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Ugandan Newspaper Blocked From Publishing Names, Photos Of Gays As Bahati Promises Kill The Gays Bill Will Pass Soon

11/02/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
The LGBT rights group Sexual Minorities Uganda has won an injunction against the Ugandan newspaper Rolling Stone. Uganda’s high court has ordered that the newspaper stop publishing the names and photographs of people that it says are gay. They ruled that the newspaper was violating the right to privacy of these individuals.

The ruling by Justice Vincent Kibuuka Musoke stands until 23 November when a final ruling will be made; however, he did state in ordering the injunction that publishing names and photos “is an infringement on the right to privacy of those whose photos appear in it.”

Unfortunately, according to Julian Onziema the program coordinator for SMU, other publications are starting to print the same kinds of stories. He stated “We filed a suit against the paper for abuse of our fundamental human rights of privacy, association and security. However my happiness might be short-lived because there are other tabloids in Uganda which are taking over from where Rolling Stone exploded from. They are making people hate us.”

However, Giles Muhame, managing editor of Rolling Stone, says that they publish the photos of gay Ugandans in order to help police find them given that homosexuality is illegal in Uganda and anyone who is caught in a homosexual act can be imprisoned for up to fourteen years. Muhame called homosexuality a virus spreading throughout the world and said specifically “we thought, by publishing that story, the police would investigate them, prosecute them, and hang them.” Of course, reputable scientific evidence shows that homosexuality is not spread, and is genetic and innate to the individual. Recent studies in the United States show that at least seven and a half percent of the population is lesbian or gay.

The law may soon change and the penalty will be increased to a year in prison or the death penalty for certain homosexual acts. While pressure has eased in the year since Ugandan Member of Parliament David Bahati introduced his bill, the bill that he introduced remains in discussion and may soon pass. Bahati, who is part of the Family, also known as the Fellowship, of C Street, has said that it will become law in the near future and that “this is a piece of legislation that is needed in this country to protect the traditional family here in Africa, and also protect the future of our children.”

Bahati and many of his cohorts have been using many of the same lies that have been rejected in the United States to stoke fear and horror over homosexuality in Uganda. The bill caused many in the United States, including many anti-LGBT groups and individuals, to denounce it, and some European countries and World humanitarian and human rights groups have condemned the bill and even informed Uganda that, should it pass as it is, they will withhold aid all together.

The bill was shelved for the time being, but that may change. While Muhame may be seeking to cause the police to act, what he has done in Uganda is cause vigilante violence to spread with several of those whose identity has been published being attacked by citizens, and many are not in hiding.

Homosexuality is illegal throughout much of Africa, and ‘corrective rapes’ are common against lesbians. South Africa is the only African nation to recognize same-sex marriages.

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