my family should not go through
all the problems that may come
with me being gay and I said to
myself I have to leave and not to
hate them. I don’t hate them for
what they did. At first, I did, but
later I came to understand when
people started beating up gays and
burning houses of people where
they felt there was a gay person in
that home, that’s when I said it’s
time to leave, but it was painful.
community or help us openly
through an organisation for
empowering youth or helping
young women and men with HIV.
The International community can
help gay men and women who are
underground, to help Ugandans
get a safe house, which has its own
compound and privacy away from
towns, where we can help the gays
who come with different problems.
This safe place can be where we
can provide the knowledge of the
What is the current feeling on importance of using condoms. We
homosexuality within
can provide them with lubes and
Kampala at this moment?
condoms. Where they will feel safe
to come and tell us what they are
Homosexuality within Kampala is going through. We need funds for
so difficult. You can be killed very all these. Let’s not forget we need
easily if someone says you’re gay. I to have our own lawyer, who can
have never personally been a
stand by us in court, when one of
victim of violence because I have
our own is arrested. All these need
never been openly gay but have
funding and the only people who
seen many.
can help us now are the
International community. If you
What are your views on
feel you understand what we are
Uganda’s passing of the Anti- feeling and you are ready to help
Homosexuality Bill?
us, start it. We can do it, and
through God’s help, I believe we
My views on Uganda's Antican make it. I need your trust for
Homosexuality Bill, it’s taken away
all of these ideas to move forward.
the rights of men who are gay and
We cannot keep seeing young boys
taken us back many years. Most
take their lives in fear.
MPs who passed the bill are
Muslims, so it was easy to pass. All
Do you fear for your own life,
this started when Mr. Obama
knowing Uganda’s stance on
started telling Africa to be open to
homosexuality?
Homosexuality, so people started
saying the West are bringing the
Yes, I do fear for my life but what
culture to us, which is bad to God can I do? I wasn’t openly gay so
and African culture. This is how it not many people knew. Many
got to the MPs. It has brought
openly gay men have run away
many problems to gay men in
from Uganda to Kenya because
many ways. We had a club where there was a reward and it’s still
we would go and meet but it was
there for whoever brings a gay
closed. The groups we had for the man to the police. I thought to
gay community were all closed,
myself, will over 1 million Uganda
even for the people with HIV/
gays run away? No? So let’s see
AIDS they fear to go get treatment how we can fight these, even if it
etc.
means underground.
You say that problems started
when Obama intervened, do
you think the international
community should be
involved? Is there anything
that people from outside
Africa could do to help?
The international community
must, and I stress, must be
involved to help gay Ugandans,
directly or indirectly. Indirectly,
they can use organisations that
aren’t in anyway related to the gay
Are people taught that
homosexuality is a bad thing
or is it a subject that isn’t
brought up a lot?
The topic of homosexuality is
taught as a bad thing. I know
many people are still here, so
many. We use Facebook to
communicate nowadays as we are
talking and we are planning a
meeting soon. We are still raising
funds to rent a hall in a very
For the
Uganda gay
community, I
would like to
advise them
not to openly
show that
they are gay
because of the
risk; and to
pray and
believe that
change will
come. We can
be together
and that
killing
[yourself]
won’t help.
We are tired
of burials.
AUG / SEPT 2014 | THEGAYUK 55
ITV