Round-up of Recent Stories

Quick mash up of relevant news, starting with an overview of Prossie N's situation, ahead of the UK's decision whether to deport her tomorrow: If This Woman is Deported Thursday, She Will Face Persecution and Worse

A 20-year-old Ugandan woman, Prossie N, who fled to the U.K. after enduring years of sexual abuse from her uncle and persecution for being a lesbian, could be deported this Thursday...

Prossie has some very clear reasons to fear for her life should she be deported to Uganda. After her parents’ death when she was a child, she went to live with an uncle. From the age of eight, she was raped by him, according to Gay Asylum UK. At the age of 13, Prossie was taken out of school. When she was 15 and her sexuality exposed, she ended up living for the most part on the streets.

Still not too late to take action.

It's also come to light that vicious Ugandan hate preacher Solomon Male, who led harassment campaigns against David Kato's mother, and showed himself to be an anus-obsessed lunatic in the recent documentary Out There, is also running the campaign of persecution against Bernard Randall (if you missed his story, catch up here - it's likely he may be deported instead of jailed).

There's some really good news: World’s First Openly Gay Head of Government to Join WorldPride 2014 Human Rights Conference

The WorldPride Human Rights Conference 2014 announces that former Prime Minister of Iceland, and the world’s first openly gay head of government, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir will be among the presenters from 60 countries in next year’s international gathering, June 25-27, 2014 in Toronto...

Hundreds of LGBTI rights leaders from around the world will speak, including: Russian activist and journalist Masha Gessen; Ugandan LBGTI activist Frank Mugisha; Kenyan human rights lawyer Justice Monica Mbaru; Venezuelan trans activist Tamara Adrián; and Canadian global HIV/AIDS leader Stephen Lewis. Panelists will address issues ranging from education and youth, HIV/AIDS, sex work, trans rights, employment, ageing and other human rights issues. A full schedule for the conference will be announced early in 2014.

Which highlights the UN's double-standards on LGBTI rights (because we've already covered the Commonwealth to death): UN talks ‘Equality for All’ while LGBTI marginalization continues

Tributes to Mandela call on us all to emulate him, his convictions and to live out his legacy.  But, the world is a far cry from that legacy, when against the backdrop of all this adulation for Mandela, human rights abuses, gender violence, bigotry and inequality continues unabated every day...

I wrote an article recently criticizing worldwide state sponsored homophobia, where leaders publicly threaten Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex people (LGBTI) with violence, refer to them as a “filthy disease” and “anti-civilisation” and call for their rights to be revoked. Some of the very same ‘leaders’ are pouring out condolences for the late Mandela.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe called him a “champion of the oppressed… who will forever remain in our minds as an unflinching fighter for justice.” Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “Mandela was committed to the ideals of humanism and justice.” South African High Commissioner to Uganda, Jon Qwelane called him a “down-to-earth leader who respected humankind.”

The blatant hypocrisy of these tributes renders them meaningless and rather disrespectful. Similarly, people’s everyday racism, sexism and homophobia is not made invisible, nor is it nullified and legitimised by changing Facebook profile pictures to photos of Mandela.

And finally, The 2013 Out in the Silence Award for Youth Activism Goes To...

A Massachusetts-based organisation called Out Now.

Out Now was among the founders of the Stop the Hate and Homophobia Coalition, a powerful response to the notorious anti-gay extremist Scott Lively, who moved to Springfield in 2008 to "re-Christianize" the city and establish Abiding Truth Ministries, the launching pad for his international anti-gay campaigns in Africa and Eastern Europe.

Out Now and the Coalition have become important bases of grassroots support behind the groundbreaking legal case brought against Lively in federal court by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Sexual Minorities Uganda alleging that Lively's actions, in collaboration with key Ugandan government officials and religious leaders, are responsible for depriving LGBTI Ugandans of their fundamental human rights based solely on their identity, which is the definition of persecution under international law and is deemed a crime against humanity.

As the case proceeds, Out Now is sure to play an important role in community education and grassroots pressure, and to continue serving and empowering local youth as they develop into the leaders we need, not just for tomorrow but for today.

We look forward to that.