid and factual sharing will create a better society for all of us.
Pr Ssempa
Martin Ssempa … you are the person who has tried to start a “violent anti-gay movement.” That is how you make your living. These days you have turned even more desperate because your erstwhile evangelical backers from America disavowed your message of violence and intolerance.
The reason you haven’t succeeded in getting the violent anti-gay movement off the ground is that your funding was withdrawn (read you are broke and can’t really afford the campaign) and, mercifully, Ugandans are sensible people who see through your ‘frothing at the mouth’ opportunism.
There is no intellectual underpinning whatsoever to your anti-homosexuality stance, so what do you do? Open your mouth and let whatever comes out come out in the hope that your listeners will be daft enough to believe stuff you say if you say it repeatedly enough. That indicates that you are a lazy thinker, don’t care about the truth, and will do and say anything to make money.
You are, frankly, not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer to argue on either side of this debate – which is why you are desperate to see that the “violent anti-gay movement” takes root in Uganda. It is your remaining hope of getting paid.
But, silly me, you know this already. You live it every day you go home to your family and you are not sure where their next meal is going to come from.
Dear Seba,
I have little doubt that you know who I am but have been fed a propaganda as you have never met me. In Africa we often spend time to know more than just your pet name before making conclusions about a person. I ask that you document the reason why you think that I am working to get a violent anti gay movement off the ground with evidence. I am not looking for your sympathy but my work with the victims of sodomy who your type sodomizes and abandons should be actions that tell who I am.
I have gotten messages telling me to stop warning boys about sodomy as I am making life difficult for people like you. But if warning them to keep away from sodomy where they are 7-10 times more likely to have HIV then I am definately signed up. It is my conviction that sodomy is not born but is a learned sexually addictive behavious which has long term effects. I will be happy to engage with you and yes I admit I am not the sharpest knife. Perhaps you are and will be happy to sharpen my knife with your very sharp one. The bible says, Iron sharpens Iron.
On the other point, I have often despised your group as you mostly all repeat the same rant. Due to your illegal and socially deviant status you cover up with wild allegations and sympathy stories to make you look like some kind of matyrs. An example is the Gay on Gay violence which took David Kato.
The conspicous silence on the circumstances of the brutal murder of David Kato and who killed him has led me to believe that not many people are in the gay world are interested in the truth. The guy who blugdeoned him to death has told all the world sundry that he was his lover and they had a domestic situation where they disagreed on sex and money! These types of brutal cases among homosexuals has been highlighted by FBI in the past. A recent singer and model from portugal who brutally murdered his older gay lover in NY in similar circustances. See http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/castrate-corkscrew-article-1.1225486 Many of you have kept quiet on this jail bird who Kato was barebacking and ended up killing him.
While we all can have different views on Sodomy, we all care that truth must be spoken. No one want to be lied to and I am really glad that you have spoken the truth on the issue of Roger Ross Williams.
Blessings. We are praying for your total conversion from sodomy to marriage of a wife. LIke Saul who became Paul, you too will be a great testimony of Gods grace.
Martin Ssempa: You haven’t been funded by foreign churches? Really? Does The Canyon Ridge Christian Church of Las Vegas ring any bells? They funded you until your tactics sank into the pit latrine of showing graphic sex videos in church and your message of intolerance and hate couldn’t be reconciled with their mission as well as the sensibilities of their flock in America. Then they dropped you like a hot potato. You want me to continue?
Dear Seba,
I can see that you have also fallen into the pit of cheap propaganda. Canyon rigde has never funded our anti sodomy work. We partnered with them in community development of providing medicines and drinking water to the poor in Bombo as well as HIV work.
You say they stopped funding when they heard showing sex videos in our church. Ha ha ha ha. It has never happened…I will give you a monetary reward if you can get any of my church member in the last 3 years who confirms this story!!! It is an urban legend.
What I did was a research on the health dangers of sodomy which I showed at two workshops. I was responding to a challenge by Dr Sylvia Tamale who saids that what one does in the privacy of ones bedroom should be no one’s business. I disagreed and did a scientific presentation on the consequences of sodomy including male Fistula etc.
I made this presentation at a workshop on the anti homosexuality bill held at Bishop Kigandas church where legeslators like Bahati had come and needed to be educated. Many people have no idea what Barebacking means and how it spreads HIV/AIDS. Sodomy drives HIV/AIDS deepah which explains why guys like you are 7-10 times more likely to have HIV/AIDS according to the Lanced research in Subsaharan Africa.
I abhor discussing an issue without sufficient research. The LGBT rainbow sexual menu has many activities which spread HIV/AIDS and diseases. For one to fully consent as James Onen and Andrew Mwenda says, that “if 2 consenting adults decide to sodomize each other in the privacy of their bedroom should…” I have asked that a full disclosure of the consequences of participating in the LGBT activities must be given and understood. Golden showers, Fisting, Barebacking, Anal Licking and all the LGBT menu must be fully disclosed before anyone can give be said to have given their full consent.
It shocks me therefore that Gays like you complain when people know of what is the consequences of the activities before they get into it.
But I am offended and angry at those who seek to cheapen my loyalty to the 5000 years of Black African history which considers sodomy an Abomination to have been a new idea handed to me by either Rick Warren or Scott Lively. Seba you are a Muganda, can you tell me what your Clan teaching is on who you can or cant marry! Can you tell me what you clan teaches on Sodomy! I choose not to state your full name because I seek to keep your confidential but I know it very well.
Finally I dont seek to engage in a useless debate on the myths of the west, maybe you can write the top ten issues which I can respond to with facts.
That said, I am glad that you spoke the truth about the cheap work of Roger Ross Williams.
Pr. Martin SSempa
Did you know that in 1967 73% of Americans considered unions between black and white people unacceptable? I am sure you have heard of the miscegenation laws of the United States. Yes, that means that only 44 years ago you wouldn’t have married your current wife because it was a criminal offense and the majority felt the miscegenation laws were justified.
In Uganda, at least 90% of black Uganda applauded Idi Amin in 1972 when he expelled the Asians who had known no other country or life. Was majority sentiment right?
So, sensible people understand that you can’t use such myopic reasoning as “the majority want it” where human rights are concerned because human rights cannot be held to referendums.
The Bahati [Nazi] bill you support should turn friends, parents, doctors, priests, counselors into informers. That sort of police state is reminiscent of Nazi Germany. It’s amazing that you don’t see the parallels with your current campaign – a campaign you purport will save families but which will end up destroying them when relatives turn on their relatives and parents inform on their children to the police so that they are arrested and jailed for merely being who they are.
And don’t get me started on the effect your support of the Nazi bill will have on the spread of HIV in Uganda. Suffice it to say that once it passes, you can bet your last dollar (oh, I think you just said that you don’t have much money these days) that gay men and women with HIV will not seek medical help. But that is what you want, I would imagine; it would save the country all the trouble of arresting them, putting them behind bars and feeding them while in prison until they die. HIV/Aids will do the work for you.
And you fail to see how your actions are totally in tune with Hitler’s final solution?
Tss!
Out of interest Martin Ssempa, have you appealed the judgment handed down to you by a Ugandan court last year – a judgment which effectively makes you a convicted felon? From where I am sitting, it would be odd if you didn’t challenge the ruling that effectively branded you are a liar, perjurer, malicious malcontent and a two-faced scheming rat.
I know you tried to at first bombast that you wouldn’t do the community service but eventually you folded. So, is that it? No appeal? You are content to forever be a convicted criminal?
But Seba I think you fully know the truth about this case. I wonder why you don’t write about it. Are also afraid of being harrassed by the police as we have been for the last 3 years? Tell me if you have been in court and have been framed with this evil allegations as I have suffered? I doubt if you have any room for sympathy, which would surprise me.
Yes we have already filed to Appeal this most unfortunate ruling! It is surprising how we who are alleged to have millions of dollars from Rick Warren are unable to maneouver with the Judiciary of Uganda.
I realise that you hate my guts, but I would like to take this occasion to thank you for the surprising article of exposing this cottage industry of gay exaggerations to get the visas, moneys and sympathies of a gullible American audience.
Roger Ross Williams has a record of using peoples problems to make a name and money for himself. People in Zimbabwe who helped him make his last film curse him for portraying them as the most uncaring for their disabled children which was not true. But for film and money Roger made the point.
I will not reply for now as I am off, but I will be happy to reply to your top 10 allegations with a factual response.
Pr. Martin SSempa
Pastor Ssempa I do understand you very well. I remember how this case was handled. If Seba was very vigilant, he would have known what transpired unless it’s ofcourse for personal reasons or so. The New Vision and Monitor plus Observer never hid this fact from the public. Atleast the truth is known about this. We the public know what happened. Kiwewesi, Mubiru, Kitaka….pastors associated with Kayanja have all had cases of homosexuality.
On a different note Seba, your piece was very beautiful. It clearly showed what the West does to make money.
First off – I always find your POV extremely important and interesting, whether or not I agree immediately.
Secondly: when I saw that trailer what I saw was the focus on American Evangelicals, as studied by Kaoma, and their role in this and in Bahati and his Fellowship group’s success in Parliament.
That aspect does not seem to be of great interest to a lot of Ugandans outside the LGBTI groups, and I can well imagine that that whole way of framing the story is insulting and provocative to them.
It is, however, an aspect that is quite interesting to Americans. And with the documentary featured in the Sundance festival, it will have a huge impact and just might be what tips the scale against the AHB in the end. The US is getting cozy with Uganda and its army for the “war on terror” – it needs to straighten out the corruption, HIV prevention efforts gone awry, and this bill.
I realize the resentment this type of strong-arming whips up and how counter-productive that is, it does worry me, very much, as a foreigner concerned with this. But I also see that it might be the LGBTI Ugandan’s best shot right now; that on the balance of things, good will come of it.
Also, I don’t know what area you live in or if that is what makes the big difference in your daily experiences. But we have received a bunch of LGBTI refugees from Uganda in my country lately who have been beaten, sometimes arrested and tortured, and most definitely risk their lives if sent back. (Which most of them will be. Yes, we have our own human rights issues, very much so.)
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