Truthloader

An important video by Truthloader, featuring Kasha Jacqueline, a celebrated Ugandan LGBT campaigner.

She recently tweeted a video from an anti-gay rally at which Rebecca 'Killing Gays is a Christman present' Kadaga was present. We won't embed the video as it is rather disturbing, but you can watch it here. Kadaga comes across as someone desperate for praise no matter what it takes. If saying 'kill children' got her a round of applause, she probably would.

The video highlights once again that it's driven by religious leaders, originally supported by a faction of American Evangelists.

Let's not make any mistake. This is not a cultural issue. As Kasha points out, before the bill was proposed, there was not the level of persecution we now see. Pointing at people like Kadaga and saying 'she represents Ugandan culture,' is like pointing at Rick Warran or Lou Engle and saying 'he represents American culture'. It's not about culture. It's about bullying, bigotry and choice.

Marianne Mollmann's article, Myths About Homosexuality Fuel Uganda's 'Kill the Gays' Bill, elaborates on this further:

For years politicians and pundits from the United States to Malawi have spread the notion that gay people "recruit" children and others into homosexuality and that pedophilia and homosexuality are intimately linked.

Though these claims have been repeatedly refuted with facts, they stubbornly persist. There are any number of reasons for this, two of the most prominent being that 1) blaming gays for all society's wrongs is easy and helps divert attention from any real problems, and 2) stereotypes about sexual attraction and gender roles -- persistent in all societies everywhere -- fuel fear of homosexuality. And it is only by tackling the latter that enough people will see through the former and identify it as wrong.

We've already mentioned our suspicion that the Kill the Gays bill may be a distraction from Uganda's inherent corruption issues.

Kasha is head of Freedom and Roam Uganda, who have a regularly updated blog. There was a post recently that raises an important discussion point:

Anti-Homosexuality or Anti-Human Rights Bill?

...this bill represents one of the most serious attacks to date on the 1995 Constitution and on the key human rights protections enshrined in the Constitution...

You can also follow Kasha on Twitter: @KashaJacqueline and Facebook.