OUNDO WON’T STOP GAY RIGHTS STRUGGLE, ACTIVISTS VOW

 From BTM

Last Updated: March 25, 2009

 

By Nthateng Mhlambiso (BTM Managing Editor) and

Nomancotsho Pakade (The Link Programme Coordinator)

 

UGANDA – 25 March 2008: The gay community in Uganda says that a confession by George Oundo, that he recruited school children as part of a programme to promote the practice in Ugandan schools, is the first step of a strategy by anti-gay groups to destroy the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) movement in that country.

 

This community believes that Oundo has been “compromised” by Family Life Network (FLN), which organised an anti-gay conference in Uganda recently, to spread false rumours about the movement, as part of FLN and Uganda Joint Christian Council’s campaign to curb homosexuality in higher education institutions.

 

In an article by Paul Kiwuuwa of Uganda’s New Vision on 23 March, George Oundo told parents that funders gave him “much money” and offered him training abroad so that he could recruit school children into homosexuality.

 

He also claimed to have supplied pornographic materials in a form of books and compact discs, showing homosexuality, to young boys in many Ugandan schools.

 

“I met George in 2007 at the World Social Forum in Nairobi and he introduced himself to me as Georgina, the ‘the young girl’”, Victor Mukasa, whom, in his confession, Oundo said initiated him to homosexuality at the age of 12, revealed.

 

Mukasa, an LGBTI human rights defender who presently works for International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) added that Oundo played an activist role and seemed dedicated to advancing LGBTI rights in Uganda.

 

“I have never understood how one can be recruited into another sexual orientation and I was not aware that George was recruiting the youth into homosexuality. Perhaps it was his individual agenda but definitely not that of the gay rights movement in Uganda”, Mukasa said.

 

Meanwhile Frank Mugisha, Chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) said Oundo might be confusing seduction with recruitment in his confession statement.

 

“If he was seducing straight men into being his partners, he was pushing his individual agenda as Georgina, not as part of SMUG and he must not confuse seduction with recruitment”, Mugisha said.

 

He added that he met Oundo in 2006 and that, at the time, Oundo was already a gay man.

 

“At the time he was homeless and the LGBTI community helped him sort out his rent because we felt he was part of the community. We did not know that he was pretending.”

 

“Even after I heard that he was compromised by anti gay groups, I asked him and he told me that people were telling lies about him, that he was a woman, will always be woman and will never change.”

 

Mugisha also dismissed allegations by Family Life Network, broadcast on Uganda’s local television station WBS, that SMUG received 1.2 Billion Ugandan Shillings from IGLHRC and other organisations in the UK to promote homosexuality in schools, as blatant lies.

 

Mukasa vowed that even though Oundo “has become another anti-gay activist”, he will not stop the struggle for gay rights in Uganda.

 

Several efforts to contact Oundo were unsuccessful as he let his phone ring.