Category Archives: Gay Social

Teach a man to fish or give him the fish? 1

Gay - Political, Gay Social, Social Commentary • Tags: , , ,

You know the age-old adage about how if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day and if you teach him how to fish he is fed for a lifetime?

The former is what aid agencies tell you they want to do when they set up development programs in Africa and elsewhere they have decided, usually unilaterally,  that their money, technical expertize and presence are needed.

Papa Chavez

Papa Chavez

What brought this into sharp focus for me was the death of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez recently. The “poor” came out in numbers almost not seen since Jesus conjured two fishes and a loaf of bread into a feast that fed the 5,000. The jury is still out as to whether Chavez really gave his poor people a fish or taught them how to fish. And it is on that issue that it seems appropriate to segue to Uganda.

It is absolutely true that if you have money to give away, you will always have willing takers.

And so, it seems, it is the case for what passes for gay activism in Uganda. In just a matter of two or three years, the number of gay activists organizations in Uganda has mushroomed from around 5 to more than 30. All of them seek funding from have foreign constituencies in Europe, the United States, Canada, South America, Britain trying to … help. Most of the would-be helpers are Chavez-like paternalistic do-gooders with clear terms of reference to showcase their caring credentials.

Some of the donor organizations, however, don’t seem too interested in accountability for the money they disburse. The popular rationale for this tends to be that they can’t demand accountability from the oppressed and downtrodden who are operating in secrecy. The oppressed gays, lesbians, bisexuals (LGBTI) of Uganda would be putting themselves at risk if they so much as cast around for a part-time auditor to make sure that donations are being used for the reasons highlighted in their proposals, wouldn’t they?

Gay activism is the latest “sexy” bleeding heart bandwagon to roll into Uganda. on the back of a pro-gay worldwide wave that is sweeping everything in its path. So far so good; after all what caring soul would decry any efforts to help the downtrodden?

A typical example of a Ugandan LGBTI public begging bowl

An example of a Ugandan LGBTI public begging bowl set up on the internet a couple of months ago -  and eventually pulled down

This being Uganda, savvy people haven’t taken long to figure out that there is money to be made in gay activism. I have it on reliable authority that some donors are nonetheless disbursing to groups and individuals enough money to pay 10 teachers’ salaries in Uganda for 8 months -  even when they are cautioned that they might be funding little more than a jamboree of conspicuous consumption. I have received e-mails from people complaining that money sent to them for their “security” is being diverted to other purposes by their leaders.

Then there are the fictitious membership roll calls. My phone number and name appear on the members’ lists of two relatively new Ugandan LGBTI organizations. But I am not aware of when I signed up to be their member or attended any of their meetings.

Left-right dichotomy

Left-right dichotomy

Can the donors really be this gullible?

Yes and No.

Yes, some of the organizations going around cup in hand in the West ‘on behalf of ‘suffering Ugandans’ are run by naive young people,  barely out of school, who are out of their depth in dealing with crafty Ugandans. The internet campaigns that have sprung up in the last few months are good examples of this.

No, in 2013 the more experienced donors know that there is waste and misuse of resources going on but gay rights are highly sexy worldwide right now and it is good public relations to be seen to be doing something towards the LGBTI cause in Africa. So they simply turn a blind eye to the more egregious evidence of charlatanism.

Why?

I think it is part of a worldwide ideological war between left and right in the Americas (mostly) and Europe that leads to such disregard for standards of accountability that the donors demand of organizations in their own countries and mainstream NGOs in the developing world. If Scott Lively’s Defend the Family is using money to fight the ideological battle for minds in Africa, the argument tends to go, so can the left.

With the right-wing in retreat even in their last bastion, the United States of America, the liberal/left wing has an excellent opportunity to prove their caring credentials by wearing their bleeding hearts on their sleeves. If some of the funds are being wasted, so be it; the wider goal of changing mindsets globally justifies relaxing some of the oversight on the donated funds.

It is a disturbing trend but you will not see it change soon because that is how practically every crooked, thieving, lying, inept regime in Africa has managed to stay in power; with a lot of unconditional help from friends in America, Canada, Britain, and Europe and so on.

As someone told me when I asked her about why the demand for accountability seems more lax with some LGBTI donors than one would normally expect, “it’s the nature of the beast.”

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Father Musaala: the Catholic Church blinks … sort of

Gay - Religion, Gay Social • Tags: , , , ,
Musaala & Lwanga face off

Musaala & Lwanga face off

In the stare-down that followed the explosive letter that Father Musaala wrote to the Catholic Church reminding them that priestly celibacy in Uganda is largely a myth, there are signs that the Church has blinked first.

As matters stand today, some observers think that suspending Musaala by Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga was as hasty as it was a mistake. I tend to agree with them. Public opinion in Uganda has been split 70/30 in favor of Musaala if the online and newspaper responses to his letter are anything to go by.

Secondly, the open secret about cardinals, bishops, priests having sex quite freely that Father Musaala exposed cannot really be swept under the carpet with denials or platitudes.  And so it seems that an institution that moves glacially, if at all, has chosen to try to paper over the gaping holes to save the Titanic from going under with an apology and a promise of a “commission.”

According to Uganda’s Monitor newspaper, Archbishop Lwanga has been reported to have offered an apology … of sorts:

“for alleged sexual abuses, including of minors, by some priests. “It’s sad that there has been some misbehaving by some (priests) as alleged,” he said, before announcing an ad hoc (sic) commission had been constituted to inquire into the matter.

Forced out of him by events, the Archbishop’s apology seems as harried as his downplaying of the extent of the scale of sexual misconduct by casually calling it “some misbehaving” borders on the blind. It will thus not be enough even if the commission seems like a step in the right direction.

What will make or break the commission is its terms of reference. If it is independent enough from the Church,  listens to and sensitively deals with potential victims and is tasked with offering genuine apologies as well as arranging for restitution, it will be the right thing to do.

Given the history of the Catholic Church everywhere else sex scandals and abuse have been uncovered such as in America and Europe, the commission might very well be merely a time-wasting,  pontificating, hostile and judgmental white-washing panel which does little other than to try to paint the victims as villains while doing all it can to protect the church.

The conflict of interest inherent in the Church appointing its own investigator notwithstanding, any past and/or present victims of sexual abuse by priests would be well advised to make sure that they understand the commission’s terms of reference before appearing before it.

Make no mistake about it, the Catholic Church in Uganda (and Africa) has been riven for eons with homosexual, heterosexual and pedophile sexual predators who have preyed on men, women and children all over the country. In just the two weeks I have paid attention to those emboldened to tell their stories to the support group that was recently launched (name withheld for security reasons), sordid tales of supposedly celibate religious prelates fondling boys, girls and women, sodomizing boys, raping boys and even married women, forced abortions, siring  and neglect of offspring have come to light.

There is still some fear from many of those who say they have been victims but it will take just one to stand up for the Church to get inundated with claims. What I have seen and heard thus far is the tip of the iceberg.

As Father Musaala averred in this letter, the scale of the sexual scandals in Uganda and across the African continent might never be fully appreciated in our lifetimes. Cardinals, Archbishops, bishops, priests, nuns brothers … the list of  infamy is as long as it is breathtaking. The only surprise is how the lid has been kept on such widespread sexual misconduct for this long.

The Church thus has little recourse but to be ready to listen, apologize and financially compensate victims. Of course nothing can bring back a lost childhood, undo the psychological harm to a rape victim or repair the damage of a neglected child but money goes some way to show genuine contrition.  It will be expensive but, if handled right, it will be the more manageable and least damaging option.

I do not believe the Catholic Church in Uganda will opt for that high road; rarely has any entity with the power and influence this Church enjoys in Uganda ever willingly chosen to see the victims’ side until they were forced to by events.

So, it will likely be years of  litigation, drip, drip revelations as names of sex abusers, past and present, dead and alive come to light. The Church will be embroiled in ruinously expensive legal cases that will embarrass and ruin the reputations of many as we saw in Boston, Massachusetts, Florida, Los Angeles (USA), Ireland and Scotland.

The consequences of the Pandora’s box Father Musaala opened will not be fully appreciated for years.

Right now, though, the ball is in the Catholic Church’s court.

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Activists say UK Border Agency “murdered” Ugandan “lesbian” 1

Gay Social • Tags: , , , , ,
Jackie Nanyongo: it is claimed she died after injuries sustained during a deportation process in Britain

Jackie Nanyongo: it is claimed she died in Uganda after injuries sustained during a deportation process in Britain

Here is a story now doing the rounds.

Until it popped up in my e-mail last night, and then simultaneously on Facebook, I didn’t know anything about it. But it seems disturbing enough to warrant commenting on.

Money quote from the Movement for Justice’ by Any Means‘ Facebook post:

Jackie Nanyonjo died in Uganda last Friday as a result of the injuries inflicted by the Home Office’s licenced thugs who deported her from Britain on 10th January. Jackie was a fighter for herself and for others: a lesbian who escaped from anti-gay persecution and a brutal forced marriage, and a member of the Movement for Justice.,,, on Qatar Airways Flight QR76, …  She struggled for as long as she could until, beaten up, half strangled and bent double, she was overcome by the pain in her chest and neck and was unable to breathe.

At this point, I don’t know what to make of these claims. In general, though, I tend to think that the immigration authorities in whatever country really need to err on the side of caution unless they are dealing with a sea of asylum seekers all claiming this and that persecution – for instance in cases where you might find that the entire Tunisia has boarded a flotilla of ships and set sail for Spain.

What makes sense is that Nanyyonjo likely didn’t get the best medical care when she was returned to Uganda; hardly anyone who is not a cabinet minister does and even they have to be flown to Nairobi, South Africa, Europe and beyond. Uganda’s hospitals are terrible places where you are generally more likely to die than be cured because of medical incompetence, moribund facilities and outright neglect.

Individual asylum seekers from Uganda to Britain (for instance), even ones whose claims might seem fake or frivolous, usually pose minimal risk to the way of life of the recipient country, allowing more latitude for circumspection by the immigration authorities.

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David Cecil gets it 4

Gay - Political, Gay Social • Tags: , ,
David Cecil rightly differentiates between leaders and led

David Cecil rightly differentiates between leaders and led

On another forum, a discussion is going on following remarks attributed to David Cecil the playwright who whose play, The River and the Mountain, got him deported from Uganda.

David Cecil is quoted as saying: “Uganda is not a terrible place and most people are not homophobic but they are conservative,” said Mr Cecil. “There are pastors preaching hate, they are the problem.”

I couldn’t agree with him more on the homophobia. I tried to illustrate way back in 2010 that Ugandans then were no more homophobic than the South Africans, Americans or the French of 2013.  Attitudes towards homosexuality worldwide are deeply visceral and the difference tends to be in the lengths governments are willing to go to discourage their citizens from acting ruinously on the feelings they are perfectly entitled to.

In that light, the Scandinavian countries are years ahead of almost any place else in the world on this question. Homophobic sentiment exists in Sweden and Denmark, too. But the politicians are setting an example by leading the campaign to actively discourage the feelings from going beyond that,and perhaps even change them to acceptance and tolerance.

But it is on the issue of ‘conservatism’ that I want to dwell at this time.

My suspicion is that David Cecil is confusing ignorance and/or lack of education about homosexuality with conservatism. There is scant evidence to show that most Ugandans are conservative. What they are is unschooled about some aspects of life and sexuality, and too many of them hide their lack of knowledge in bombastic, shrill, often foolish knee-jerk throw-aways that observers mistake for conservatism.

Then there are Ugandans who are incapable of logical thought who, largely because this country’s education system focuses largely on churning out examination grades rather than critical thinking,  run to the Bible and “tradition” as their refuge.

Just like their politicians, Ugandans often yell first and ask questions later

Just like their politicians, Ugandans often yell instead of asking questions to get educated

The ignorant ones , who are not  familiar with or educated about homosexuality,  simply parrot what they heard Martin Ssempa yell out. If you try to engage them in an intellectual exploration of the issues, they are visibly at sea. Since Ugandans typically don’t want to admit that they don’t know, it is little wonder they opt for ignorant din instead.

Ssempa is of course a cynical and opportunistically homophobic pastor who knows that he is talking nonsense all the time but nonetheless tries to encourage his listeners to be homophobic because he is hoping it will get him paid. It all makes for great mindless noise – sadly – which many people mistake for “conservatism.”

Remember that more than 50% of Uganda’s population is under 25 (48% is under 15). That is precisely the age group that is demonstrably more open-minded about sex and sexuality – to Martin Ssempa’s acute frustration since it is also the age group he really wants to convert in his homophobic petri dish sermons.

See why it is a complete misunderstanding to argue think that Ugandans are homophobic or conservative?

That said, David Cecil has clearly used the years he has spent in Uganda rather well. He never met my grandmother who died at the ripe old age of 96 but he would be correct if he realized that she was not homophobic or conservative.

Having only gone to Bible school, she wasn’t the kind of woman anyone today would call educated. But she showed critical thinking and an enlightenment that a lot of schooled Ugandans would do well to emulate.

How so?

My grandmother knew David Kato. He lived down the road from her own house. She also knew that he was gay and spoke about how odd it was that a man could ‘unite’ with another man that way. But she also knew to mind her own business and made sure she never raised Kato’s homosexuality with his mother whom she also knew well. One of her step sons, my father’s brother, spoke positively of David Kato at his funeral and my grandmother would have totally approved.

My grandmother had more sense than ten Martin Ssempas and do you know how I know that? She was angrier about the wanton abuse of office by government officials than she was about  homosexuality. She recognized that homosexuality was a curiosity but would not expend energy on it because she was aware that she had known ‘odd’ people like that all her life and they had never affected her life the way lack of drugs and doctors in hospitals had robbed her of children, grandchildren and great children.

Uganda is not at all a terrible place, and the majority of Ugandans are not homophobic or conservative. The pastors and politicians preaching hate for their own opportunistic, selfish, ends are the problem.

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Health/Wellness needs to drive the human rights campaign 7

Gay - Human Rights, Gay Social • Tags: , , , , , ,

Frank McMullan has posted a fierce riposte to my article decrying what I see as gross exaggerations regarding the homosexuality debate in Uganda.

I  feel it might be beneficial to move the discussion forward by explaining further (or again?) why I am frustrated with the nature of the debate being conducted around Uganda’s gay situation.

My general thrust is simple: human rights are critical and those who fight for them need our support and thanks. What seems to me to be happening in Uganda is that the foreign friends of our gay community have decided that they are going to fight this battle on their own terms. Some of their condescending tactics include treating us (Ugandan gay men and women) as though we are helpless, hapless basket cases who cannot come up with any strategies and so all the strategies must be determined by them  in New York City or talking shops in Quebec. How else can you explain the attack by Canada’s foreign minister against Speaker of the House, Rebecca Kadaga, last October, an attack that caught gays in Uganda totally by surprise?

So, when we tell the activists abroad that we feel things should be done differently, they simply brush our opinions away and go with their own decisions.

To be fair, our representatives in Uganda haven’t been terribly forthcoming in seeking out the views of the grassroots [Farug has taken some steps to change in this regard over the past 12 months]. Yet the overwhelming sentiments on the ground are that the struggle is about what three or four people in Uganda plus their handlers in London, Washington, DC and Europe decide.

No wonder that many of us look on with awe as activists, some of them carrying fictitious members lists,  fly all over the world, return to Uganda only long enough to throw yet another expensive boozy junket and then fly out again to … yet more talking shops on yet another continent.

How do these activists know what message to take to all these places if, as is certainly the case, they hardly ever consult with the grassroots? we wonder. To that end, some of the activists in Uganda have been compromised by the endless foreign trips whose purpose to us remains at best nebulous. But our boys and girls are so poor and desperate that these trips seem like manna from heaven. They are thus a source of a lot of envy and jealousy in our community and, dare one say it, they make the gallivanting activists so powerful as nothing funded by foreign donors (everything is funded by foreign donors)  is approved or done without their nod.

The foreign liberal and right-wing media corp who report on Uganda usually have an agenda that often has nothing to do with the poor gay boy in Kawaala, a Kampala suburb. Yet, as we all know, the truth is usually far less interesting than we would wish. When they air what is usually arrant hyperbole (often endorsed by people on the ground who also have their own personal reasons for embellishing their circumstances), the Americans, Swedes and Brits etc. get all excited … but the heterosexual Ugandans who have nothing against us also get irritated at what they see as lies, lies, lies.

We might be getting a lot of sympathy from people watching exaggerated reports in the comfort of their living rooms in London, Lisbon and Los Angeles. But we are also needlessly making enemies of our fellow Ugandans, the people we walk the streets with, because the stuff being peddled out there, often with the tacit blessing of those who lead us, is manifestly incorrect.

I have, for instance, railed against the nonsense Scott Mills’ documentary (May 2011) peddled. He spent perhaps two weeks in Uganda and called it the worst place to be gay in the world – to deafening silence from our leadership. Really? Worse than Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates?  Worse than the parts of Northern Nigeria practicing Shariah law? Worse than North Dakota or parts of rural Georgia? Seriously?

I think our representatives, too, cannot really deviate from the message their sponsors want to hear because … it would be to bite the hand that feeds them. He who pays the piper calls the tune and the piper wants sensational stories from Uganda because that is what generates dollars and Euros. There is,however,  only a number of stories even a “terrible” country like Uganda can produce so … the alternative is to either embellish or look on as outright fabrications are peddled by whoever has an agenda to pursue.

So, contrary to what a commentator on my previous post patronizingly suggested when she offered that  James Onen (the radio personality) can’t understand what is going on in Russia., Onen is right: this battle long ceased to be about the truth.

If it were about the truth and what the gay boys and girls in Uganda really want, the focus would be on forcing the government of Uganda to make HIV/Aids in the gay community a priority since the fact that we are already dying from diseases due to official neglect is as verifiable as it is indisputable. And what would be a better way to push the government to concede that gays in Uganda must be protected than to give them equal access to medical attention as well as specialized HIV care?

This is not happening because the focus in the West is on a bill that hasn’t been debated, hasn’t killed anyone yet, likely will not change the situation on the ground since, once passed, the law will be impossible  to enforce.  But it should really be on sick homosexual Ugandans who can’t trust the clinics available to them to keep their confidences,  provide them with simple things such as lubricant or treat their sexually transmitted diseases without turning up their noses at them.

Any Ugandan gay man or woman will readily tell you about gay people they know of who have succumbed to HIV/Aids due to neglect and/or stigma which prevented them from seeking medical attention in time. I have blogged about a friend of mine, Raymond Kiwanuka, who was taken in that fashion. He wasn’t the first, and he certainly hasn’t been the last. Raymond suffered without support long before Bahati introduced his [Nazi] bill.

What I am arguing is that the HIV/Aids crisis in the gay community needs to be used as the vehicle to fight against discrimination and the Bahati Bill. Why? Because thus far, the ‘human rights’ “we are here, we are queer” message has remained nebulous, and its intentions unclear. So, it needs to be dressed up in clothes that both gay and straight Ugandans can identify with – the human element of health/wellness which is tangible to most Ugandans.

My friends, most of whom know I am gay and don’t care, often ask what I think are justifiable questions: what rights do Ugandan gays want? To march in the streets? To have parades in public parks? To hold seminars in hotels? To have sex in public? To discuss gay sex on radio and television? To take over mainstream bars and hang by the rafters? To have sex in private, something they are already doing? What?

Unless we put a human element to what we want, and I am totally convinced HIV/Aids/Health-Wellness is the perfect vehicle for this message, my friends can justifiably assume that we think we are more special than the millions of Ugandan women and children who have died over the years due to pregnancy and childbirth complications, but who don’t have friends in Stockholm or New York City, and have thus never had an advocate such as Hillary Clinton making threatening phone calls on their behalf  to President Yoweri Museveni.

With that in mind, it might make for exciting water cooler discussions in America and Europe to claim that there is a violent anti-gay movement in Uganda. The evidence on the ground proves otherwise and that sort of exaggeration merely alienates our fellow Ugandans.

It’s time , I think, to retool our message to embrace the really pressing health/wellness issues affecting the gay Ugandans in the slums of Bwayise and Najjanankumbi. It might not be as jazzy, sexy, catchy or lucrative as the “we are here, we are queer” message, but I would bet cold, hard cash that is what the grassroots want.

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Please stop this exaggeration! Please!!!!!! 51

Gay Rights - The Struggle, Gay Social • Tags: , , , ,

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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Questions the anti-gay brigade struggles to answer 3

Gay Rights - The Struggle, Gay Social, Social Commentary • Tags: , , , , ,
No bill: Ugandan girls walking around in the nude

No bill: Ugandan girls walking around in the nude

Now and then, it helps to revisit the questions that we would like those supporting the Bahati [Nazi] anti-gay bill to answer. We’ve asked them ad nauseam but I am not aware that a coherent response has ever been provided anywhere.

1. The Bahati Bill was not a result of a spike in “gay recruitment in schools” or a threat to the family as is claimed. So, what prompted it? Money? There is a lot of money to be made by Christian evangelicals such as Martin Ssempa who will gladly fight, for hundreds of thousands of dollars, the proxy morality fight already lost in the United States. His vested interest and that of the people who pay his way is well documented.

Peripatetic Rebecca Kadaga - this time visiting the Pope at the Vatican

Pushing for bill: peripatetic Rebecca Kadaga – this time visiting the Pope at the Vatican

2. Do you know that under this bill, everyone in Uganda who knows a gay man/woman is at risk of a 3-year jail term if they don’t hand them in to the police? Did you also know that priests, counselors, doctors and parents are also mandated to turn in anyone they discover is gay? When did we last read about such stuff, “read” because most of us are too young to have seen it first hand? Does Nazi Germany ring any bells?

3. The Uganda government’s own figures show that 176 girls were molested by their male relatives last year. Those are the ones on record and it stands to reason that the true number is much higher. Do you know of even a faintly comparable statistic on the gay side? What then makes Bahati claim that gays are a threat to Uganda?

4. Ugandans (and their president, Museveni) keep on arguing that they don’t like the “flaunting it.” What sort of

Junket straight ladies flaunting it: Zari and Sylvia Owori

No Bill: Junket straight ladies flaunting it: Zari and Sylvia Owori

flaunting it in Uganda have they seen anywhere that requires Parliament to enact a law? Anything near what one sees with the ladies of the night at Speke Hotel or on the drink junkets on boat cruises on Lake Victoria? I have done most, if not all, the night clubs in Kampala, sometimes from Wednesday through Sunday and I have never seen a gay couple or a semblance of a gay couple ‘flaunting it.’ Am I looking in the wrong places?

5. How exactly do you recruit someone into any kind of sexuality? Would you make the same argument if a woman of 45 lured a boy of 15 into her bosoms and he went along? Or should we argue that this would be okay since she would be recruiting him into the ‘normal’ sexuality? If not, why isn’t Uganda also enacting a separate law for that sort of thing?

6. Child molestation/preying on the young (gay or straight) is already a crime on Uganda’s books. Why does Uganda need an additional law specifically targeting gays for stuff that both gay and straight people are capable of doing?

Conservative? Ugandan women routinely dispense with knickers

No bill: Ugandan women are increasingly caught out with no knickers

Finally, is Uganda really a conservative country? Do you remember happily married Gen. Kazini (RIP) and how he died in the bedsit of a mistress in the wee hours of the morning? Conservative? How about the recent Zari/Bad Black et al shenanigans? Conservative? Is the way girls dress in Club Rouge (micro-minis, roof high LBTs, no knickers, breasts hanging out etc.) reminiscent of the olden days that you want to see continue in Uganda? Do you know that there are night clubs in the heart of Kampala that host live sex shows (straight) if you have just 20,000/= ($7.00) for the entrance? Conservative? Really?

Or should we argue that Ugandans are conservative because they attend church in record numbers?

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Ugandan activists should stay clear of Chris Mubiru! 8

Gay - Political, Gay Relationships, Gay Social • Tags: , , , ,
oh dear red_pepper_ug_headline a

Last week’s Red Pepper front page

The fallout from the Red Pepper front page gay pornographic show will take time to sift through but, already, a number of expected events have happened following the first publication. The Red Pepper has, rather predictably, continued the onslaught and a number of other tabloids have followed suit with even more graphic images.

Chris Mubiru, the older man shown in the pictures, has apparently fled the country. There will likely be no such easy exit for the young man in the above pictures because of course it’s not available to him so one wonders what kind of life he is going to have after the smut published about him in the tabloids.

How did it come to this? Yours truly has no definitive proof of the order of events but it would appear that Chris Mubiru himself recorded the sex session on his phone with or without the young man’s knowledge. Then he took the phone to a repairer which is how the images found their way to the Red Pepper. It should be noted that Chris Mubiru is no stranger to homo-pedophile controversy. Whether true or not, the tabloids have been hounding him for years about his rumored penchant for sex with much younger men, many of whom were also his charges in the soccer training he was involved in.

So, the issue is not only one of pedophilia (and this hasn’t been proved yet by anyone at this point), but also one of abuse of authority. The latter is much easier to establish and there is no doubt that Chris Mubiru, a man in his 40s if he were a day, preyed on young boys he had power and authority over.

Now, thanks to the careless actions of a man who should have known better than to have sex with the young men in his charge, the gay community in Uganda is on the defensive amidst renewed charges that we recruit children into homosexuality.

Uganda’s gay rights activists should stay clear of Mubiru’s case completely as there is nothing in his conduct to defend. They should instead focus on assuring the wider Ugandan community that we don’t condone the abuse of authority and thoughtlessness that Chris Mubiru displayed in having sex with a coachee and then filming the proceedings.

Let’s be clear, had Mubiru had sex with a 30-year-old soccer player he was coaching, it would have been equally distasteful. To have preyed on young men who were barely out of their teens when he had power over their careers and/or future was thus scurrilous to say the least. We must say this loudly and clearly.

Then we must finally condemn the Red Pepper for stooping to a level where they are serving up to parents and children gay pornography for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

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Let the Bahati Nazi Anti-Gay Bill be passed! 6

Gay Social, Uganda - Politics • Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Surrounded by “school children and teachers” (it’s not clear where they got them from in the middle of a school day, during examinations time), Uganda’s foremost homophobes have written a lengthy communiqué demanding that the Bahati anti-gay bill is debated and passed by Uganda’s Parliament as a Christmas gift to … themselves.

It’s time for their wish to be granted.

I have actually come to the conclusion that the best possible outcome IS for the Bahati Bill to be passed. Within hours, it’ll be in constitutional court, it’ll be repealed without a doubt (as it is in breach of several constitutional provisions), and everyone will be able to get on with their lives. The actual reality is that Ugandans pretty much stopped caring a long time ago, that is, assuming they ever did. … … The bill is a red-herring.  Always has been. (James Onen aka Fat Boy)

There are a number of reasons why debating and passing the bill is now the best outcome:

1. It is time for this bill to stop hanging over the gay community like a nuclear cloud. If it is passed by Parliament, as it surely will,  then we can deal with its consequences “as is” as opposed to as we guess it might be.

2. All these so-called pro-children pastors and politicians have used this bill to enhance their profiles, raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from evangelical extremists abroad, all in the name of saving children and Christianity as we know it, and will continue to do so as long as the bill lies comatose in Committee. The dishonesty this bill has engendered needs to finally be stopped.

3. Even the gay community needs to get closure on this bill one way or the other. As things stand, we have all these rag

It’s time for my close-up Mr. DeMille

tag LGBTI organizations, some with just one executive and a fictitious list of members, who talk to well wishers in yonder lands and ask for money on behalf of the gay community in Uganda ostensibly to fight this bill. If it is settled by Uganda’s courts, the bona fide gay lobby could then focus on raising awareness for issues that actually impact the gay community in Uganda such as HIV/Aids plus other health and wellness crises that have taken a back sit because they don’t grab the headlines, don’t make for sensational copy.

4. The Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament, peripatetic Rebecca Kadaga, (who I must admit I like a lot) is currently riding high in Uganda on the back of just this bill. She seems busier than a bee these days; turning up one morning in Quebec to spar with Canada’s foreign minister, the other she’s getting off the plane at Entebbe Airport to a hero’s welcome, the next she’s chairing human rights meetings in London, and the next she’s dancing the Tamenaibuga on top of a pick-up truck in Kamuli.

It is time for this bill to pass so that we can examine her stalking horse candidacy critically in the light of more deserving national concerns. It is very well for a politician to milk a vote-getting issue dry, albeit it one that tramples the human rights of a cross-section of her fellow citizens, but it is quite another for her to be given a free ride on everything else simply because she stood up to a boorish Canadian foreign minister.

I find myself on the extreme spectrum of those who want the damn bill to pass. I am curious to see how in the hell they’d enforce such a crappy law. (not to mention I plan to abuse it, BUM-CHECK road blocks … (Kim Bakugan John)

5. Last but not least, Sebaspace is sick and tired of talking about this bill. Let’s get it debated, passed, thrown out by the courts and then I can finally work on my edifying tome that I know will win me the Nobel Literature prize that I so deserve but which I can’t quite focus on yet because of all the din surrounding whether I will be in jail or alive once the damn bill is passed.

In fact it will be in my literary interest if I am thrown in jail or killed on account of this bill. Imagine those worldwide headlines … and my adoring fans screaming my name to the Pope to make me a saint …

Gay literary genius a martyr!  Uganda’s foremost gay literary genius jailed for life … Homophobic mob flashes gay literary genius in middle of a pot-holed street! … Jailed Ugandan gay literary genius up for a Pulitzer Prize … Ugandan gay genius the new Oscar Wilde … Sebaspace aced by Bahati Nazi law!

Let this bill be passed.

All right Mr. DeMille, I am ready for my close-up.

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Who did The River and the Mountain benefit? 2

Gay - Education, Gay Social • Tags: , , , ,

Until a couple of hours ago when a friend on another forum brought him to my attention, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you who David Cecil was. Before you engage in any hasty conjecture, no, he is not Cecil Rhodes and he certainly didn’t give Zimbabwe its colonial name.

Once the name appeared on my radar, I did a little, non-representative survey on Google and Yahoo search. Everything of import that you will find written about David Cecil relates to a play, The River and the Mountain, that he staged ostensibly to highlight the terrible existence gay men and lesbians suffer in Uganda. It was banned by the authorities after a couple of productions and Cecil was thrown into jail for a few days for ‘promoting homosexuality.’

David Cecil’s moment of limelight – behind bars in a Ugandan jail

Really? A dramatic director capable of shaking up governments in Africa is only known worldwide for one play? I found that hard to fathom so I tried checking around for Cecil’s body of work. All I can come up with is that he is associated with Tilapia Culture, a bar cum night spot, in Uganda. He is widely cited as  a theater producer but I failed to find any other theater he has produced other than the gay stage production that landed him in jail and all over the front pages of the international media.

I have been to the Tilapia Culture once and I thought it a rather nice place to relax. Other than being oddly and inexplicably called Tilapia, it had the sort of artsy, bohemian, atmosphere that I found rather alluring. I don’t recall if David Ceil was there when I visited but there was a dreadlocked, inscrutable, barman who had me thinking ungodly thoughts.

So, it seems as though until he staged The River and the Mountain David Cecil was not known in Uganda or anywhere else for much else. Nothing terribly remarkable thus far, and in fact one could argue that Cecil has done better than most people in this world. I have never put on a theatrical production in Uganda and have never been arrested in a blaze of publicity either.

What got me wondering was something tangential but intriguing. In the link  provided, the actors in the now banned gay play seem to have conflicting views about how useful the play was.

Money quotes:

‘I question the effectiveness of discussing homosexuality the way we did,’ [Nanfuka] told Radio Netherlands. … ‘I am not sure anymore if the people to whom we are preaching, are interested in change at all.’ The 26-year-old actress added that she thinks the play ‘has only alienated Ugandans further from homosexuals.’

But co-star Okuyo Joel Atiku ‘Prynce’ insists he would play the role of a gay factory worker again despite all the responses he received being negative. ‘I partook in the play because of the artistic challenge and to drive debate, to make people realize that gay people are part of society too,’ the 28-year-old told the Dutch radio station.

The question for the David Cecils of this world thus has to be: If you haven’t convinced your own cast about the value of the production they are taking part in, how do you hope to convince the wider audience that what you are doing is worthwhile? With such discordance, did Cecil really do his homework before embarking on this production? Who did he consult with? What advice was he given as to whether such a play would foster understanding (or debate) between the gay community and the rest of Uganda?

In this case Cecil’s play seems to have made him more known around the world than the play itself or the cause for which it was intended. A few weeks after it was staged, and banned, hardly anyone in Uganda is talking about  the play. But a lot of people worldwide have certainly talked about David Cecil, yours truly inclusive.

Was that the intention? If so, it was all not in vain then.

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