HARDY HABERMAN | Flagging Left
A few months ago when I wrote about the draconian anti-homosexual laws being passed in Uganda, I had an ominous feeling that it would be the beginning of a very real nightmare for LGBT people in that African country.
Unfortunately, that is coming to pass.
LGBT activist David Kato was murdered, not by a sniper from a distance, but by an individual who brutally beat him to death with a hammer.
A Ugandan publication had published his photo and that of other LGBT activists on the front page; above the picture were the words “Hang Them.”
Already, the authorities in Uganda are trying to cloud the issue with talk of “thieves and gangs.” But to call his death anything but the hate crime it was is ludicrous.
Beating someone to death with a hammer is up close and personal and comes from a hate-filled rage.
Much of that rage has been fueled by clergy in Uganda. One man in particular — Martin Ssempa, a man with the dubious title of “reverend.”
If you don’t think you know him, you most likely do. Ssempa was the speaker in the YouTube video that went viral last year. In that clip he is describing how gay men “eat the pooh-pooh.”
Though to us it might have seemed comical and worthy of ridicule, in Uganda, Ssempa’s words are taken seriously.
Ssempa is a well-known preacher in Uganda, and he has a lot of well-funded U.S. ties. You see, anti-gay evangelists who can’t find an audience for their hate here in this country have fanned out to proselytize in countries where their message might have more traction.
Rick Warren, the author of “A Purpose Driven Life,” was one of Ssempa’s supporters. Though he now distances himself from the Uganda situation, funds from Warren’s church helped fuel this mess. U.S. evangelicals and the ex-gay movement are big players in Ssempa’s push.
Ssempa has wrapped his hate in the banner of AIDS activism. But don’t be fooled. His brand of activism led him to burn cases of condoms “in Jesus’ name” and to sponsor gatherings with U.S. speakers like Scott Lively, who blames homosexuals for the Nazi Holocaust.
Other U.S. interlopers include Don Schmierer, who is on the board of Exodus International and who spoke at a conference in Kampala in March, 2009, where he endorsed the anti-homosexual laws that caused such an international stir.
Now as David Kato is being laid to rest the controversy continues.
A pastor speaking at his funeral lashed out at homosexuality, prompting a strong reaction from Kato’s friends. Scuffles broke out before the event was over.
Things turned so ugly that villagers refused to bury his body, and it was up to his friends to carry the coffin to the grave and complete the burial themselves.
And all this just adds fuel to the fires in Uganda.
It is unfortunate that those fires have been stoked by citizens of the U.S. who traveled to Uganda to inflame passions there. Worse, this crime is going to fall from the front pages as events in Egypt take center stage in news from Africa. Besides, the story is somewhat old news, and falls well outside the attention span of U.S. news audiences.
That’s why it is up to the LGBT media to keep this urgent human rights story alive.
Hardy Haberman is a longtime local LGBT activist and a member of Stonewall Democrats of Dallas. His blog is at https://dungeondiary.blogspot.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition Feb. 4, 2011.
4 Comments
While we may not concur with the manner in which Kato was murdered,it is painfully obvious that the LGBT sympathisers are taking his murder to be a special litmus microcosm in a bid to seek the indulgence of the world sympathy.It is imperative that we agree upon grounds of common rudiments that Kato is not the first person to die in such a manner as may be deemed savage.We have had cases of enormous Ugandans being clobbered with iron bars and no western power has come out to condemn such practices.It should be on record that the US secretary of state came out in broad day light during the anti-gay bill tsunami to state that the LGBT are America’s priority.
Follow link http://www.thatgaymagazine.com/wordpress/archives/3133.It is wrong for Americans to call us murderers yet they don’t comment on the holocausts they practice in Afghanistan and Iraq in the name of the saint angels of democracy across the globe.The guantanamo bay crisis goes without mentioning.You are hypocrites pretending to be the custodians of justice.Shame on you big scare crows.
It is rather sad for the death of Kato, but the truth of his death has actually come from his own making, caused by his own fellow homosexual recruit but not the so-called ‘homophobia’ allegation that is being advanced by the western media! (https://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1100686/-/c5a2fcz/-/index.html)
i find it rather irrelevant that pastor Ssempa is mentioned in this saga. You see the whole reason Ssempa will remain a hero despite the acronyms the western media has decided to label against him is that the western media has tried to write a story which is entirely a different cast from what is on the ground! Ssempa has prayed for homosexuals, has counseled them and actually has former gays in his church.
To me,Pastor Ssempa is a hero in my life, through his sexual responsibility campaigns and the fight against HIV/AIDS in the young people, which saved many young people including me. through his campaigns, my life has changed for the better. Have been living a sexual pure life,and getting married in few weeks to come, now living a purposeful life than before,and am not alone,we are many others including ma fiance. Am so greatful to his work.
otherwise it is so sad that Kato died this way, and actually it is a blatant lie that homos in Uganda are being ‘hunted down’! they are our neighbors, they are our friends, we dont hate them, but only what we tell them is that we dont like what they do. just. and encourage them to change and stop recruiting our children.
Kato rest in peace.
“Can anybody find me somebody to [HATE]?”
These evangelical churches and ministers would be labeled as TERRORISTS if they came to America and incited this kind of bigoted hatred and bloodshed and now death. I call them as I see them “American terrorists” that went to Uganda to stir up thier fake brand of religous fantasy and fervor. This can all be traced back to fear based fund raising tactics that these horrible bigots wrote the book on.