Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Law Overturned

Score one for Team Human Rights!  On Friday the Ugandan Constitutional Court overturned the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Law on the basis that it was wrongly passed by parliament. 

The law is "null and void", presiding judge Steven Kavuma told the court on Friday, saying the process had contravened the Ugandan constitution, as it has been passed in parliament in December without the necessary legislative quorum 

"Justice prevailed, we won," said lawyer Nicholas Opiyo, who led the challenge in the constitutional court.  The challenge to the law was fueled by a coalition of groups that included academics, journalists, both ruling and opposition MPs, human rights activists and rights groups.

"The retrogressive anti-homosexuality act of Uganda has been struck down by the constitutional court - it's now dead as a door nail," said Andrew Mwenda, one of 10 petitioners challenging the law.

Of course the haters are going to file an appeal of this decision striking down the law in the Ugandan Supreme Court.  They are also considering reintroducing it in parliament 

The unjust draconian law passed by the Ugandan parliament in December and signed by President Yoweri Museveni in February resulted in aid cuts by several European nations and sanctions being slapped on Uganda by the US government.

President Obama was one of many world leaders decrying the unjust law's signing by Museveni.

No word yet from Scott Lively or MP David Bahati about what they think about it being struck down.  The faith based oppressor Lively has bragged he's responsible for getting it passed in the first place. 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon also hailed the ruling by the Constitutional Court, calling it a 'step forward and a 'victory for the rule of law.'

Uganda Goes There-Passes Anti Homosexuality Bill

The Ugandan Parliament just dropped a lump of coal in the Ugandan LGBT community's Christmas stockings.

They dusted off the shelved Anti-Homosexuality Bill and passed the unjust law over the objections of Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, who asserted there weren't enough MP's present for a quorum.

Of course MP Homohater David Bahati, who sponsored the legislation at the behest of his American fundie handlers, was happy about the outcome of the vote.

Bahati told the AFP news agency: "This is victory for Uganda. I am glad the parliament has voted against evil."

"Because we are a God-fearing nation, we value life in a holistic way. It is because of those values that members of parliament passed this bill regardless of what the outside world thinks," Bahati said.

Yeah right.  God-fearing nation my azz.  You and your misguided and wrong peeps in the Ugandan parliament just opened the doors to a witchhunt on LGBT people and let a bunch of white American fundamentalists like Scott Lively play you into enacting into law this steaming pile of hatred they would like to replicate in the US.

The bill also applies to people visiting Uganda and also attacks the 'promotion of homosexuality', whatever in the hell that means. 

So people, the Agents of Intolerance just won another round.   Bah humbug.

What are we going to do about it? 

Archbishop Tutu Reminds Ugandan MP's God Does Not Discriminate

TransGriot Note: Nobel laureate and Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu wrote this op-ed that was originally published at the Ugandan-based  Daily Monitor    Hope they heed his words and ponder them while they are on holiday break

Uganda’s Parliament is – unbelievably – on the verge of considering a new piece of legislation that would have the effect of legalising persecution, discrimination, hatred and prejudice in that country.
Should the Anti-Homosexuality Bill be voted into law, it will criminalise acts of love between certain categories of people, just as the apartheid government made intimate relations between black and white South Africans a punishable offence.

Members of the apartheid police force charged with the upkeep of “morality” would rush into the bedrooms of suspected offenders to gather evidence, such as warm bed sheets. Those found guilty were arrested, put on trial and punished. What awaits the people of Uganda?

One thing that Ugandan legislators should know is that God does not discriminate among members of our family. God does not say black is better than white, or tall is better than short, or football players are better than basketball players, or Christians are better than Muslims … or gay is better than straight. No. God says love one another; love your neighbour. God is for freedom, equality and love.

People have over many centuries devised all kinds of terrible instruments to oppress other people. Usually, they have rationalised their awful actions on the basis of their belief in their own superiority, in their culture, in their spiritual beliefs, in their skin colour. Thus, they argue, they are justified to hate and bomb and maim the “other”.

The anti-homosexuality legislation now under consideration in Uganda is just such an instrument. Nelson Mandela said: “No one is born hating another person.” If people are taught and can learn to hate, they can learn to love.

Many times in my life, I have been blessed to witness the innate capacity of our human family to reconcile differences. The common denominator in all these transactions is recognition that the notion of equal rights in any family, in any society, is non-negotiable. No sane person or group of people can sustainably argue that their rights should be more equal than others.

If what I am told is true, that the anti-homosexuality legislation in Uganda has widespread popular support, it should surely be the moral duty of the custodians of that country to educate its citizens about discrimination and equal rights. Surely, it should be their duty to clarify the fundamental misunderstandings in communities about what it means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBTI).

The depiction of members of the LGBTI community as crazed and depraved monsters threatening the welfare of children and families is simply untrue, and is reminiscent of what we experienced under apartheid and what the Jews experienced at the hands of the Nazis.

To those who claim that homosexuality is not part of our African culture, you are conveniently ignoring the fact that LGBTI Africans have lived peacefully and productively beside us throughout history.
I am proud that in South Africa, when we succeeded in overthrowing apartheid, we put in place a Constitution that prohibited all forms of discrimination, including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

We did this because we understood that the freedom of one depends upon the freedom of all. We call it the spirit of ubuntu: the idea that I cannot be free if you are not also free.

A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, and does not feel threatened by others’ differences, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.

The ideology of racial superiority that was once used to justify the colonisation of our lands is part of our recent history. Today, we face a new challenge. We must overcome the notion that sexual orientation defines one’s identity or determines one’s station in life – or unjustly elevates one class of people over another.
It is with supreme sorrow that I witness, to this day, the subjugation and repression of African brothers and sisters whose only crime is the practice of love. Hate, in any form or shape, has no place in the house of God.

I urge the people of Uganda to reject hatred and prejudice.

Love comes more naturally to the human heart than hate.

David Bahati-The Man Who Introduced The 'Kill The Gays' Bill

The Ugandan 'Kill The Gays' bill has been getting renewed attention since the speaker of the Ugandan Parliament Rebecca Kadaga announced their intent to pass it before Christmas to the world's horror and the racist American fundies like Scott Lively's glee.

Since one of our Ugandan trans sisters wrote an open letter to her parliament urging the bill be defeated, thought I needed to shed some light on how this odious bill came to exist.

It came into existence due to the negative influence of American christobigots like Lively, they in 2009 injected virulent homophobia into Ugandan politics with two of its conduits being Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and MP David Bahati,  who introduced the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill with its death penalty provision in 2009.

Rachel Maddow got the chance to interview Bahati back in 2010, when the initial international condemnation about the 'Kill the Gays' bill later forced its withdrawal. 



Bahati happens to be one of the key international members of Scott Lively's shadowy group The Family. 

Activists from Sexual Minorities for Uganda struck back by suing Lively in a Massachusetts federal court.

The suit accuses Lively of violating international law by inciting the persecution of gay men and lesbians in Uganda and names four Ugandan co-conspirators: Stephen Langa and Martin Ssempa, evangelists active in the anti-gay movement; Bahati, and James Buturo, the former minister of ethics and a proponent of the legislation.

While that suit is winding its way through our federal court system, unfortunately the Ugandan.LGBT community still have to deal with the crap Lively and David Bahati set in motion in Kampala. 

We must do everything we can along with the international community to help our Ugandan TBLG brothers and sisters kill this unjust bill.

Ugandan Trans Woman's Open Letter To Parliament

TransGriot Note: As a transgender child of the African Diaspora, this 'Kill the Gays' bill is my business as well.  I'm sad and disgusted to say it was pushed by white American christobigots and does affect trans people who live in Uganda.  A Ugandan trans woman wrote this letter asking her members of Parliament to reject the so-called "kill the gays" bill.


Dear Honorables,

I greet you all in your distinguished capacities. I have never even for a second thought that I would ever have to write a letter to parliament, that my words would even have to be read by a people as you. I find myself, though, at a point in my life, where fate — if you believe in it — has bestowed upon me this duty to speak for the many voiceless out there, who like myself, find themselves at a point where your decision will determine if they will get to take another breath in this country, as free citizens or not. I pray then, that my words may not be in vain, but that they may appeal to that humanity that I know lies at the core of each of you.

I go by the alias of Cleo. I am a 26-year-old transgendered person. With my ambitious persona and insatiable thirst for knowledge, I’ve managed to see myself through school to the post-graduate level. I am a public worker, a scientist and a researcher to be specific, and earn an honest living from that. I am a Pentecostal Christian, loving God, though with my liberalist and realist values, I respect other people’s sentiments, however divergent they are from my own.

I was born a biologically male child to two very loving parents, Batooro by decent. Despite the love and care that they bestowed upon me, my childhood was tainted with a lot of misery. Being a transgender person, with my atypical behavior, and dress code that seemed to clash terribly with the stereotypical gender requirements of my society, I was faced with a lot of rejection from friends and family alike.

My family and friends have — with time and a lot of patience and struggle — come to understand my situation and not to judge me. A few months ago, when I made a monumental decision to fully transition into a girl, they have shown me so much affection and support, especially psychologically. For me, I consider this [one of] the biggest successes in my life; That my family and friends, despite our divergent values and their earlier negative sentiments, have finally managed, through a very strenuous process — that I should say, was not without wounds and tears — to understand and accept me, as a person, as their child, as their friend, as their sibling. Because that is the basic essence of what brings us together.

Being a transgendered person is not about who I am attracted to sexually. It's about what gender I identify with. Being a trans girl means that I was born biologically male, but with the physiology and psychology of a girl. At puberty I experienced a male, but largely female, pubertal development that left me very confused and rejected in all my social circles, for I was the black sheep. My parents did not know whether to protect me from boys or girls, but finally it so happened that I was brought up in a girls’ hostel up to the age of 15.

Growing up a transgender person meant that I had to deal with my teenage burdens alone with not a soul to tell — not my parents or peers or siblings — to disclose my darkest secrets. To cry myself to sleep every night, wishing I was dead, to battle with depression and suicidal tendencies — that’s all I remember in my teenage life.

I wonder then, why people say it was my choice to be this way. Why would anyone choose a life as lonely as this, a life of misery, pain, rejection, abuse and depression? And though I made it, many haven’t, because their self-esteem, their confidence, and their vitality, fails them in light of all the negativities that surround them. It’s hardly the disgustingly abusive world that the media paints of us, for if there is any abuse sustained even then by any party, it’s by us.

I ask myself, how one can judge me, before one even knows me. I understand this though, because for so long I was hated by people before they even knew me.

Being transgender, like being gay or a lesbian, is not a choice. What is rather a choice is accepting it for a fact. What is a choice is if you — at some point in life —decide to not live a masked life, under the guise of a straight, or asexual person like I did, and restrain yourself, from everything that you know you are from the core of your being.

It is very hard living your life through other people’s eyes; trying hard to make them happy while you restrain yourself of who you are, or even demonize your actual being because of their negativities. It's a strange reality that I can loosely liken to solitude in a crowd, for even though there were so many people around me, none of them knew me for who I was — for I deliberately concealed a part of me that I considered a flaw to my being.

At some point though, I realized, just like everyone does in life, that I could not live entirely on other people’s perceptions of who I was, battling to make other people happy at my own life’s expense. For we all have but one life to live. I came to the realization that I alone knew better who I was, and that I had a rare opportunity to let people know who I was, and not let them tell me who I was. It had been a sad existence of existing, but not quite living, of living a lie, trying to convince myself —and ultimately others — what I was, what I wasn’t, and I was determined to end that cycle.

As a transgender person, I envision a utopia of gender neutrality, where all the genders in all their entireties are able to coexist together, and live in utter harmony and mutual respect of one another. So that, if not to accept, they might tolerate each other, just like we have tried to do as people of different tribes, colors, religions, value systems and races; it’s the measure of our maturity as a civilization.

I believe then, that in the same regard that all diversities — racial, tribal, religious, sexual, and gender alike — instead of being criminalized and demonized, should be celebrated and empowered, so that rather than to condemn a sect of a few people to social redundancy, all the human resource that Uganda boasts of can be fully tapped.

Let’s not then condemn ourselves, so that when people in the future look back at us, they will do so, just like we do at our ancestors, and exclaim how inhuman and selfish they were to disregard the existence of a few people because of their color and race. Gender diversity and sexual orientation is no premise to crucify someone, just because you do not agree with how someone dresses, what they act like, or who they sleep with.

What then, I ask myself, are we teaching the future generations? Morality even at the expense of life? Morality in the eyes of a few self-righteous people? That all people aren’t the same, if they are different? That it is okay to be selfish?

But being transgender — as much as it is my gender identity — does not holistically define who I am.

As people, like facets of a gem, we are complex in our ambitions and aspirations. We are unique in our personalities, talents, and value systems. It is these things in their entirety, but none of them in unison of others that defines us. The binary reductionist paradigm of looking at life as being either black or white — rather than as a continuum of several shades — fails to address the issues of life as it is. I am only different because I am transgender, but other than that, I am human, with red blood coursing through my veins just like you, with family and friends that care for me deeply, with personal sentiments and feeling like you do. I cry and laugh like you do, but I cannot be reduced and labeled as transgender, as an item on a supermarket stall, because that’s not all I am. As a person, I am more than that.

Being transgender and having been rejected most of my life has taught serenity in the storm. It has taught perseverance, even when the storm wails on. It has taught me to respect other people despite their differences, and has taught me to be patient. It has taught me that life is not about being perfect, because in our flaws, in all our insecurities and in our inadequacies, we all have something to offer on the table. And that we are meant, as humans, to shine together, but not in solitude. And that we must help our brothers and sisters to shine, but not to trample upon them. To exist and live together, that is what humanity was meant for. For no man or woman is an island. For alone we burn out, and fail, but together we flourish. 

Finally, we must not forget our ultimate calling and obligation. For by virtue of our humanity, we ought to love others like we love ourselves, and treat them with the same delicacy and sensitivity that we wish be accorded us.

I pray then, that in your deliberations, by the power vested in you, you may not forget our concerns — as humans, as Ugandans, as your brothers, sisters, mother and fathers.

With respect,

Cleo. K.

Ugandan Team Makes LLWS History

When the Little League World Series comes on, I'll take some time to watch the games that are broadcast on ESPN because it does take me back to when I played Little League ball back in the day but never got the opportunity to play for my league's All-Star team.  

I have a deep appreciation of how hard it is to not only make your individual Little League's all star team, but go through the various regional playoffs in your state and region to get to Williamsport, PA where they play the Little League World Series.

I was excited to see for the second time ever in the 66 year history of the LLWS, a team from the African continent break through their region chock full of Middle East based Little League teams with children of expat Americans working in the area and win.

Last year a team from Kampala, Uganda beat a strong Saudi Arabian team in the Middle East-Africa regional finals to become the first African team ever to qualify for the LLWS. 

But the joy over that landmark accomplishment was dashed when problems arose with the Ugandan team’s visas and player birth records.  That resulted in the Saudi team they vanquished making the trip to Williamsport

This year's team from the Mehta Little League didn't have that problem since they made certain it was comprised of all 11 year olds and the visas were cleared by the US State Department.  But they still had to successfully navigate the Middle East/Africa regional tournament in Kutno, Poland once again in order to make history.         

That road to reach the LLWS began in July with a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia due to a two run homer hit by the Saudis in the top of the 6th inning.   The kids from Lugazi bounced back the next day to beat Dubai 6-0 in the first of their must-win games to stay alive in the double elimination tournament.  They had to play two must-win games the following day, beating Qatar 13-1 and Kuwait 8-0 to get to the July 16 MEA Regional Championship game. 

They beat Kuwait 5-2 to make it the second straight year a Ugandan team has claimed the Middle East/Africa regional tournament title and qualified for the Little League World Series.   The Mehta Little League team scored 33 runs in five MEA tourney games with four of them being pressure packed must win ones.  They gave up only 5 runs in the MEA Regional to begin the trip of a lifetime representing their town,their country and get a shot at winning the world championship. 

The Ugandan squad knew they would be underdogs when they arrived here to play the more experienced international Little League teams, and on Friday they lost to Aguadulce, Panama, 9-3.  The next day Uganda lost to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico 12-0 to eliminate them from international division championship consideration ans send them to a consolation game against Gresham, OR..  

In their consolation game against the Gresham, OR squad today they broke through for a 3-2 win, the first ever by an African based LLWS squad. 

     



They will officially have a 1-2 record, but they will leave Williamsport having made many fans and accomplishing their goal of making friends.   Once the Little League World Series is over they will take in a minor league baseball game and see the United Nations building in New York before heading back home

They will also go back home knowing that they accomplished something that no other African based little league team has ever done in terms of winning a game at the LLWS.

The Man Couldn't Even Be Buried In Peace

I was more than a little pissed off to hear about the Wednesday beating death of prominent Ugandan GLBT activist David Kato.

It was even more distressing to hear that it occurred three weeks after a Ugandan court handed him and the local TBLG community a major victory by ordering the virulently anti gay Rolling Stone newspaper to cease and desist in their practice of posting the names, photos and addresses of GLBT people in the country because it was putting their lives in jeopardy.

About the only thing positive that came out of it was that it halted the UK's imminent deportation of a lesbian who had been living in Great Britain for eight years back to Uganda. 

Brenda Namigadde feared she would be killed if that happened and she had every right to feel that way.  She was told by the notorious homophobic Ugandan MP David Bahati, the author of the 'Kill The Gays' bill that seeks to impose the death penalty for homosexuality, to repent or be arrested on her return.   


But what angered me even further was reading about what happened at Kato's funeral in his ancestral hometown .

Anglican minister Thomas Musoke waited until the end of an emotional ceremony to grab the microphone and launch into a homophobic tirade that shocked the dozens of gay men and women as well as foreign diplomats in attendance.  A scuffle ensued and Musoke was eventually led away by the po-po's.

Damn, David Kato couldn't even be buried in peace.  

Pastor Musoke claimed in his tirade that the world had gone mad and even this new jack Pharisee has a point.

The world has most definitely gone mad when alleged religious people seem to think that their bigotry and hatred of TBLG people is justified by their holy book.   They must also be mad when they take it a step further in killing and depriving people they hate of their human rights because of who they love.  
 

Uganda's 'Kill The Gays' Bill Is Still Alive

If y'all thought that fundie Ugandan legislator David Bahati's 'Kill The Gays' bill was dead and everything was copasetic for Ugandan TBLG people, time to wake up and restart the protesting.

Despite massive international pressure placed on Uganda to drop the odious legislation that Bahati introduced as a Private Member's Bill in October 2009, he is quoted as saying, "Every single day of my life now I am still pushing that it passes."

His comments also came after the Rolling Stone paper in Uganda published a list of known gay people in the country that triggered attacks on them.and forcing some into hiding.

The only thing keeping the Anti-Homosexuality bill from passing according to Bahati is Ugandan president Yoweri Musaveni's fear of international sanctions if they do pas the draconian bill, which calls for jailing and execution of gay people. 

The Anti-Homosexuality bill is probably the wet dream of our Reichers in the States.   It would criminalize homosexuality in Uganda and subject people to the death penalty who have previous convictions, are HIV-positive or engage in same gender sexual relations with persons under 18 years of age. 

The bill also includes provisions for punishing Ugandans who engage in same gender sexual relations outside of Uganda and asserting that they may be extradited back to the country for punishment.  

It even includes penalties for individuals, companies, media organizations, or non governmental organizations that support GLBT rights..

The world needs to speak up and speak loudly with one voice right fracking now before another murderous orgy of genocidal killing gets unleashed aimed at Uganda's GLBT population.