Ugandan Gay Rights Activist Is Beaten to Death

[The_Dude 1,142]

Ugandan Gay Rights Activist Is Beaten to Death

NAIROBI, Kenya — An outspoken Ugandan gay activist whose picture recently appeared in an antigay newspaper under the headline “Hang Them” was beaten to death in his home, Ugandan police said Thursday.

David Kato, the activist, was one of the most visible defenders of gay rights in a country where homophobia is widespread and government leaders have proposed executing gay people. Mr. Kato and other gay people in Uganda had recently warned that their lives were endangered, and four months ago a local paper called Rolling Stone published a list of gay people, with Mr. Kato’s face on the front page.

He was attacked in his home Wednesday afternoon and beaten in the head with a hammer, said Judith Nabakooba, a police spokeswoman. But police officials said they did not believe this was a hate crime.

“It looks like theft, as some things were stolen,” Mrs. Nabakooba said.

Gay activists disagreed and said Mr. Kato was singled out for his outspoken defense of gay rights.

“David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by U.S. evangelicals in 2009,” Val Kalende, the chairwoman of one of Uganda’s gay rights groups, said in a statement. “The Ugandan government and the so-called U.S. evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood!”

Mrs. Kalende was referring to visits in March 2009 by a group of American evangelicals who held antigay rallies. Ugandan church leaders who wrote the antigay bill, which is still pending, attended those meetings and said that they had worked with the Americans on their bill.

After growing international pressure, Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, indicated that the bill would be scrapped, but that has not happened yet and it remains a simmering issue in Parliament. The Americans involved said later that they had no intention of stoking such a reaction.

Many Africans view homosexuality as an immoral Western import, and the continent is full of harsh homophobic laws. In northern Nigeria, gay men can face death by stoning. In Kenya, gay people can be sentenced to years in prison.

But Uganda seems to be on the front lines of this battle. Conservative Christian groups that espouse antigay beliefs have made great headway in the country and wield a lot of influence. Uganda’s first lady is a born-again Christian and has proposed a virginity census. At the same time, American organizations that defend gay rights have also poured money into Uganda to help the small and besieged gay community.

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What is really sad is that there are a few people on this forum who would consider this justice.

[LaL 418]

That poor man. Beaten to death with a hammer? Disgusting.

[The_Dude 1,142]

That poor man. Beaten to death with a hammer? Disgusting.

Unfortunately, through my employment, I have seen the results of this sort of slaying. Words cannot adequately describe the horror or pain that he endured.

[faust-yusov 103]

What is really sad is that there are a few people on this forum who would consider this justice.

I'm not sure, I'd personally have a little more faith.

It is situations as mindless and hateful as this that show the casual homophobes the company they really keep, as well as the real-world consequences of being enablers - however passive - of the ignorance that motivates such violence.

[^_^ 5,021]

... police officials said they did not believe this was a hate crime.

“It looks like theft, as some things were stolen,” Mrs. Nabakooba said.

Hmmm.

[Danno 1,228]

Just a little update.

Police: Ugandan gay activist was killed by sex partner

KAMPALA, Uganda, February 4, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After the brutal murder of Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato last week, media, homosexual activists, and human rights groups claimed it was the result of anti-homosexual sentiments in Uganda.

However, on Wednesday police arrested a man by the name of Nsubuga Enock who they say was a sex partner of Kato’s and who has confessed to the murder.

According to Inspector General Kale Kayihura, the suspect said “he negotiated with the deceased to be paid money as he was to be used as a sexual partner.”

He said the man then had sex, but Kato did not pay. “The following day, Nsubuga confesses that he picked a hammer from the bathroom and hit him on the head,” said Kayihura.

“There is nothing concrete to suggest that Nsubuga was motivated by hate, although we are not dismissing it.”

Police also said Enock was a well known thief.

Kato was murdered on January 24. Media and activists around the world immediately decried his death as a direct attack on his homosexual stance and Kato is being described as an activist hero and “model.”

New York based Human Rights Watch issued a statement last Thursday calling for thorough investigation of the case. “David Kato’s death is a tragic loss to the human rights community,” said Maria Burnett, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “David had faced the increased threats to Ugandan LGBT people bravely and will be sorely missed.”

Newspapers across North America last week slammed Uganda as a “deeply” anti-homosexual country and cited Kato’s high-profile involvement in activist groups as reason for the murder. Kato reportedly had “many death threats” over the last months after he, along with other homosexual activists, was “outed” in a newspaper that published his picture.

[The_Dude 1,142]

Just a little update.

That's no update Danno, that's called propaganda. Interesting, anything the U.S. government says, you are an immediate cynic, but Uganda, you believe them huh? Figures.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Well he's not calling them homos anymore, so there's some progress.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

That's no update Danno, that's called propaganda. Interesting, anything the U.S. government says, you are an immediate cynic, but Uganda, you believe them huh? Figures.

your OP wasn't propoganda?

The moment something comes out disproving the idea that it was soem 'hate' crime, you reject it?

Kind of reminds me of all the leftists trying to blame 'right wingers' for the AZ shooting..... Reactionary BS is what it is without having all of the facts first.

[The_Dude 1,142]

your OP wasn't propoganda?

The moment something comes out disproving the idea that it was soem 'hate' crime, you reject it?

Kind of reminds me of all the leftists trying to blame 'right wingers' for the AZ shooting..... Reactionary BS is what it is without having all of the facts first.

Paul, you should probably consult the dictionary, again. It seems you don't quite grasp what propaganda is. Look at the source of the article he posted, then do a bit more reading on the topic and you'll see this is a media source with a blatant bias reporting what the Ugandan government has spread as the truth. It's not and if you read beyond your usual list of blogs and news sites that validated your own opinion, then perhaps you'd see that.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Paul, you should probably consult the dictionary, again. It seems you don't quite grasp what propaganda is. Look at the source of the article he posted, then do a bit more reading on the topic and you'll see this is a media source with a blatant bias reporting what the Ugandan government has spread as the truth. It's not and if you read beyond your usual list of blogs and news sites that validated your own opinion, then perhaps you'd see that.

and the original article was a NY Times re-post out of Nairobi... Kenya is such an honest nation in their stories as well....

[The_Dude 1,142]

and the original article was a NY Times re-post out of Nairobi... Kenya is such an honest nation in their stories as well....

You really are absurd.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

You really are absurd.

it's one of those things that you can't really say one way or another.

To boldly claim/want it to be 'anti-gay' that killed the guy is as absurd as assuming alleged propaganda that it was really his sex partner who killed him in a lovers spat or whatever... Both are plausible... It's something that we can speculate on all day. It is unfair however to get up in arms when the facts aren't present to those of us on the other side of the world other than multiple news stories...

The only ones in searching out there who even think it was still a 'hate' crime, are the gay-rights activist sites...

[Danno 1,228]

Well he's not calling them homos anymore, so there's some progress.

Whether I use the term or not doesn't change the fact that *they* use the term quite often, even naming various groups and gatherings.

THey even refer to themselves using it to decribe a "homophobe".

The only one that seems to mind are homos like you.

[The_Dude 1,142]

Whether I use the term or not doesn't change the fact that *they* use the term quite often, even naming various groups and gatherings.

THey even refer to themselves using it to decribe a "homophobe".

The only one that seems to mind are homos like you.

How do you know so much about what jargon gay people are using?