I do it for me.

I have been reading the Fenway Guide to LGBT Health. Hey, I am a well read dude. Not really a nerd. Life’s reality is too frighteningly rough to allow for all my nerdy characteristics to come out.

But, since I can read the English, I do seek to understand myself, and others.

I was reading about ‘coming out theories’. Gosh, the things that human beings decide to study! Anyway, someone studied these things. And, they then went ahead and put them down in a book to read.

Fenway Guides are medical texts actually. Don’t ask me how I got it. Just know that I did. And, once you get over the strange technical language that medical English is, it is not too hard to read. And, it is amazing.

Which brings me to the question. If medics do know this much about gay people, why the hell isn’t the medical profession in Uganda, the Uganda Medical Association, the Ministry of Health up in arms against the Anti-Homosexuality bill in Uganda? Here is its text.

But, I know the answer to that. The medics in Uganda are NOT knowledgeable about homosexuality. Many of them don’t know anything about it. They don’t know that it has been studied, scientifically. They know next to naught about human sexuality. And, they are firmly in the belief that it is ‘un-natural and un-African’. They are as firmly homophobic and prejudiced as the rest of society.

Ok, since I am throwing around some pretty serious allegations, it is time that I did substantiate them.

Once I was watching a programme on NTV. The discussant was I believe the Chairman of the Parliament Committee on health matters, and the topic was the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The man in question is a Medical Doctor.

He was asked about it. And, his response was steeped in the misery of ignorance, prejudice, and a sheer lack of research, despite him being a doctor. He said, unequivocally, that homosexuality is un-African, and un-Ugandan.

Pity. Really a pity. For a medic to be so ignorant.

Another case in point. 2007 I think it was that some of us went to Makerere Medical School to talk about homosexuality. What occurred was suprising, and unsurprising. The auditorium was full. Tempers were raised. Those of us who were there to enlighten the medics and students found that the tempers, the sheer hostility was overwhelming.

No. This seat of learning in Uganda, the famed Makerere didn’t rely on medical texts to bash gay Ugandans. No, there was not a mention of them being ethically bound to listen to gay Ugandans. They brought out Qurans. And the Bible.

Know what we did? We had to flee out of the place. The signs of imminent violence were too clear to ignore.

So, Uganda’s medics are not in the know. Oh, tell them that I know they are not in the know. There is one guy who is a medic and does read this blog… A medic and a Christian who doesn’t agree with the gay bashing. I bet I am suprising you with what I do know, yes? Ha ha ha! The needs that a gay Ugandan has to go to to educate oneself about being gay. To the point when I know more than those who should know more than me…!

Anyway, comes back to the question. Why do I do the things that I do? Why am I into knowing about myself, seeking for self knowledge, getting to know who I am, what I am, why I am different, but still human?

Self knowledge. Self acceptance. Self respect.

It is because of myself that I fight this war. It is because of what I add onto myself.

Not for money, not for anything else. It is because of me.

Hope your day is good. Just wanted to share with you some insight I have had reading a book that is way out there ‘promoting homosexuality’. There is a penalty in the Bahati bill for reading such a book in Uganda. Because it is material that will be ‘promoting homosexuality’. 3, or 7 years in prison?

I don’t know.

But, do you think I will stop reading this material to appease Bahati or Ssempa? You joke.

gug