NPR on Uganda

This morning Barbara Bradley Hagerty has a Morning Edition spot on Uganda reminding us that the Rolling Stone case may be decided this week.

In October, a tabloid called Rolling Stone — no relation to the American magazine — published an article headlined “100 Pictures of Uganda’s Top Homos Leak.” The article listed names, addresses and hangouts of gay men and lesbians.

Frank Mugisha saw his photo. Then he noticed the subhead: “Hang them.”

“I was shaken up. I was freaked out. I was scared,” says Mugisha, who heads up the group Sexual Minorities Uganda. “I’m like, hang them? What is the general Ugandan community going to do to us if the media is calling for us to be hanged?”

On Tuesday, a judge in Uganda is expected to decide whether Rolling Stone may continue to publish the names of gay men and lesbians. Gay activists say that outing them puts them in danger. For example, a couple of days after his name and photo were printed, Mugisha received a text message from a university student.

“It said, ‘We don’t like homosexuals in Uganda and you guys should be executed. We know where you live, we know who you hang out with, we know who your friends are and we shall come and deal with you as the youth of Uganda.'”

This text sounds very much like the promise of the Martin Ssempa colleague and Islamic cleric Multah Bukenya who promised youth squads to round up homosexuals.

The article also provides some of the interview Bahati gave to NPR when he was DC for the government management conference two weeks ago. As I noted on Friday, the Parliament is recessed until February. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill will likely be acted on at that time.

16 thoughts on “NPR on Uganda”

  1. Well, the Ugandan evangelical Christian (and friend of Martin Ssempa), Kato Mivule, called the Bahati Bill ‘totalitarian, evil and anti-christian’.

    As far as US evangelicals are concerned, Warren is leading the way, I think.

    Many Ugandans who oppose Bahati’s ‘Murder-the-gays’ Bill tend to keep quiet because they are afraid to speak up. I don’t blame them for that. We can speak on their behalf.

    I’ve got African ‘liberal (a.k.a. “inclusive”) evangelical’ friends here in London who are campaigning hard for the human rights of LGBT people.

    There’s a lot going on, one way or another. In a strange way, Bahati (and his crackpot US backers like Scott Lively) have done a good job in bringing this issue into sharp focus.

  2. More interesting, perhaps, are the deep divisions becoming apparent within Uganda. ‘Maazi NCO’ (not his real name, by the way) like to pretend that everyone think as he does. This is simply not true.

  3. You sound a little rattled, ‘Maazi’.

    (Christmas truce over … inverted are commas back!)

    Question for you:-

    IF gay orientation IS innate (and there are suggestions that it might be) to a person, how can you justify comparing your gay compatriots to fraudsters who, for example, deny that the Holocaust ever happened?

  4. Richard – thank you. Do you know if there is an outcry specifically by evangelicals?

  5. Muhame’s gone rather quiet these days. A friend of mine in Kampala tells me that he has ‘run out of money’ (his paper ‘flopped’ and his lawyer’s fees have mounted up).

    Obviously this is an ‘open-and-shut’ case: Muhame breached the UG Constitution (re. privacy), and made unsubstantiated allegations of ‘recruitment’. Representatives of foreign legations in UG are watching to see if the judge actually applies UG law in this case and thus rules against Muhame. They think he will, but we can take nothing for granted until it’s over.

  6. Well, the Ugandan evangelical Christian (and friend of Martin Ssempa), Kato Mivule, called the Bahati Bill ‘totalitarian, evil and anti-christian’.

    As far as US evangelicals are concerned, Warren is leading the way, I think.

    Many Ugandans who oppose Bahati’s ‘Murder-the-gays’ Bill tend to keep quiet because they are afraid to speak up. I don’t blame them for that. We can speak on their behalf.

    I’ve got African ‘liberal (a.k.a. “inclusive”) evangelical’ friends here in London who are campaigning hard for the human rights of LGBT people.

    There’s a lot going on, one way or another. In a strange way, Bahati (and his crackpot US backers like Scott Lively) have done a good job in bringing this issue into sharp focus.

  8. More interesting, perhaps, are the deep divisions becoming apparent within Uganda. ‘Maazi NCO’ (not his real name, by the way) like to pretend that everyone think as he does. This is simply not true.

  10. I just don’t understand why there isn’t a LOUD vocal outcry by Christians to speak up against these blatant human rights violations happening in Uganda against gays (and other parts of the world). What’s the problem with this picture? Or maybe there is an outcry — if so, could someone lead me to a source or URL?

  11. You sound a little rattled, ‘Maazi’.

    (Christmas truce over … inverted are commas back!)

    Question for you:-

    IF gay orientation IS innate (and there are suggestions that it might be) to a person, how can you justify comparing your gay compatriots to fraudsters who, for example, deny that the Holocaust ever happened?

  13. James Onen,

    I will start by saying that I seriously doubt that you know who I am. There are quite a number of electrical engineers in Uganda with masters degrees from abroad. No need to suspect someone who is definitely not Maazi NCO.

    I read your entire long drawn apologia on “gay rights”. It was entertaining despite being convoluted. As in the case of burglars and fraudsters, I do not recognize gay sex offenders as a distinct biological category of humans because gayism is neither genetic nor an immutable identity like race. No one has provided CREDIBLE and conclusive scientific evidence to the contrary. In almost 80 nations worldwide that criminalize gayism and even in the remaining 112 nations where gayism is legal, many people—religious or irreligious— do not accept such deviant behaviour as genetic and its practitioners are not regarded as a distinct identity akin to race or ethnicity. Your comment about the majority of Ugandans being irrational for rejecting such sexual behaviour as anti-social, inhuman and deviant is a matter of opinion not agreeable with most here. Please stop twisting and turning the Ugandan constitution upside down. The constitution does not protect sexual depravity as it is not in the public interest as presented in article (43) and spin-offs such as gay marriage is explicitly banned in article (31). Misinterpreting the Ugandan constitution will not get you and your gay sex practitioner friends anywhere. It is noteworthy that in Botswana which has a similar constitution, gay sex practitioners tried thrice—2003, 2004 and 2006—-to have the sodomy laws struck down and failed on each occasion. If you are confident that Uganda will be different then mobilize your gay sex buddies, collect money from liberal westerners and mount a court challenge against our Sex Offenders Act of 2000. Use the arguments you have made on this forum to try to convince our judges to strike out the anti-gay law rather than burn energy here twisting provisions of our constitution to support sexual perversion.

  14. I just don’t understand why there isn’t a LOUD vocal outcry by Christians to speak up against these blatant human rights violations happening in Uganda against gays (and other parts of the world). What’s the problem with this picture? Or maybe there is an outcry — if so, could someone lead me to a source or URL?

  15. James Onen,

    I will start by saying that I seriously doubt that you know who I am. There are quite a number of electrical engineers in Uganda with masters degrees from abroad. No need to suspect someone who is definitely not Maazi NCO.

    I read your entire long drawn apologia on “gay rights”. It was entertaining despite being convoluted. As in the case of burglars and fraudsters, I do not recognize gay sex offenders as a distinct biological category of humans because gayism is neither genetic nor an immutable identity like race. No one has provided CREDIBLE and conclusive scientific evidence to the contrary. In almost 80 nations worldwide that criminalize gayism and even in the remaining 112 nations where gayism is legal, many people—religious or irreligious— do not accept such deviant behaviour as genetic and its practitioners are not regarded as a distinct identity akin to race or ethnicity. Your comment about the majority of Ugandans being irrational for rejecting such sexual behaviour as anti-social, inhuman and deviant is a matter of opinion not agreeable with most here. Please stop twisting and turning the Ugandan constitution upside down. The constitution does not protect sexual depravity as it is not in the public interest as presented in article (43) and spin-offs such as gay marriage is explicitly banned in article (31). Misinterpreting the Ugandan constitution will not get you and your gay sex practitioner friends anywhere. It is noteworthy that in Botswana which has a similar constitution, gay sex practitioners tried thrice—2003, 2004 and 2006—-to have the sodomy laws struck down and failed on each occasion. If you are confident that Uganda will be different then mobilize your gay sex buddies, collect money from liberal westerners and mount a court challenge against our Sex Offenders Act of 2000. Use the arguments you have made on this forum to try to convince our judges to strike out the anti-gay law rather than burn energy here twisting provisions of our constitution to support sexual perversion.

  16. Muhame’s gone rather quiet these days. A friend of mine in Kampala tells me that he has ‘run out of money’ (his paper ‘flopped’ and his lawyer’s fees have mounted up).

    Obviously this is an ‘open-and-shut’ case: Muhame breached the UG Constitution (re. privacy), and made unsubstantiated allegations of ‘recruitment’. Representatives of foreign legations in UG are watching to see if the judge actually applies UG law in this case and thus rules against Muhame. They think he will, but we can take nothing for granted until it’s over.

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