This weekend the BBC World Service (on satellite TV and its radio service) will broadcast an edited version of a debate on gay rights in Africa. The debate was taped in Johannesburg, South Africa.” The key focus of the debate was: ” Is Homosexuality Un-African?” We know the answer to that question: No it is not.
Brett Davidson In a documentary broadcast recently on the BBC, the British DJ Scott Mills travels to Uganda and reports on the rampant homophobia there. (That’s Mills, above, in a still from the film with Ugandan gay rights activist, Frank Mugisha.) Technically, Uganda may not be the very worst place to be gay. Homosexuality can get […]
The problem is the way I dress. Everyone is asking, ‘is that a boy or a girl?’ In clubs, when ladies can get in for free, they push us, tell us we are not ladies and that we have to pay. They scream: ‘Is she boy or a girl? Is that man or a woman?’ […]
“We the undersigned wish to express our deep sadness at the murder of Ugandan human rights defender David Kato on 26th January 2011. David’s activism began in the 1980s as an Anti-Apartheid campaigner where he first expressed a strong passion and conviction for freedom and justice which continued throughout his life. David was a […]
Has there been a deafening silence from African artists and musicians following the murder of gay activist David Kato? This Is Africa seems to think so, and I can find nothing to contradict them. As that blog points out, musicians are usually the first to speak out on behalf of the underdog. But not if you’re […]
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 […]
This is depressing: State radio on Friday quoted President Robert Mugabe saying that Western rights groups have called for constitutional reforms to include gay rights. He calls that “insanity.” Same-sex acts are illegal in Zimbabwe. Mugabe once described homosexuals as “lower than pigs and dogs.” Condemnation of gays is common in Africa. Ugandan lawmakers have […]
As @ekapa correctly noted in his comment on my post about “Homophobia as National Sport” in South Africa, “… depressing as this is its a symptom/result of the increasingly vocal and visible African and Coloured activists who are no longer willing to hide and suffer in silence but now demand the rights and protections set […]
