Wednesday 2 April 2014

Fear and Arrests Follow Museveni's Bill


The arrests have already begun of gay people in Uganda:


Two men were arrested and tortured after they were accused of having gay sex in Uganda...
Under the new anti-homosexuality law, the two face life imprisonment.


[UPDATE: more on that story.]

Meanwhile, there are brave gay Ugandans who feel they have little left to lose, and are rallying to protest the bill:


After a local newspaper in February named him as a homosexual, Sam Opio went underground. 
He stopped strolling in the park with his boyfriend. He stopped going to nightclubs. He even scaled back appearances at the office of his local activist organization, Queer Group Uganda. 
"I had to lay low," says the 31-year-old Mr. Opio, who lives as a woman... 
But rather than stay in hiding, Mr. Opio and his fellow activists took the risky step of fighting back. They lobbied advertisers through online campaigns urging them to stop doing business with the tabloid. Within a week, Orange Uganda Ltd., a subsidiary of French telecommunications company France Télécom SA, pulled advertising out of the paper. Days later, Multichoice Group, a South Africa-based cable-television company, did the same. Others followed suit.

Whilst Museveni celebrates, people suffer.

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