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US State Department Hosting Ugandan Human Rights Activist Valentine Kalende

07/10/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Valentine Kalende is one of Uganda’s most outspoken and prominent human rights activists, and her visit to the United States has been made under the auspices of the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program. She is focusing on LGBT issues and advocacy. Ms Kalende will discuss these issues with members of government agencies, nongovernment organizations, faith groups and the media. She will also discuss these issues with local, state and federal officials. Eventually, she will discuss these issues with U.S. interlocutors and broader audiences. Her primary focus is the human rights situation in Uganda and the unique challenges faced by the LGBT Community in that nation. This past December, an Ugandan Member of Parliament tried to get a law passed that would have sentenced lesbians and gays to death.

Ms Kalende has been involved in the opposition to the proposed “kill the gays” bill as both an LGBT rights advocate and as the Programs and Commuications Manager of Freedom and Roam Uganda. The law that was introduced in late 2009 and would have sentenced LGBT individuals to life in prison or death. She has written a full acount of the anti-homosexual movement in her nation by drawing from her past work as a journalist. She has also felt the sting of oppression as she has been harassed, beaten and arrested because of her advocacy work.

Ms Kalende has already visited Salt Lake City, Utah, but she will be visiting Louisville, Kentucky from 10 July to 13 July and then she will be in Washington, DC from 13 July to 15 July (press release stated June 13-15, but it is unlikely that will happen unless she gets stuck in a temporal anomaly.