Category: sexual orientation

Uganda’s Rolling Stone continues “Hang Them” campaign (Photos)

Update: According to the BBC, a Ugandan judge has ordered the Rolling Stone to stop outing gays.

Giles Muhame, editor of the two-month-old Rolling Stone paper, told the AFP news agency that he would defy the ban.

“We will publish more pictures but in a diplomatic way, so that we can dodge the law,” he said.

On his Facebook page, editor Giles Muhame said this about the court ruling:

I have heard on grapevine that Kampala high court today afternoon issued an injunction barring the mighty Rolling Stone from publishing information that could lead to the identification of homosexuals…..the newspaper has already achieved its objective….By the way this means we can write about homosexuality but not …identify them….ok, understood…we are law abiding citizens….

I have obtained some screen shots of the Rolling Stone which continues the “hang the gays” campaign in Uganda. I am going to publish them first and then add commentary through the morning. Some cannot be published without heavy editing since they include pictures and names.

Click the next image to read an interview done by Oral Roberts University Board of Reference member, Martin Ssempa, with a young girl he continues to promote as an ex-lesbian. Ssempa told his former benefactor Canyon Ridge Christian Church that he disapproved of the “hang the gays” campaign but now he appears in the Rolling Stone again. I asked Rolling Stone editor Giles Muhame about his pastor’s (Ssempa) stated diapproval of the first “hang the gays” issue, and he did declined to answer. He did however, say that Ssempa had given them an interview. Two credible sources in Uganda have told me that both Giles Muhame and Cliff Abenaitwe attend Ssempa’s Makerere Community Church.

The next image is a lead article which looks like it could come from the Family Research Institute. In fact, the article titled, “More Homos Faces Exposed” quotes Paul Cameron’s lifespan articles. It also cites a “reliable source” saying that the stalled Anti-Homosexuality Bill will be passed when Uganda becomes an oil producer.

 

 Human rights groups in Uganda are trying to limit or halt the paper’s activities. Today or tomorrow a Uganda court is expected to hear an application for the paper to cease publishing. Managing editor Cliff  Abenaitwe told me in an email that he expects to prevail, saying

As regards the pending court case, its an application by a human rights group requesting court to order this People’s favourite political news paper from publishing more pictures of homosexuals in Uganda but as i stated above it is an application but court is yet to decide. nevertheless, its a matter of time till court decides in our favour because there is nothing wrong with what we are writing.

Click the image above to read Managing Editor Giles Muhame’s defense for this outing campaign. I have blocked out most of the pictures and descriptions of the men outed here. The remainder of the images I have are similar to these.

Uganda’s Rolling Stone brings out second part of Hang Them campaign; court to hear objections

While I haven’t seen it, I have independent verification that the Rolling Stone has hit the street in Uganda. According to Giles Muhame (seen in this CNN interview), and the Rolling Stone Facebook page, the paper became available today. According to Muhame:

The Rolling Stone has again published 20 more pictures of homosexuals in Uganda. The early edition for monday is already on the street. Our kampala readers can pick copies from Petro (jinja road) and “sell-out” point -Bugolobi stage,” said Circulation chief Nicholas. There we roll….

Also, according to Muhame and other sources in Uganda, a complaint has been filed against the editors and will be heard early this week. I hope to have screen captures of the paper soon. Watch for updates…

Uganda’s Rolling Stone editor speaks to CNN (video)

Giles Muhame’s interview with CNN – where he says gays have no privacy and he hopes that the police investigates the gays and hangs them.

This is very similar to arguments offered by Martin Ssempa early on when the Anti-Homosexuality Bill was offered in late 2009. In his view, gays are doing illegal things in private so there is no private consensual behavior to protect.

According to the Rolling Stone editors, the paper will come out tomorrow (or Saturday according to one of them) with part two of the “hang them” campaign.

Bahati says Anti-Homosexuality Bill has not been shelved (VIDEO)

David Bahati finally speaks. He had been contacted by several media sources asking about the AHB.

Kampala, Uganda (CNN) — The member of the Ugandan Parliament behind a controversial “anti-gay” bill that would call for stiff penalties against homosexuality — including life imprisonment and the death penalty — says that the bill will become law “soon.”

“We are very confident,” David Bahati told CNN, “because this is a piece of legislation that is needed in this country to protect the traditional family here in Africa, and also protect the future of our children.”

Governments that have donated aid to Uganda and human rights groups applied massive pressure since the bill was proposed a year ago, and most believed that the bill had been since shelved.

Not so, says Bahati, adding, “Every single day of my life now I am still pushing that it passes.”

His statements come in the wake of a global outcry over a tabloid publication of Uganda’s “top 100 homosexuals” that included pictures and addresses of Ugandans perceived to be gay.

It is not hard to imagine a coordination of efforts between various players and the Rolling Stone. Time is short if the bill is to move before the holiday recess. Elections are not far away either, so this might be election talk. However, with the Rolling Stone preparing an issue with more outings on Friday, a government official pledging anew to make the “hang them” campaign law is an ominous development.

Video has been provided by CNN:

Ugandan Rolling Stone editor: Tabloid resumes publication on Friday (updated)

Giles Muhame, the managing editor of the Uganda tabloid, Rolling Stone, announced on his Facebook page that the paper would resume publication on Friday. Sounding defiant, Muhame said

An extraordinary meeting of The Rolling Stone management last nyt resolved we hit the streets this Friday irrespective of media council’s refusal to reconsider it’s decision of blocking our publication. We registered editor’s particulars on October15 but up to now they are “still consulting!!!” Our lawyers have given us a green light. Any attempts of confiscating the Stone will land someone in jail…YOU HAVE MY WORD..

Elsewhere, Muhame has promised that this issue will have more revelations. For instance, here in an exchange with Red Pepper publisher, Arinaitwe Rugyendo, Muhame promises that the outing campaign will continue:

Arinaitwe Rugyendo Eee Giles, the homos will shaft you one of these days…i saw Rolling stone rolling all over the world Sunday at 8:26am 

Muhame Giles General…they are panicking…we have shaken their dark world…wait for this week’s issue…unveiling all the dirty secrets and faces behind a new wave of homosexuality that is spreading like wild fire….
Sunday at 8:29am

For Uganda’s LGBT community, this is an ominous development. According to Frank Mugisha, people suspected of being gay were attacked after the first issue in the Hang Them campaign hit the street.

UPDATE 10/27/10: Cliff  Abenaitwe sent this message to members of the Rolling Stone Facebook group:

This Friday, uganda’s leading investigative news paper Rolling stone will hit the streets. look out for HOMOZ part 2, latest in politics, sports, investigations,entertainment, business and much more, only in the rolling stone- LEAVING NO STONE UNTURNED.