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.

U.S. Pastors Export Bigotry to Uganda

From:

Sharon Groves
Religion and Faith Program
Human Rights Campaign,
Washington DC

U.S. pastors are exporting bigotry to Uganda, with brutal results.

This is an issue close to my heart, because I've spent over a decade working for equality as a lay leader in my own church, and now, as acting director of HRC's Religion and Faith program – which helps religious leaders of all stripes speak out for equality and fight back when hatred is promoted in the name of religion.

On Thursday, that perversion of faith cost Ugandan gay rights advocate David Kato (on right in photo) his life. He was bludgeoned to death in his home after his name was among those listed in an anti-gay magazine, under the headline "Hang them!"

Since at least 2009, radical U.S. Christian missionaries have added anti-gay conferences and workshops in Uganda to their anti-gay efforts in the U.S. – and now they're beginning to ordain ministers and build churches across East Africa focused almost entirely on preaching against homosexuality.

These American extremists didn't call for David's death. But they created a climate of hate that breeds violence – and they must stop and acknowledge they were wrong.

"Stop Exporting Hate." Sign our petition to Carl Ellis Jenkins, Lou Engle, and Scott Lively.

We'll deliver your signature to three men who have gone out of their way to promote hatred:

• Scott Lively of Massachusetts held an anti-gay conference in Uganda with two other U.S. pastors. A few months later, a bill was introduced in Uganda that would make homosexuality punishable by death.
• Lou Engle, a Missouri preacher whose rallies draw tens of thousands in the U.S., spoke at a rally in Uganda this year that focused on praying for the bill's passage. (Engle claims not to support some parts of the bill, but internal documents show he came to speak about "the threat of homosexuality," and defend the Ugandan government's efforts to "curb the growth of the vice using the law.")
• And Carl Ellis Jenkins of Georgia is presiding over a group that's opening 50 new churches in Uganda to "help clean up bad morals, including homosexuality" according to his staff.

They have been stirring up hostility in a country where homosexuality is already illegal, violent attacks are common, rape is used to 'cure' people of their sexual orientation – and a shocking law has been proposed that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment or even death.

And they're in lockstep with some of the largest and wealthiest right-wing groups in the U.S. When the U.S. Congress considered a resolution denouncing the grotesque Ugandan death-penalty-for-gays bill, the extreme-right Family Research Council – now classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center – spent $25,000 lobbying to stop the resolution from passing.

Religion should never be used to spread hate. These men do not speak for me or the millions of diverse religious people who support equality not in spite of our faith, but because of it

That's what our Religion and Faith program is all about: helping people of faith from all different traditions speak out so we can reclaim the core religious values we hold dear in America.

At the heart of every religious tradition is love of humanity and love of creator – not hatred for our neighbors. Creating a climate of hate runs contrary to the very idea of faith – but that's exactly what the right wing in America is doing.

Tell missionaries and radical hate groups: "Stop exporting hate."

Whether or not we're people of faith, we cannot stay silent or stand idly by while a radical minority pushes a hateful agenda in God's name. Please stand with us and speak out today.

One of Uganda's Finest Gay Rights Advocates is Murdered

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
January 27, 2011

In Memorium:
On February 26, 2011 one of Uganda's finest and most outspoken LGBT rights activist, David Kato, was murdered in cold blood in his home. Friends and activists called him the "grandfather of the kuchus", a self-applied label by Ugandan LGBTs.

GlobalGayz was privileged to interview him for our 'Gay Uganda' story in 2008. He was a brave and highly committed activist who pushed the struggle for gay rights since the 1990's. Over the years he was jailed for his advocacy work; he spoke at international conferences; he met with UN officials; and he was not afraid to go to public court to stop a tabloid from falsely outing suspected gays. He won. His work and his memory will go down in Ugandan human rights history.

This blog is dedicated to the memory of that braveheart, David Kato.
(Stories at NYTimes1, NYTimes2, The Guardian)

During our visit to Kampala in 2008, we were privileged to meet with several Ugandan gay rights activists who were leading the uphill battle for recognition and acceptance in their very homophobic country. The prejudice against gays was palpable. They asked us not to publish the location of their meetings but were still willing to speak their minds about the government, religious and media discrimination against them.

Physical assaults, police harassment, religious bigotry were common events in their lives. While we were talking to Victor Mukasa, another outspoken activist, his phone rang to tell him the police were at his house. Later that day FARUG leader Kasha Jacqueline spoke how she had a driver (funded by an NGO charity) to take her around town to minimize her public exposure because she was so outspoken for gay rights.

David Kato was also among this 'family' of brave 'human rights defenders' planning demonstrations, lobbying sympathetic government officials, soliciting needed funds from abroad and writing letters to the media to counter homophobic press stories. Our meetings were quiet, computers and phones were busy and we ate pizza together.

It was at this meeting that David--or possibly one of the others--wrote the following: "Many people are laughing at us, saying that we are wasting our time fighting for our rights because we may never live to see freedom. But I don't care at all not to see that freedom, if I am not around. The issue is , have I left a foundation for the future generations to carry on the struggle? The answer is YES!"

It's hard to describe in words the daunting conditions under which these courageous activists labor. The Ugandan government treats them with disdain; the police have fun ridiculing and abusing them; religious leaders make money by attracting crowds of 'believers' with anti-gay sermons and news interviews; American fundamentalists have traveled to Uganda to urge anti-gay sentiment and gay-hating legislation. Sometimes the activists have to hide or leave the country if things get too pressured and threats are made against them.

David Kato lived in fear but did not let that stop his march for human rights and justice. For him it was the right thing to do--it was the only thing to do. This was a man who made a real difference to move the world from darkness into light. His last message to us was, "Thanks for your visit to Uganda.
That was nice of you to give your time to us and I hope the data you collected will be of great use."

What David said and did will be of much greater use. May his spirit ever shine.

Read Val Kalende's fine eulogy of David.