Scuffles Disrupt Funeral of Murdered Ugandan Gay Activist David Kato

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
Jan 28, 2011

Here is a revolting story about a funeral that only deranged minister Fred Phelps could admire--and inspire.

The behavior described in this story from Reuters (below) is about as blasphemous, disgusting, irreverent and anti-Christ as one could ever expect from a Christian clergyman--as wickedly perverted as Fred Phelps of the gay-hating Westboro church in Kansas, infamous for picketing funerals of deceased AIDS victims.

But this funeral behavior by an Anglican minister is perhaps worse since he was presiding over David Kato's farewell memorial at which deeply saddened, tearful and grieving friends and family had gathered. How base-minded can a person be to desecrate a funeral so. How 'gone wild' into bezerk blind dogma can a cleric be to de-humanize a deceased benevolent person with curses against homosexuality, claiming it is sin and saying David Kato should not be admired. (photo, David Kato)

It shows how low hate-filled religion can bring a person below humanity. Homophobia is a disease that has killed and will kill more in Uganda in it's destructive path. Not that the West is clean by any means but countries who donate money and aid to Uganda should think twice when state and church sanctioned bigotry is allowed to run rampant among its society.

This is a shameful day for the Ugandan Anglican church and for the government of Uganda.


Reuters story: Scuffles Disrupt Funeral of Murdered Ugandan Gay Activist
by Justin Dralaze:
See Reuters story

Mukono, Uganda
Scuffles broke out between locals and friends of a murdered Ugandan gay activist at his funeral on Friday after the pastor conducting the service berated gay people and villagers refused to bury the coffin.

During the funeral -- which was attended by about 300 people, including about 100 members of the country's gay community -- the pastor lashed out at homosexuality, provoking a strong reaction from friends of Kato.

"The world has gone crazy," the pastor told the congregation through a microphone. "People are turning away from the scriptures. They should turn back, they should abandon what they are doing. You cannot start admiring this fellow man..."

Gay activists, wearing T-shirts featuring Kato's face with sleeves coloured with the gay pride flag, then stormed the pulpit and grabbed the microphone. "It is ungodly," the pastor shouted, before being blocked from sight.

An unidentified female activist then began to shout from the pulpit, "who are you to judge others?" she shouted. "We have not come to fight. You are not the judge of us. As long as he's gone to God his creator, who are we to judge Kato?"

Locals intervened on the side of the pastor and scuffles broke out before he was taken away to Kato's father's house to calm the situation.

Villagers then refused to bury the body at which point a group of Kato's friends, most of whom were gay, carried his coffin to the grave and buried it themselves.

Read Val Kalende's fine eulogy of David.

Curing Homosexuality—with Murder

Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz
Laguna Beach, California January 5, 2010

How many ways can you kill a person for being gay?

We like to use the word ‘barbarian’ these days to describe ancient war tactics, medieval religious torture and primitive ‘medical’ practices.

But the truth is barbaric practices are in current vogue in certain countries around the world. About 80 countries criminalize homosexual practices and of those about dozen allow the death penalty. Saudi Arabia is the most notorious, followed by Iran and more recently—since we ‘liberated’ it—Iraq.

In Baghdad where gangs seem to regulate the law, death squads have been ferreting out gay men for summary execution. Worse (if that’s possible), even people suspected or accused of being gay are gunned down with no consideration of truth.

In Afghanistan under the Taliban, they toppled brick walls on top of accused gays who were staked to the ground. This usually killed them but if it only severely maimed them, they were set free, as a sign from Allah!

This brings us to the most recent applicant to join the ‘death club’ against gays, Uganda. The trouble has been brewing for 9 months, ever since some anti-gay fundies from America went to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, to hold a pitiful and poorly attended seminar on curing gays of their sinful lifestyle. (Image: Uganda Coat of Arms)

Hardly anyone noticed or cared except the anti-gay press such as the unscrupulous gay-hating tabloid ‘Red Pepper’, which regularly increases its circulation with distorted and scandalous stories about homosexuals. It portrayed the seminar as the ‘second coming’ against the anti-Christ gay enemy.
(The most recent slander came on December 31, 2009 in a full page story with the personal details of people who, allegedly, 'bankroll Ugandan homos'.)

Worse by far—and the point of this blog--is the infamous action taken a few months ago by a Ugandan parliament member who swallowed the Americans’ homophobic ideas (discredited by virtually all knowledgeable professionals) about the ‘illness’ of homosexuals and how to cure it by prayer.

But why cure them when you just get rid of them?

This first-term MP, David Bahati, subsequently submitted a bill for debate in the national parliament that seeks the death penalty for gays and imposes jail sentences for anyone who does not report them, including parents, pastors and friends.

Despite the fact that homosexuality is already criminalized in Uganda, Bahati felt urged to proposed the ‘final solution’ for same-sexers . And the bill is getting serious support in homophobic Uganda. The bill’s fate should be voted on in early 2010.

Needless to say. great opposition has come from churches, human rights activists worldwide as well as governments including the US, UK, and European Union. Sweden has threatened to cut off its foreign aid to Uganda.

Hmmm.... curing gays by murder in the 21st century civilization. Seems barbarism is alive and well in the service of ignorance and hatred.

Sound shocking doesn’t it, but it’s really happening as I write this.

Author of Ugandan Gay Death Bill Fears For His Life

Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz.com
Laguna Beach, California
December 30, 2009

Another (bizarre and specious) public announcement comes from the author of the Ugandan gay death bill, David Bahati. In this outcry, instead of targeting gay people, he claims he is a target of hateful intentions and fears for his life. See this report from the San Francisco Examiner.

How awful!

Imagine this 'innocent' man being put under threat by some anonymous party who threatens his pursuit of life and liberty.

Now he might possibly (although unlikely) begin to appreciate the feelings of countless LGBT Ugandans who will live with the same fear thanks to his extremist and dangerous proposed bill he has submitted to the Ugandan parliament.

Human Myths That Make Us Inhumane

Richard Ammon, GlobalGayz.com
New York City

I am continually saddened by how far and deep irrational thought (myth) can infuse a society, especially regarding a political or religious issue.

Gay marriage is one issue that arouses irrational political and religious discomfort. It’s an issue that burns because it involves or implies human sexual behavior, which is an irrational force that urges many people into irrational behavior, usually surrounded by silence, rejection or advocacy—anything but indifference. Sex makes people squirm either in pleasure or in dismay. The myth of sex.

Marriage (hetero) on the other hand evokes a kind of charming myth, as some kind of ritual that bestows blessing, legitimacy and social approval on people. It’s associated with family, home, children, security—normalcy and stability in a world of flux and uncertainty. The ‘family unit’ is seen as the unquestioned bedrock of a culture despite its stressed and fraught reality and high divorce rate. The myth of family.

Add in the myth of ‘gay’ to the combination of sex and marriage and this creates another kind of myth that unsettles nearly every major society today.

Myths are countless, from Disney fairies to the magical figures who started world religions to alleged saints slaying dragons. Many are harmless and stimulate artistic imagination or are useful to perpetuate certain social ideals like ‘equality’. But other myths are dangerous and deadly such as the anti-gay myths that emerge from religious sources like the Bible and the Koran or the Talmud. The impact of these ancient books--all with mythological foundations--on the lives of modern LGBT people is staggering and forceful since out of myth comes very real behavior. And a belief in the rightness of one’s religious or political myths can lead to violence and repression and even warfare, or it can also lead to a Mother Theresa with boundless compassion.

Anti-gay mythologies certainly have led to a disproportionate tsunami against homosexually-natured people across the planet, from a mild silence among rural Thai farmers to Mormon excommunication to outright murder within the American (mostly Christian) military or to public execution in Muslim quarters, and even pervades wealthy corporate structures (where the myth of wealth reigns).

In the matter of gay marriage, myth has served as a lethal weapon against the current push for human rights equality. Something blinds the common mind from seeing the reality before them: human sexuality exists on a broad spectrum of behaviors, from monk-like celibacy to Copenhagen’s sex clubs to monogamous/polygamous marriage to secret transvestism, as well as transsexuality, open marriage liaisons and gay marriage. Human behavior is unquestionably the most diverse of any creature on earth.

But this is a reality that myth wants to deny, control, and constrain. A logical brain that deals with a thousands of ‘real’ decisions every week (driving, shopping, Twittering) suddenly becomes blind and irrational when sexuality or same-gender love and marriage come into view.

And people make big business off of this irrationality: churches evoke millions of dollars to defeat the ‘gay agenda’; bogus reparative ‘therapists’ charge big fees to ‘cure’ vulnerable homosexuals; marketing companies hire out their services to defeat gay marriage legislation and newspapers increase sales by covering ‘scandalous’ LGBT activity.

How deep these irrational myths go is seen daily in the reports from large and small countries, wealthy or poor: Americans defeat proposed gay marriage legislation; Ugandan and Rwandan politicians want to throw gay advocates in jail; Singapore will not consider disturbing the hetero-ist status quo. Jamaicans would be happy to kill you.
(Photo left: murdered African lesbian activist Fanny Ann Eddy)

The ‘real’ world of humans is surprisingly shaped by myths we do not see or recognize but urge us to act in inhumane ways.

PS: Another gay/human rights activist, Walter Trochez of Honduras, (photo right) was murdered on December 13, 2009. The madness continues. See story here.