It has been and still is a very thorny issue in Uganda. It is not yet resolved. It is an issue that is going to greatly run in the Ugandan media next year.
2010 is election campaign year with the opposition candidates already on the campaign trail. Presidential and Parliamentary elections are due in 2011 (about 13 months away). Homosexuality, federalism and the land law between landlords and tenants are likely to be the issues to headline the Ugandan election of 2011.
But unlike the rest, homosexuality has already caused a huge storm in the international and Ugandan media. It has caused at a storm at the BBC where a debate on whether homosexuals should be executed was posted. World leaders including President Barack Obama, Rev. Rick Warren and Hilary Clinton have already condemned Uganda’s insistence on tabling such a controversial bill. Sweden and a host of other European countries are threatening to cut off vital aid to Uganda. A South African paper has called Uganda to be ruled by evil minds by denying gay people their human rights.
The most notable position of the government regarding homosexuality was when the ethics Minister Nsaba Buturo came out strongly against the practice calling it anal sex and adding that the Ugandan government will never be forced to endorse such an evil practice.
A Ugandan girl gay couple has recently come out to openly call for gay rights, a clear indication that gay people exist in our communities. The gay people in Uganda have strongly come out in the past to demand their rights appearing on TV shows, holding a press conference and the most bold act of hijacking an International HIV/AIDS conference that was taking place in Kampala.
Now that elections are getting closer with leaders courting the population for votes, this is an issue that is bound to be a vote winner. Most Ugandans would not vote for a pro-gay person but if gay people indeed exist, this is the time they have to stand up and be counted. If their numbers are big, this is the occassion they certainly need to hijack to fully become Ugandans.
