Mista Majah P shows that some Jamaicans stand up for their rights.

Thanks to his comment on my blog I can post the Mista Majah response to  Bruce Golding’s  homophobic remarks about LGBT people.

 

It’s illegal to be me.

South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) airs a Special Assignment documentary on the plight of LGBT refugees in that country.  A must watch!

Via  Care2

Latest from Uganda on Kill the Gays Bill

In what seems to be a victory for human rights and a slap in the face of the American religious nuts who were promoting it – African Activist is reporting that  the Uganda bill seems to be dead.

Read the bulletin from African Activist here.

BBC airs: The World’s Worst Place to be Gay

The BBC’s Scott Mills travels to Uganda to see what life is like there. The show cannot be seen using iPlayeroutside of the UK   (unless you use a proxy server) and the documentary wasn’t uploaded by the BBC – but someone else has  - so enjoy it while you can as it may well be taken down.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Pepe Julian Onziema, an LGBTI activist in Uganda speaks to the BBC.

Via African Activist.

Pepe Julian Onziema, an LGBTI activist in Uganda spoke  to the BBC’s Outlook program today  about living in fear following the murder of David Kato.

Listen on BBC iPlayer.

Rachel Maddow on David Kato

Via LGBTPOV.com and @QueerJohnPA

Thoughtful commentary and moving scenes from the always excellent Rachel Maddow. A call for donor countries to tie aid to respecting human rights.

RIP David Kato

As most will know by now, Ugandan LGBT activist David Kato was found murdered at his home on Wednesday. He campaigned tirelessly in a country which even now is considering imposing laws that will introduce stiff punishments – including death – to those Ugandans who are not considered acceptable by the moral mob. That their morality does not include tolerance or acceptance is something that defies logic.

Police there say they are treating his murder as a robbery gone bad. It seems that Uganda has a special part of their criminal code that classifies LGBT activists beaten to death with a hammer in their home when nothing was stolen as ‘robbery’.

Modern Ghana has an excellent piece on Kato and the environment he worked in. The environment, sadly, remains.

London-based Lesbian, gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) has joined the world to condemn the murder of a Ugandan Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) rights activist.

David Kasule Kato, 46, a gay rights campaigner was brutally murdered in his house in Mukono, approximately 14 miles from Ugandan capital Kampala on Wednesday, January 26, in unclear circumstances.

Kato’s murder has stirred up, condemnation to Ugandan government for its stance against gay community in the country. The US’s Secretary of State for Africa Affairs, Jonnie Carson, in a Twitter message described Kato’s murder as a “horrified and saddened “incident.

Peter Tachell, the famous European gay-rights campaigner said: “My sincere condolences to Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and to the Ugandan LGBTI community concerning the tragic, brutal murder of David Kato.”

Kato, last month, had received homophobic death threats and had been pictured and named by Uganda’s Rolling Stone Magazine in an article that called for gay people to be killed.

Read the rest of the Modern Ghana article here.

Good Riddance

LezgetReal is reporting that Bahati has been deported from the US and is now on a  plane over the Atlantic. Pity it wasn’t an under-fueled drone.

Bye- Bye Bahati.  Sources have informed LGR that David Bahati ,who was taped for yesterday and today’s Rachel Maddow Show, was told to get out of the USA by authorities Thursday.

Bahati had planned on staying in the USA; he could leave over the weekend, but he was asked to leave right away by Department of State  officials.  He had been banned and refused entry to the conference which was the  basis for his  his single event VISA to enter the USA.  When he showed up for the Conference he was asked by Organizers to leave and refused entry, despite the fact that other MP’s from Uganda had been allowed to participate.

The organizers cited the fact that they would not associate themselves with the Author of what became known as the Kill Gays Bill, officially The Anti-Homosexual Bill; which Bahati hopes will pass in Uganda in the Spring.

Read the rest here.

 

Dark Days Ahead?

I came across a Dallasvoice.com  article today by Hardy Haberman via Twitter ( can’t remember the source) about the implications of the recent disturbing vote at the UN to remove LGBT people from being protected against such things as extra-judicial killings. I think it bears reading.

The United Nations recently took a vote and with a simple majority of just nine countries, they removed LGBT people from the special protections category of “vulnerable populations.” That category specifically mentions special protection from extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution.

What does this mean? Well, according to the U.N., we are no longer considered worthy of protection against arbitrary execution. In other words, it’s open season on LGBT people in a whole lot of countries.

It is important to note who voted against us: The Russian Federation, China, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi plus a host of Middle Eastern countries joined the majority to remove us from that list.

In the case of the African nations, I cannot fail to mention that the radical right, especially the far-right ministers in this country, have been a big influence. If you will remember, the draconian anti-gay laws in Uganda were in part encouraged by religious groups from the U.S.

Read more here.

 

 

 

A Story of Ugliness and a Story of Bravery – Uganda

I knew what was happening in Uganda and yet it never really hit home until I saw ugly reality in video in this documentary. A plan to have the death penalty for same-sex acts, penalties for speaking out on LGBT rights – the list goes on. Yet, in the face of  crazed religious zealots with no room for logic there are brave souls who literally risk their lives to fight for the right to just be. Look at the influence of the American religious right. They may say one thing at home but they are promoting death abroad.

Watch this as if your life depended on it … it just might.

From Journeyman Pictures.

Prepare to get very angry. Hey! Pastor! Homosexuality is not ruining people’s lives – ignorant bigots like you are.