Gay Rights, and the Father Musaala Saga

UPDATE: 1900hrs

This is interesting.

The government is homophobic. Very. Now, gay groups are coming out to fight for their rights, and here is the response of the government.

MPs want gay group's activities regulated

MPs want government to regulate the activities of homosexuals who have come out publicly to defend their rights.

Kawempe North MP Latif Sebaggala says Government should not allow homosexuals to hold press conferences to iron out their issues because the vice is illegal.

However, Government Chief Whip Daudi Migereko says there are No laws that prohibit homosexuals from holding press conferences.

Migereko says that the ministry of Internal affairs will track homosexuals and take action against them.

A little bit of interpretation. Gay Ugandans are so dangerous that it is important to have their activities monitored. Whatever that means, by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Ok, understood?
And the regulators? The very people who are talking of lynching, marooning, outing and wiping out homosexuality from Uganda. We do have a lot to thank our dear Christian brothers, don’t we?

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I found the latter part of this article interesting, so you will bear with me if I put it first.

For a full week lies have been getting out of hand. People have held press conferences, mass rallies, and have got multiple front pages in the government owned news paper. We try to write to the papers, we try to present our point of view. Not a whiff of truth dares come out.

So, we do what we fear most. Come out, expose ourselves, and read a small press release. The country is amazed, and infuriated. How dare we!

So, the government will soon show its teeth.

At Parliament, MPs criticised the Government for allowing self-confessed homosexuals to address a press conference and promote their activities. The conference took place at the Metropole Hotel in Kampala on Tuesday.

Latif Sebaggala (DP) said the Government was tolerant because donors had threatened to cut funding if homosexuals were stopped. “We are worried about our children. If the Government is silent, it means it is silent approval,” he said.

Henry Banyenzaki (NRM) blamed poor enforcement of laws which he said had escalated homosexuality, rape, defilement and child sacrifice. In reply, Daudi Migereko, the Government chief whip, argued that anybody was free to hold a press conference without permission from the Government.

However, he said, by doing so, the gays had exposed themselves and the Government would go after them.“Homosexuality is illegal. The Minister of Ethics, Dr. Nsaba Buturo, has been clear on the matter. Those involved will face the long arm of the law,” he said.

Henry Kajura, the second deputy Prime Minister, said the Government would not compromise on moral and cultural values because of donor pressure.

“The Government will soon show its teeth,” he warned. “Our society abhors homosexuality.”

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On the Musaala saga some people below would like me to confirm that Musaala is gay. They will not accept me denying or saying I don’t know. They want me to confirm. Funny world this is…!

Musaala has gone ahead and issued lots of information. Do they believe him? Well, you do have all rights to believe, or not believe, don’t you think so?

But of his defence I do take some exception. To the patronizing, church attitude. the church was clear about aberrant sexual practices and how to guide offenders get out of “the abnormal behaviour”.

Musaala argued that as a church minister, he had given spiritual guidance to homosexuals, lesbians and prostitutes since 1999, but he was not gay himself. “But ethically, I cannot name them,” he said.

Explaining why people take to homosexuality, the dancing priest, as he is sometimes called, blamed the desire for money and “inherent feelings that drive them”.

His involvement, he said, was limited to helping the gay abandon the practice some of whom “want to commit suicide”.

“I want to show them the true path to salvation,” he said. “This is a journey that requires someone to walk with as a guide.”

“These people are stigmatised and I am totally against this because they need our help,” said Musaala.

Quoting the Catholic Church rules, Musaala described homosexuality as a “disorder” and “a trial” for those involved. “They must be accepted with respect, compassion and responsibility,” he quoted the rules. “Every sign of their discrimination should be avoided.”

He said he was simply implementing the text “but the problem is that in doing so, the public understands me differently”.

I feel like some bit of shit that has been allowed to share the family dog’s plate. Truly. Or is it just me being super sensitive in my role as a proud gay man? But, he is speaking to the Ugandan audience. So, putting the gay Ugandan down has to be part of the deal, maybe.

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Buturo’s point

The ethics and integrity minister is indeed up to his job. Dr Nsaba Buturo has kept the fight against the evil of homosexuality by speaking out against it at whatever opportunity he gets at any forum. Speaking at a democratisation workshop on Tuesday, Buturo grabbed the opportunity to lash out at the advocates of the vice. “Homosexuality is totally unacceptable, how can a man marry a man and a woman marry a woman? Even he-goats can distinguish between he-goats and she-goats, who are we human beings, not to observe the rules of nature?” he asked.

Yes, gay bashing, is now realy, realy popular

gug

Gay Rights at the UN

In a First, Gay Rights Are Pressed at the U.N.

By NEIL MACFARQUHAR
Published: December 18, 2008
UNITED NATIONS — An unprecedented declaration seeking to decriminalize homosexuality won the support of 66 countries in the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, but opponents criticized it as an attempt to legitimize pedophilia and other “deplorable acts.”

The United States refused to support the nonbinding measure, as did Russia, China, the Roman Catholic Church and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The Holy See’s observer mission issued a statement saying that the declaration “challenges existing human rights norms.”

The declaration, sponsored by France with broad support in Europe and Latin America, condemned human rights violations based on homophobia, saying such measures run counter to the universal declaration of human rights.

“How can we tolerate the fact that people are stoned, hanged, decapitated and tortured only because of their sexual orientation?” said Rama Yade, the French state secretary for human rights, noting that homosexuality is banned in nearly 80 countries and subject to the death penalty in at least six.

France decided to use the format of a declaration because it did not have the support for an official resolution. Read out by Ambassador Jorge Argüello of Argentina, the declaration was the first on gay rights read in the 192-member General Assembly itself.

Although laws against homosexuality are concentrated in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, more than one speaker addressing a separate conference on the declaration noted that the laws stemmed as much from the British colonial past as from religion or tradition.

Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, speaking by video telephone, said that just like apartheid laws that criminalized sexual relations between different races, laws against homosexuality “are increasingly becoming recognized as anachronistic and as inconsistent both with international law and with traditional values of dignity, inclusion and respect for all.”

The opposing statement read in the General Assembly, supported by nearly 60 nations, rejected the idea that sexual orientation was a matter of genetic coding. The statement, led by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said the effort threatened to undermine the international framework of human rights by trying to normalize pedophilia, among other acts.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference also failed in a last-minute attempt to alter a formal resolution that Sweden sponsored condemning summary executions. It sought to have the words “sexual orientation” deleted as one of the central reasons for such killings.

Ms. Yade and the Dutch foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, said at a news conference that they were “disappointed” that the United States failed to support the declaration. Human rights activists went further. “The Bush administration is trying to come up with Christmas presents for the religious right so it will be remembered,” said Scott Long, a director at Human Rights Watch.

The official American position was based on highly technical legal grounds. The text, by using terminology like “without distinction of any kind,” was too broad because it might be interpreted as an attempt by the federal government to override states’ rights on issues like gay marriage, American diplomats and legal experts said.

“We are opposed to any discrimination, legally or politically, but the nature of our federal system prevents us from undertaking commitments and engagements where federal authorities don’t have jurisdiction,” said Alejandro D. Wolff, the deputy permanent representative.

Gay-rights advocates brought to the conference from around the world by France said just having the taboo broken on discussing the topic at the United Nations would aid their battles at home. “People in Africa can have hope that someone is speaking for them,” said the Rev. Jide Macaulay of Nigeria.

Rick Warren Update 2

I have been following the Rick Warren Debate. Maybe one of the things this does is to highlight some of the outrageous statements that some of these preachers make.

Here are some choice statements from Rick Warren. Oh yeah, I do know he is Ssempa’s friend, so maybe I would also like to shine some light on , err, my ‘friend’ there!

Some quotes from here…

““Warren vocally opposes gay marriage, does not believe in evolution, has compared abortion to the Holocaust and backed the assassination of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,””

“one of architects and promoters of an anti-gay agenda”

““He has recently compared marriage by loving and committed same-sex couples to incest and pedophilia,” she begins. “He has repeated the Religious Right’s big lie that supporters of equality for gay Americans are out to silence pastors. He has called Christians who advance a social gospel Marxists. He is adamantly opposed to women having a legal right to choose an abortion.””

Interesting thoughts the guy gives me!

Hey Bolton, guess I would love to hear your take on this. Here is Obama furiously trying to be as inclusive as he can. I laud his efforts (personally), but I see he is caught in the vice of the conflict of his ideals. Politics is a tough thing!

GayUganda

Perfect Christianity.

Begs the question, perfection according to who? But I love the wording of this article title, from which I picked (tongue in cheek) the blog title.

The article itself.. “Africa may be the future of 'seamless garment' Catholicism.” That article reminisces on how the virtues of ‘real’ Christianity (Catholicism) are taking hold in Africa. As opposed to the lawless Americas and decadent Europe. The paraphrasing is mine…

Christian fundamentalist ideals.

‘Real’ as opposed to ‘fake’ whether it is ‘real America’ or ‘real Christianity’…

But I note that in Burundi, a small Central African country, homosexuality was not criminal. That is, until now. Apparently, a bill has passed the lower house, and will soon pass the upper house and be signed by the president, criminalizing homosexual activity.

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“On the other hand, the new penal code also criminalizes homosexuality for the first time, making same-sex acts punishable by anywhere from three months to two years in prison and a substantial fine. The law comes atop already-existing legislation in Burundi banning gay marriage, even though analysts say no serious advocacy for such arrangements exists in the country.
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“While the new penal code still has to be adopted by the senate and signed into law by the president, local analysts say the 90-0 parliamentary vote suggests that it’s likely to be adopted in its present form.”

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Sweeping aside my prejudices, I wonder whether it is not just a fact that the homophobia agenda is just too strong in our countries. As the article notes, us gay Africans are too low ranked for us to even fight effectively for our right to have sex. For goodness’ sake we are so closeted many of our people don’t believe we are real. But our countries are banning same sex marriages, and going ahead to make sure that, if caught, we are punished. Why?

If there is no gay lobby in Burundi, why have there been efforts to come down strongly against gay Burundians? From forbidding them marriage to criminalizing the behavior.
Something is going on beneath the surface.


GayUganda

Gay hunting: Uganda loses the plot

By L. MUTHONI WANYEKI

Posted Saturday, September 20 2008 at 16:15

The weekend before last, two members of Uganda’s gay community were picked up from their own homes — “helpfully” identified by a neighbour.

They remained in detention in Kampala far over the time that is legally proscribed for detention without trial.

They were denied access to their advocate. They were, however, allowed access to a priest, who pressurised them to give up names of other members of the gay community.

It became clear that the Criminal Investigations Department had a list of 11 Ugandans known to be involved in organising against the discrimination and violence faced by the gay community.

The CID even went to the astonishing extent of visiting several banks in Kampala, in an apparent attempt to freeze the accounts of those on the list.

The two gay men were threatened during their detention with charges of “recruitment.” This, of course, is not currently a criminal offence articulated in Uganda’s penal code.

If it were, it would be (yet) another indication of how little understood issues of gender identity and sexual orientation are — nobody “chooses” their gender identity or sexual orientation and therefore nobody could be “recruited” into one other than the one innately theirs.

Even if there were a choice, what person, in the face of the extreme homophobia that obtain here, would consciously make such a difficult choice?

In fact, the very reverse is true — the homophobia actually forces many with different gender identities and sexual orientations to hide that fact for as long as they possibly can.

The news went out. Those in the human-rights and women’s movements in Uganda courageous enough to stand up in defence of the two gay men, together with Uganda’s fledging lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex movement, did so.

But the point being made by the state was clear — and its warning was heard. The citizenship and equality rights due to Uganda’s LGBTI community will not only not be upheld—they will be deliberately trampled upon by the state. With the almost full support of the moral majority.

Two Ugandan lesbians on the CID list fled the country. The rest of the LGBTI community is now living in fear — simply because of who they are.

The writing has been on the wall for a long time. Take the Ministry of Ethics and Integrity, for example.

Originally established to deal, appropriately, with ethics in governance and having failed to do so, it is now venturing into areas where the state has absolutely no business. The minister’s latest proposal was to ban miniskirts on the spurious grounds that they cause road accidents by distracting drivers. Honestly!

Meanwhile, a debate has been raging in parliament and the executive around the legalisation of sex work. As usual, the focus is not on demand — the men who buy sex — but on supply — the women who, in response to that demand, sell sex.

And the focus on women has no regard for their safety and security — in terms of health as well as in terms of violence — but on their supposed lack of morality. Again. Honestly.

The obsession of any state with morality — conservatively and patriarchally defined — is the sign of a state in crisis.

It is the sign of a state ready to do anything to mobilise the moral majority at the expense of those who most need its protection. It is the sign of a state desperate to distract attention from the much more pressing and real needs of its population.

Paedophilia and violence against women are legitimate reasons for state intervention in the personal, on the basis that citizen’s safety and security are at stake. But consenting adults? Again, honestly.

Museveni must call off his storm troopers.

L. Muthoni Wanyeki is executive director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission

Aint I human?

Sojourner Truth.

I cannot imagine a human being who was born with the world stacked against her like she was. Yet there was that stirring of the spirit that asserted her basic right to respect as a human being. She challenged life itself, with the cry, ain't I a human being?

She was born a slave, a woman, a negro, in America in 1797.

Each fact is like a nail into a coffin, trying to tie her down to a life of despair and servitude.

She had 13 children, most sold into slavery. She was poor as dirt.

She was freed, and took to asserting the rights of freed men, and women at that time. I am a gay man. African. Born in the 20^th century. The world is rosy for me in relation to Sojourner Truth. I have to assert my basic right to humanity, just like Sojourner Truth did against a society which degraded her as a slave, black, a woman, and poor.

Check out her biography on Wikipedia. And the speech that I am speaking about, a stirring, emotional, bald and forceful assertion of humanity and equality against overwhelming odds. And they were overwhelming odds. Read it in poetry form.

Nothing is more stirring to me, nothing more inspiring, than the story of this woman born to slavery.

I was born a free man. I was born with innumerable advantages compared to her. Yet I do have to assert my humanity in the face flak because I am homosexual.

I am a gay human being.

I have to note, and assert, and cry, ‘Ain’t I human?’ ‘Ain’t I a gay human?’ ‘Ain’t I a human being?’

We should adopt and adapt

‘Aint I a woman?’ to

‘Aint I human?’

Same thought, same fire;

‘Aint I a gay human?’

©GayUganda

PS. Cindy, that poem is a must read for you. And for every woman in Africa.

A must read for every human being that is thought to be less than so all over the world. "Aren't I human?"

Check out the poem here.

gug

A Stonewall Moment?

I have already commented on the spirit of defiance in the Kuchu community at the moment. I saw more evidence of it yesterday.

I was at one of ‘our’ bars. Fact is, I had not been there in some time. Too much pressure and tension, as a matter of fact. Last week, guys were outed. This week, girls were outed by the Red rug.

Yet the atmosphere was celebratory to say the least. We were there. Gay men. New and old. Kuchus. We were together, and we gathered, and danced, and talked and laughed. We joked about being in the ‘Top 50’ and shared each others moment of pain. A sense of community had been created. We shed off the fear and the pain of the week, the anxiety about jobs and work and relatives and homes. We were out as kuchus with other kuchus. And we enjoyed our company.

We were so focused on making merry that someone commented that we were paying no attention to the show on the stage. We were not. We were celebrating being alive. Facing one of the things that all kuchus dread, and surviving. Yes, not all of us are out of the woods. There are others who could not come. Some are still in hiding.

And there were some ugly moments.

Witch hunting. We are all kuchus, so who spilled the beans to the Red rug? Commendably, little was revealed about the girls. But the guys! We can suspect of course, but with no proof, witch hunting hurts all of us. We are kuchus under siege. We all are kuchus under siege.

As we were leaving, a thought struck me. Was the press conference and aftermath a ‘Stonewall’ moment for Ugandan kuchus? Stonewall was the turning point for the gay rights movement. All over the world, kuchus were oppressed customarily. It was when the police raided the gay hangout Stonewall and they rioted, that is when the gay movement was born. Check out the film ‘Stonewall’.

Unbelievable as it is, oppression occurs with the passive consent of the oppressed. Yet many a time, a point is reached when defiance is sparked. And like a brush fire it is fanned by the anger and emotions of years of oppression. Kuchus in Uganda may have gotten to their Stonewall moment.

We just have to watch and see.

GayUganda

I owe you an answer to your Questions. Because you are part of the 95%

I have to answer these questions. They were seriously asked. And as a member of the homosexual minority in Uganda (3%) vs the 95% who disapprove of us, I have to educate the others. We shall never be a majority. We depend on the majority to be educated, and to be conversant of the fact that they are persecuting us when they do certain things.

Blogger: A man from nowhere.

GayUganda, Now that the court has agreed to hear some of your cases like those two lesbian ladies who dragged the Attorney General to court alleging that their rights had been violated, is this a sucess to your side.

do you see this as a new twist in demand for your rights?


It is a definate success. Two human beings' privacy was invaded. Because they were gay. Just because of that, the house was broken into, searched, the guest arrested and then humiliated at the police station. When we say we are persecuted because we are gay people ask for proof. So, this is a case where someone got the guts to go to court over the issue. She had broken no law. It was just that she was gay.

I respect who you are.but i doubt wether you were born like that.

Thanks for respecting who I am. I was born this way. I know it. But also science agrees with me. Please read the Wikipedia article on Homosexuality. You dont have any reason to believe me. Except that I am. Your belief or unbelief does not take away my sexuality. I am, and was born gay.

I also don't support police and the public harassing you.
I can assure you that it will take you to climb mt Rwenzori to get your rights.


Thanks for not supporting the harrasment. There you agree that I am a human being. Now, Ssempa was at the court. Why was he there? I leave it to your imagination. I think he believes that the premise that a homosexual's privacy is invaded is something to demonstrate about. That the homosexual does not have the right to privacy.
I am willing to try to climb the Rwenzori. Accepting myself as a human being means standing up to anyone who thinks I have to be persecuted. Even when I am in a minority of 3%


Any way let me ask you.
Do you have kids?


No, I dont have kids. For all these answers I am going to link back to a post that further explains the answer to the question.

do you play sex for fun or with a purpase?


Well, I talk so much about having sex that I will link back to one or two posts. Enjoy! Yes, before you ask, I do love him.

what really makes you have feeling for your fellow men yet there are women there.

You know, that is something that I have always asked myself. When I look at a woman, I do not feel stirred. When I look at a good looking man, I am. It is not that I cannot get women. It is that they do not do that for me. I am sexually attracted to men, not women. And I am a man. Look at this post
And also at this one. My gay identity.

when did you realise that you were a gay?
what did you do when you learnt that you were a gay?

Gosh, somethings are tough to talk about. But look at this post, it is the same as the one above.

is your family aware that you are a gay?


Yes, thanks be to a god I do not know that they know. I could not tell them. But I lived in such a way that they could pick it up. And they did.


Is there any thing we can do to help you ?
I can get for you at caunsellor to help you.


Yes, you can do something for me. Please, dont ask a gay person to get a cousellor for his or her gayness. They are not sick. And you are going to make them hurt. Please.
Yes, you are a member of the 95%. Know that we are. Know that we are human beings. Know that we are normal. Oh yes, we are. We do have some special problems. We can tackle them ourselves, but not if you are so keen on throwing us in prison. STOP PERSECUTING US.
That is all we ask. You may not like us, please do not actively persecute us.

How many boyfriends do you have?



Only one boyfriend. I no longer call him boyfriend. We are way past that stage. Check out this post.


is being a gay likely to increase AIDS infection rate in Uganda.



No, definately not.
Gay people have always been here, in Uganda. They are more susceptible to HIV than heterosexuals. They have also been more infected. But that is because there is no programme for HIV prevention in the gay communities in Uganda. Paradoxically, to lower the HIV prevalence in the whole of Uganda now, we have to target this vulnerable group. Which we have not been targeting. And we have to reasses our priorities.

is it possible for you gays to use condoms?

Definately! We have the same organs. But there are some things which change. I will not go into those.

Where are you guys getting money to organise those activities?



Gosh, has Ssempa convinced you that it is the money coming from out that is making us gay? No or yes?
I must say that for me to blog here I am using my own money. For the connection and other things. And something else, the lack of an HIV programme is such a glaring hole that I can get money that way. The same way that Ssempa gets money for his Abstinence campaigns. Does that answer your question?

Can any any one become a gay at an adult age?


One is born gay. You may not realise it at first, but when you do, then you know. Sexual orientation is a very interesting subject. Read up this post. Many gay people get married thinking that it is a phase that will pass. And then later they find that they are just not confortable. And when one is gay, you are gay for life. Dont mess yourself up by trying to change.

.let the debate continue...

True, let the debate continue.....

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I Resist!

Its interesting. At the beginning, when one looks at the things that stand between us and a realisation of gay rights in Uganda, it seems that the problem is insurmountable. When I first entered the gay community in Uganda, Kuchus one and all seemed to think that they are a cursed lot that will remain cursed.

Yet in a few years, a change has occurred. Most of the reaction to the Red Pepper outing was at first a despair. Despair and a cringing fear of what is going to happen, what our hostile world is going to dish out to us because now they know we are gay. That was Sunday, and Monday. People had switched off their phones. Others were planning to go into hiding.

Wednesday, and it seems the consensus has changed again. Come up swinging. Fight back. Resist. Anger has come up at last, a definite pride at being Kuchu and also being human and why should we be 'named and shamed'?. Explore the legal issues. And how else can we fight back?

An email campaign. Letters to the Red Pepper, challenging the outing of presumed gay people. It worked before. It can work again. The Red Pepper is not immune to this kind of thing also. Oh, and don't buy it. Just do not buy that rug!

Yet it is invigorating. The desire to stand up and be counted, to get out of the rut of always presenting your pass with a bowed head, being down trodden. The point when I raise my head and start fighting back. That is a turning point that is remarkable. A David and Goliath moment. When the 3% steps out before the incredulous gaze of the 97% and demand to be recognised. That we are also human.

One of my sisters dared to imply that it was shameful that I was being open about my sexuality. That I should go somewhere and hide. I told her no way. I am as good a human being as her.

That felt good. No longer acting the victim. Standing up and being counted.

The literal translation of Nsaba Buturo’s name is ‘I am requesting for refuge’. I don’t know why his parents so named him. But he feels that I should leave my country because I am gay. Me whose genealogy stretches back more than ten generations in this country, according to what my father tried strenuously to drum into my poor head. I don't remember my ancestors to the nth degree. I know my dad does, he still sings that song. But I remembered that when I heard Nsaba Buturo assert we should leave the country. Because we are homosexual. Being gay makes us less than human, undesirables that should leave pure, clean Uganda.

It feels good standing up to be myself. That is what they mean by Gay Pride I guess. It really feels good!

Kuchus, all. We shall overcome, someday. We shall because reason is on our side.

GayUganda