"Hang Them". Ugandan Newspaper Prints Hit List of Its Citizens

Uganda's rising hysteria over homosexuality was made infamous when this video clip of a bigotted pastor, Martin Ssempa, chairperson of the "National Task Force Against Homosexuality in Uganda", went viral. "Eat da poo poo" became a new catch phrase.

But it's not merely deranged religious zealots passing for goofy comedians promoting discrimination against gays and lesbians: it's also Uganda's law-makers. A bill introduced in 2009 that would make homosexuality punishable by death (actually called the "anti-homosexuality bill") risks being reintroduced this year, despite international outrage when it was first brought forward. And the UN has, apparently, given its tacit acceptance to countries wanting to murder their own citizens for their sexual orientation.

The legislators' legitimizing more criminalization of homosexuality (sexual relations between people of the same sex are already illegal in Uganda) is helping instigate a frenzy of what in other countries would be considered hate crimes, and has made it incredibly dangerous to be gay, openly or not, in Uganda.

On October 9th, 2010, photographs of 100 gay men and women were printed in a Ugandan newspaper called "Rolling Stone" under the headline, "100 Pictures of Uganda's Top Homos Leak" (Ugandan newspapers are nortoriously full of bad grammar) with an accompanying banner that said "Hang Them". The names and addresses of each of the individuals were also printed in the newspaper. Those in the photos were in immediate danger, and most went into hiding. However, at least four people whose photos were printed have been violently attacked to date, and one woman nearly killed. 

In a further show of their journalistic integrity, "Rolling Stone" ran a story claiming that homosexuals are trying to recruit one million children and that a deadly disease causing "shattered flesh" was spreading through Uganda's gay community, according to this report.

Julius Kaggwa, a Ugandan gay rights activist, described being gay in Uganda as being "hunted", adding:

Because I am a sexual minority, someone set fire to my home. People harass me and my family on a regular basis. Headlines here incite hatred against homosexuals and put our lives at risk. Clergy preach hatred from the pulpit—mothers and grandmothers leaving church services swearing that they will lynch the next homosexual person they see. Too often, we wake up feeling helpless and wondering what new attack awaits us.

The "anti-homosexuality" bill would not only make homosexuality punishable by death, it would also criminalize anyone who did not report someone they knew was gay. The legislation, which many worry will be reconsidered once the international criticism dies down, incites an atmosphere of hatred and fear, pitting family members, friends, and neighbours against each other. As Kaggwa points out, "a law like this would provoke fear, finger-pointing, and witch hunts."

Uganda has a bloody history to come to grips with, including the brutal dictatorship of Idi Amin and a civil war with the Lord's Resistance Army that enslaved over 30,000 children, displaced more than one million, and massacred thousands. The institutionalization of hatred and violence have not served the country well in its past; and are hardly the recommended prescription for its future. Democratization and the entrenchment of human rights are the only ways in which Uganda will stabilize and move forward, and the only criteria by which it can join the civilized world and be taken seriously within the international community. One wonders why this seems so lost upon Uganda's current leaders, hell-bent on fanatacism and deeply mistaken in their interpretation of morality.

Lauryn Oates is a Contributing Writer for The Propagandist