#kuchus

"Call Me Kuchu-- the title refers to the term LGBT activists in Uganda have adopted for themselves -- is alternately heartbreaking and inspirational [and] puts a human face on the fight for gay rights in Uganda." 

Montrealers can catch this Divine Docs film TONIGHT at Cinema Politica McGill! Event details: http://www.cinemapolitica.org/screening/mcgill/call-me-kuchu

But you still have hope?

Life must go on. It’s all we have. If we can still breathe, then there’s a lot we can still achieve. Yes, the laws are strict, but the constitution itself provides for me to be in this country — to live in this country as a Ugandan. The part of me that this law is trying to criminalize, well, the law is abusing the constitution. I have a right to life. I have a right to health. I am not my sexuality, I am a human being. My sexuality, my identity, are part of me being human.

Read the full interview with Pepe Julian Onziema, one of the leading LGBT rights activists in Kampala, Uganda. He is working to fight the recently passed Anti-Homosexuality Act. He is the programs director at the gay rights organization Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and was the 2012 recipient of a Clinton Global Citizen Award for his advocacy work.

"I was born gay, and I was born a Muslim. I know there’s a reason god created me like this. I have the guts to be both." — Akram 

Image and caption by Daniella Zalcman. Uganda, 2014.

Zalcman is in the field reporting from Uganda on the discrimination faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex citizens. While some have fled for the marginally more accepting Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda, many more have buried personal lives far from view.

Coming Soon: "Kuchus in Uganda," by Daniella Zalcman

Ugandan Gay Rights activist David Kato was  brutally murdered yesterday in Kampala. Kato was found at his home battered to death and appears to victim of robbery attempt; the assailant used a hammer to bash Kato’s skull in.

Although investigators categorizing the tragedy as an attempted robbery, many are crying foul. Kato’s recent high profile has brought attention to his cause but subsequently earned him more enemies; friends and family believe his sexually orientation and political activism is the motive for his slaying. Kato began campaigning for Gay Right in 1998 and some believe the “empty threats” that he has been receiving for some time have finally manifest themselves.