Via Owukori of Black Looks, recently the Ugandan Parliament passed an anti-LGBT law, which was then followed by the government police raiding the home of a Lesbian Civil Rights activist, Victor Julie Mukassa, a friend of Owukori (although her name ‘Victor’ she is female). This raid and the attempted arrests are supposedly all apart of the Ugandan government’s plan to not only censor but wipe-out all LGBT civil rights activism in the country. And there was no search warrant for the raids or even possible arrest of Victor.
The ugandan parliament have enacted a new anti-homosexual law and with this the Ugandan police yesterday stormed the house of lesbian activist, Victor Julie Mukassa. Victor tried to contact me today but unfortuantely I missed her call so the details on her present situation are still sketchy. However there is a report on the raid in Behind the Mask as follows:
On the night of 20 July 2005, Victor Juliet Mukasa, who is the chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), had her residence raided by the Ugandan government police officials. The officials confiscated all documentations and other materials that had homosexual content.
Unfortunately for the police contingent which was clearly intending to pounce on Mukasa, they didn’t find her at home as she had not yet arrived back home from town.
On the house they found a gay activist from Kenya who works closely with SMUG. She was detained for the night. According to Kasha Jacqueline, a lesbian human rights activist, “They took her [the Kenyan activist] in so Victor and the other LGBT activists [from SMUG] would want to fetch her from the police and then they can arrest Victor specifically and or the other activists.[…]
This purported trap to arrest for SMUG officials is suspected to be part of an elaborate plan by the Ugandan government to obliterate gay and lesbian activities in that country.
[…]Meanwhile she (Victor) cannot go home as people near where she lives planned to attack her. Once the matter comes out in the press she will be in even more danger. She is staying and moving from hotel to hotel. Victor’s human rights have been grossly violated. There was no search warrant on her home and her guest was stripped naked by the police and detained and both their lives are now in danger.[…]
So if the intention behind the raid (without a warrant), degradation of Victor’s guest, and attempted arrest (again without a warrant), was to stifle all LGBT civil rights activistm and Ugandan LGBT people in general, then add their government to the list of belligerently homophobic governments that would use terror to silence their own LGBT population and its leaders. Gee, you don’t think the U.S. will ever end up on that list, do you?
If Ms. Mukassa were an evangelical Christian, we’d be all over it.
That’s positively disgusting. It sickens me that there are still places in the world that do this sort of thing. They seriously need to get their heads out of the dark ages and wake up to the modern world.
And just how deluded do you have to be to think that criminalizing homosexuality would do a Grodd-damn think to wipe it out?
These would be the same people Bush gave several hundred million to promote absunance only sex ed.
Uh, aren’t we fighting a war on terror? Yoo-hoo, Mr. President, terror in Uganda!
Oh, wait, it’s only terror if it’s against male heterosexual Christians. Or their wives and (straight) daughters, up to a point. My bad.
Silly Kyra, us queers don’t matter … and MM General, of course criminalising homosexuality gets rid of it, after all, it works so awfully well as a strategy against abortion, so why shouldn’t they?
Is it a bad sign that this shit doesn’t surprise me anymore? (although, convinces me that my studies in hate crimes are more and more the right thing to be doing)
I do enjoy the fact that our Republican politicans decry the sorry state of affairs for people under Islamic theocratic regimes, and then turn around and spew the same exact hateful rhetoric (except in English) being pushed by the Imams for why our homos need to be criminalized/denied.
UA –
I don’t enjoy it. Fortunately most Republicans (politicians and citizens) aren’t rabid homophobes. That’s why (for example) there’s a Log Cabin chapter currently forming here in Portland.
Pseudo-Adrienne, can you suggest some positive, constructive steps your readers can take to help advance the cause of gay rights in Africa? (I’ve already made a donation to the IGLHRC via the link in the article – thanks.)
Making donations to international human rights groups that are pro-LGBT rights would help and trying to create enough of “fuss” over them in order to get the media’s or even politicians’ attention are other positives. Unfortunately, because they’re in Africa, LGBT in their sexual orientation, and probably not Christian, conjuring up awareness for this will surely be pretty damn difficult, but you should always keep trying. People’s lives are at stake and keeping silent about it would be the worst thing to do.
Thanks, PA! I’ll stay on it.
Victor Mukassa needs help to pay for legal expenses and also we want to get her a laptop so she can do her own legal research, write emails etc as it is possbile her lawyers may not be able to continue defending her due to fear of reprisals. We also need help to publicise her case. If anyone can help with any of these please leave a message on Black Looks (under the G&L category where u will find reports on Victors case)
thanks
Pingback: Black Looks