By Melissa Levin It was in Yeoville sometime in the 1990s that a ‘spook’ from South Africa’s now ruling party, the ANC, with whom I was acquainted began asking me questions about my father. My family had migrated to Canada, which he knew, and he was asking questions like, “when,” and “was your dad ever […]
Some of the films in The Encounters Documentary Film Festival which kicks off its 13th year in Cape Town and Johannesburg today (till June 26), that I hope make it over here sometime: “When China Met Africa“ “Forerunners“ “Glitterboys and Ganglands“: “King Naki“ And finally, “Robert Mugabe: What Happened?“
By Heather Doyle I first had the opportunity to meet David Kato three years ago when he and another colleague from the gay rights organization Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) flew from Uganda to Kenya to help us understand better the human rights situation in the country. David came to the meeting with his arm in […]
Frank Mungisha, an Ugandan gay rights activist included in The Advocate’s “Forty Under 40” list last year, will speak at The New School in Manhattan tomorrow night about his experiences. From the promotional material: He has played a leading role in combating the “Anti-Homosexuality” bill proposed by the Ugandan legislature that threatens lesbian, gay, bisexual, […]
Brett Davidson Regional lobby group, the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), has drafted an equal rights manifesto in conversation with civil society, cultural and religious leaders from around the continent. It presents the arguments for why equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people are a crucial element of African […]
CNN has a story on why despite South Africa’s progressive laws, lesbians and gays are still under attack there. The basic moral of the piece is that if you’re middle class, you can form your own safe, comfortable communities even if other middle class people want to discriminate against you. If you’re working class–and South […]
Radio Netherlands International has a 51-minute, really good, program on the hysteria and violence against gay people on the continent. Guest include Ian Swartz, founder of a gay rights organisation in Namibia, and Scott Long from Human Rights Watch in New York. Listen here.
So Uganda, with the help of their rightwing, American Christian boosters, want to “wipe out” gay people by making laws that bans even thinking about it. Now Kenya wants to do a “census” of its gay population. Their excuse is this is a way to fight AIDS. This is when it is common knowledge that […]
Uganda’s Parliament–encouraged by American evangelicals (who converted Uganda’s President, Yoweri Museveni above)–last week introduced new draft legislation, The Anti-Homosexuality Bill, that will “… greatly expand criminal penalties against lesbians and gays.” Currently, “carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature” carries a sentence of up to 14 years imprisonment in Uganda’s penal code. […]
