Ugandan gay rights activist murdered: a horrible inevitability
By Tom Chivers World Last updated: January 27th, 2011
Grim news from Uganda. Some of you may remember a few months ago I wrote about an appalling story in that country, in which a newspaper called Rolling Stone (unrelated, of course, to the music mag) did a “name and shame” of Uganda’s “top 100 homos”, disgustingly reminiscent of a British newspaper’s similar piece about sex offenders in 2001.
“Hang them”, the front page said.
Now, of course, David Kato, an outspoken Ugandan gay rights activist, has been found beaten to death in his home. He had been attacked with a hammer. The inevitability is sickening.
Police are saying that it was a robbery gone wrong, not a hate crime, but – understandably, given that homophobia is state-sponsored in the country – other activists are profoundly unconvinced.
Last time I wrote on this, I placed some of the blame on US evangelicals who had gone to Uganda and co-authored a bill by the government making homosexuality a criminal act, although one of them - Reverend Scott Lively – did say they had gone too far by making it punishable by death. I slightly regretted that, as it removes culpability from the Ugandans themselves – homophobia is endemic in much of Africa, among Muslims, Christians and others, and the continent must take responsibility for its dreadful record in that area.
That said, Val Kalende, the chairperson of one of Uganda’s gay rights groups, would disagree with me on that point. “David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by US evangelicals in 2009,” he said. “The Ugandan government and the so-called US evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood.” I don’t know the full extent, although I think we can agree that the evangelicals do not come out of this looking good; nonetheless, we shouldn’t use their involvement to whitewash the vicious attitudes of a lot of Africans.
We tend to think, in this country, that virulent anti-gay feeling of this kind is a thing of the past. In the main, it is, here (although sometimes, when I write on the topic and read the comments it receives, I start to doubt it) –as shown by the B&B case the other week, our legal system protects the rights of homosexuals, and bigotry is on the wane. But this is a horrible reminder that, worldwide, the battle is far from won.ENDS
As usual the ugly comments followed on the facebook page of On The Ground News Report but there sensible ones interspersed in all the madness:
Some read as follows:
- Rip. Lesson: If your gay keep it to yourself.
- Seet deh....Batty bway a dead worldwide...Come off a wi case JFJ and JFLAG....Unnu wrong plus tax.
- OGNR you really pushing it now. Anywhere in the world there is a GAY story you find it.
- Ignorance at its highest. That's y some of these countries will never be better than they are. Ignorant asses.
- He who is without sin cast the first stone. I wonder how pure and righteous the killers were. Leave them to God! Why are they so bothered and concerned about the salvation of homosexuals? Only God sits high enough to judge
- Watch the morons and ignoramuses on here make thier stupid comments...
- The funny thing about this is that some of those same evangelists are hiding in closets and were in Uganda to touch little black boys.
- Murder is murder. Each person has a choice to decide how he or she lives. We may not agree with certain behaviour but should we kill those that offend us by their lifestyles?
- The bible speaks about Jesus hanging out at bars and brothels, I wonder if he hung out with gay people too? Afterall, he never came to save the so called righteous!! Sin is sin, whether one lies, steal, fornicate, lust, covet or kill. So "if" being gay is a sin and it requires killing, why don't we kill are the liars, thieves etc?
- It's amazing how many ignorant folks think it is OK to kill someone because they think and act different from you. If that was indeed legal then I guess Christians would be killing Muslims and Muslims would be killing Jews. No wonder Jamaica is having a brain drain because of stupid people like you with this belief system. Believe it or not Gay people are among you and they are here to stay and no amount of killing them will make the "disease" go away...It's a pity how some people will make openly anti-gay remarks but behind closed doors they say something totally different...Wake up people, People have to live their lives and you should live yours for you because like them or not, gay people are our Doctors, Lawyers, Politicians, Priests, Bankers, Teachers..,etc. Get educated and get over it.
- Every country that upholds such behavior WILL be destroyed (homosexuality, abortions, senseless murders, etc) are all demonic behaviors and I will not accept it just because it's the norm or because everybody else does. It's wrong and that's that. MY BIBLE INSTRUCTS ME TO ACT ON AND SPEAK THE WORD OF YHWH AND DON'T CARE WHO GET OFFENDED SO IF YUH OFFENDED OH DAMN WELL...maybe it's time you make some changes! Str8
- You know what as much as I don't agree with homosexuality I notice in half the countries that are so homophobic the crime rates are very high, and I don't see people see multiple reports of people hunting down gunmen and theives or child molesters and beating them to death! A bunch of bloody hypocrites! You follow and uphold one commandment follow all of them and uphold all!
- I say get rid of as many as u can ppl this world is turning into sadum and have too much so call interlect supporting a lifestyle that bares no morals or benefit of its kind to society. They as benefical as the number zero has no prepose I say get rid of it, if u have a dead branch on a tree u cut of before it grain the life out off the entire tree homosexual or like a dead brach.
- you fail to realise that homosexuality is not a choice, Its something that they are born with and as for heterosexuals not "throwing their sexuality in their faces" what do you call people kissing in the subway or in restaurants? Jamaica isn't "homophobic" and the ignorant people commenting on this thread should realise that. Homophobia means "an irrational fear of people who have sex with someone of the same sex". I have often been to strip joints in Kgn, Mobay and Ocho Rios and see women dancing on stage and other women up there OPENLY kissing, touching and actually having sex with them and the men...and some women in the crowd go wild..Why is that accepted but 2 men aren't? There is no such bullshit as one sin is worse than the other so if you believe that it is a sin then adultery, stealing etc should all be judged as harsh too by society but it isn't. People fear what they don't understand and only with education can the country change. As it is the blind is leading the blind and no-one is thinking for themselves..
- I wanna know what would happen if the government just out of following the commandments, found all those men who beat that man and explain to them that 'you just took someone's life hence you will be punished!' what dem would do?
- I find it most interesting how people can quote the Bible (the most translated and interpreted book of all times) to justify, hatred, slavery, oppression of women etc. Then they pull on the Sodom & Gomorrah story to again, to justify their hatred of homosexuals, do you even know what that story is about? If you are one to live by the Bible, remember only God will judge humanity, gay or straight, not you.
- stupid people arguing about gay shit. yall will never agree some think them feh dead, some think they should be accepted. lets all just agree to disagree. who the hell knows why the kill this batty bwoy and who really gives a fuck other than the fact that it is sad that a person was killed. yall go find productive things
todo