Ugandan kill-the-gays bill part 17: David Kato murdered

2012 Mar 23

Ugandan kill-the-gays bill part 17: David Kato murdered

written by Sherri Joubert

This article is part 17 in a series about the Ugandan anti-homosexuality bill of 2009, better known as the Ugandan kill-the-gays bill. It is still alive and on the newly-elected Ugandan Parliament agenda for debate in 2012, after being kept tabled in 2011.

The first 16 articles can be accessed at the following links:

Jeff Sharlet’s book about his visits to Uganda and conversations with government officials:

There is a link at the bottom of each article that will take you to the next one in the series for easy navigation.

David Kato was the highest profile gay in Uganda, and was a strong activist for gay rights. He was brutally murdered on January 26, 2011. His name and photo were published on the cover of a Ugandan news magazine along with 99 other people suspected or known to be gay. Here is a link to the Maddow Blog coverage of Uganda.

In May 2011, Ugandan police used a water cannon to spray pink dye on anti-government and economic protesters in the capital city of Kampala and 5 other cities. Permanent President Yoweri Museveni seems to be repeatedly reelected every time the people vote, and there are questions about the validity of election results.

This is also an update on the Ugandan legislation. Death penalties have not actually been removed. David Bahati says he will take them out, but they seem to stay in the bill. To date, Mr. Bahati has not sent any evidence of recruiting Ugandan children to become gay.

David Kato burial controversy and story overview video from Feb. 4, 2011 (~ 9 min.):

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Here is a reminder of some of the provisions in the bill that will call for the death penalty if it isn’t removed as a punishment. Box Turtle Bulletin excerpts the definition of “aggravated homosexuality” from Mr. Bahati’s original legislation:

(a) person against whom the offense is committed is below the age of 18 years;
(b) offender is a person living with HIV;
(c) offender is a parent or guardian of the person against whom the offense is committed;
(d) offender is a person in authority over the person against whom the offense is committed;
(e) victim of the offense is a person with disability;
(f) offender is a serial offender, or
(g) offender applies, administers or causes to be used by any man or woman any drug, matter or thing with intent to stupefy overpower him or her so as to there by enable any person to have unlawful carnal connection with any person of the same sex,

(3) Where a person is charged with the offense under this section, that person shall undergo a medical examination to ascertain his or her HIV status.

As of March 2012, a law suit has been filed against Scott Lively, one of the Americans involved in bringing this bill to Uganda.

The Box Turtle Bulletin does extensive coverage on this story, and you can read about it at the above link.

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