Uganda's 'Kill the Gays' Bill Is Back

[DonViejo]

Janson Wu

As Anti-Homosexuality Act is set to be reintroduced, local activists have built a broad coalition that links the bill with other social issues.

David Bahati, the sponsor of Uganda’s notorious Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), announced this weekend that he intends to reintroduce the bill in parliament, after a court found it invalid for procedural reasons last August.

But this time will be different. President Yoweri Museveni is under heavy pressure not to once again invite international condemnation by supporting it. More importantly, the Ugandan coalition opposing it is broad-based and deep. In fact, American activists could learn a lot from their Ugandan counterparts.

On a recent trip to Uganda, I met with local LGBT activists – and one lesson consistently emerged as key to their strategy: the fight for LGBT rights must be situated within a broader campaign for human rights and civil liberties.

For example, I met with Adrian Jjuuko, Executive Director of Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum. He’s a young, energetic attorney whose office is lined with case binders from major LGBT rights cases he has helped win. That includes the successful lawsuit against Rollingstone Magazine for publishing a front-cover headline advocating that key LGBT activists be hung, and the most recent case that led to the nullifying of the AHA. Jjuuko has been on the front lines of the fight since graduating law school only six years ago.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/01/uganda-s-kill-the-gays-bill-is-back.html

[RKP5637]

1. Excellent point! " ... the fight for LGBT rights must be situated within

a broader campaign for human rights and civil liberties."