They are the first Ugandans to face trial on homosexuality charges, with an earlier case collapsing before it reached court and the majority of those arrested paying stiff fines to avoid prison.
A lesbian facing deportation to Uganda says she fears for her life if she is forced to return to her homeland.
Flora Seggane, of Francis Road in Leyton, fled the country in 2002 and moved to the UK on a two-year working visa after being disowned by her family because of her sexuality.
The 55-year-old claims her family previously tried to “cure” her sexuality by dosing her with medicines and she was forced her into marriage at the age of 18, enduring 20 years of abuse at the hands of her husband...
Recounting her experiences in her homeland, she said: “I got caught at school with another girl and they told my parents. That’s when they started cutting my wrists and giving me medicines to try and cure me for being a lesbian.
The chorus is still on. It is a din. We can do without foreign aid. They can keep their aid. Uganda does not need aid. Uganda is a sovereign country. It is a mantra, recited from up there where President Museveni reigns down to the intolerant bishops and pastors and on to the lowliest of bigots.
We will have our anti-homosexuality law; they can keep their dollars, pound sterling, and euros. The great custodians of Ugandan (read African) sexuality and culture proclaim...
Of course we need aid. That is why we have been taking it for decades. That is why we are taking it today. If we truly do not need aid anymore, let us say no to all aid – not just aid from the Western countries that are “imposing there (im)morality” on us. Let us say no to Chinese aid, to Russian aid, to South Korean aid.
If President Museveni had solemnly announced that we did not need aid anymore in calm times like, say, five years ago, I would have believed him.
Responding to a parliamentary question on whether he intended to clear South Africa's policy position regarding Uganda's anti-homosexuality law, Zuma said: "South Africa respects the sovereign rights of other countries to adopt their own legislation."
"In this regard, through diplomatic channels South Africa engages with Uganda on areas of mutual concern bearing in mind Uganda's sovereignty," Zuma said through a written response to the National Assembly.
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| (Image by Melissatat) |
At least 17 gay people, with the majority of them being under the age of 25, have attempted to kill themselves over Uganda parliament introducing the anti-gay law...
A Uganda gay teen has committed suicide over the homophobic law, it was reported today (7 April).
The young man, who we will call Denis, overdosed on pills and swallowed rat poison around a month ago.
For the past few weeks, he showed little signs of recovery as he slipped in and out of consciousness. He also lost his ability to speak.
Last Thursday (3 April), Denis was pronounced dead. He was just 17 years old.
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| Homosexuals Rounded Up in Nazi Concentration Camps |
One of the worst calamities I know of was in my own family: The Hutu husband of a Tutsi cousin of mine — presumably fearing for his own life — followed an order from armed militiamen to kill her in front of their children. The act was so unspeakable that when Tutsi rebels finally stopped the genocide, another cousin, seeking vengeance, killed the father in front of the same children. I cannot imagine what scars those now-grown children carry...
You can hear it in our maxims. “Intero nyirurugo ateye, niyo wikiriza” means “the tune the head of the household begins is what everyone in the house sings.” “Umwera uturutse ibukuru bucya wakwiriye hose” means that orders from above spread quickly, in the form of rules. “Order” and “law” translate the same: “itegeko.” A “law-giver,” an “order-giver” and an “authority” are each an “umutegetsi.”
Police in Uganda have raided the offices of a US-funded project which provides health advice to homosexuals...
The Makerere University Walter Reed Project in the capital Kampala announced it had suspended its operations after one of its Ugandan staff was briefly held by police.
In a statement it said: "We are working with police to understand the circumstances under which this person was detained.
"Until we have greater clarity as to the legal basis for the police action, the operations of the programme are temporarily suspended to ensure the safety of staff and the integrity of the programme."
Police said they had been following the suspect after receiving reports he was involved in "gay-related activities".
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.
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.
