It is challenging to know if such information is accurate. But, confirming the latest form of torture is beside the point, really. What we do know is that the news from overseas is rarely encouraging.

For example, in March “tens of thousands” of people from Burundi demonstrated to outlaw homosexuality. This destitute nation is the kind of place that you may have seen in late night infomercials where flies buzz around the lips of starving children. Eighty percent of Burundi’s population lives in poverty. Famines and food shortages have occurred and the World Food Program reports that 56.8-percent of children under age five suffer from chronic malnutrition. Yet, the good citizens of Burundi have time to chant and hold signs demanding the imprisonment of homosexuals.

Back to Iraq – our tax dollars are now overseeing the wanton murder of gay Iraqis. The New York Times reported this month that “the bodies of 25 boys and men suspected of being gay have turned up in the huge Shiite enclave of Sadr City…”

In Nigeria, lawmakers are debating a bill that would imprison gay people who live together and jail anyone who doesn’t rat out the gay couples. In July 2008, London’s Independent wrote a story about a 26-year-old gay man in Turkey, Ahmet Yildiz, saying that his own family may have killed him. “They wanted him to see a doctor who could cure him, and get married,” a friend explained. 

Box Turtle Bulletin reported that a Ugandan newspaper this week published an article under the banner headline, “Top Homos In Uganda Named.” This outrage – that jeopardizes the lives of gay people – follows a recent anti-gay conference in Uganda featuring a board member from the American “ex-gay” organization Exodus International. 

In Moscow, mayor Yuri Luzhkov has rejected calls for a gay pride march to be held during an upcoming European music festival. He has called pride parades, “gay propaganda” and “satanic acts”, according to the New York Times. 

What we are seeing in front of our eyes is the globalization of gay bashing. The United States has exported marketing techniques and church structures to culturally homophobic countries. The sexual minorities caught in these nations do not have the same freedoms that we enjoy in the west, so they can’t fight back. They are essentially voiceless and fearful – allowing insidious myths and stereotypes to go unchallenged.  With gay people effectively demonized and hatred promoted by civic and religious leaders, hysteria on gay issues ensues. 

“U.S. religious right sponsored programs blossomed under the Bush administration,” explained Christina Engela of the GLBT group SAGLAAD in South Africa, noting the rise of such groups in her country. “Suddenly these people are using us as scapegoats to unite and build their power bases.”

Unfortunately, the GLBT community is not currently up to meeting the new global challenges. Passive and overly cautious bureaucrats staff some of our leading human rights organizations. They are good at reporting violence, but not very effective at countering it.

Even more disturbing, they sometimes serve as apologists in the name of cultural and religious sensitivity. Exhibit A is Scott Long, director of the GLBT program at Human Rights Watch. In the publication “Contemporary Politics” he lashed out at some of the world’s top gay activists and chided them for demanding that Muslims actually respect the right of GLBT people to exist.

“The incessant insistence that Muslim communities accede to the political agenda of LGBT identities actually forecloses politics altogether,” Long wrote. “It fences off the arena of shared interests….”

So, in other words, GLBT people should put their human rights on the backburner to assuage the grievances of religious people. We should also not act on our own behalf until all of the world’s problems are solved. 

Fortunately, there are a growing number of GLBT activists who will no longer allow culture, history or religion to be employed as a rationalization for homophobia. We do not believe that a state’s sovereignty enables it to brutalize and marginalize gay people within its borders.

The world is shrinking even faster than our community’s leadership on global issues.  It is time for groups, such as Human Rights Watch, to show us their comprehensive strategy for creating a new paradigm. The bloody status quo has brought us few victories and an abundance of ruddy reports that shock the senses. Many of us are tired of the elitist sophistry that tells us the world is too sophisticated to take action.

In the absence of leadership, there are those who will fill the vacuum – as some of us have done in our efforts to boycott Jamaica. But, the tired excuses from human rights groups have got to end. An unmistakable message must be sent that there is a steep price to pay for homophobia.

Sex between two people of the same sex  already is a criminal offense in Uganda – punishable by life imprisonment – although there are no records of any recent convictions.

Now the government is prepared to expand the law, making it a criminal offense to be gay. The legislation would make any public display of being gay a crime.

International human rights and LGBT groups have called on Kampala to drop the bill and repeal the sodomy law.

Last week, about 20 gays and lesbians staged a rally in the capital denouncing the government. One woman said she was publicly stripped naked and taunted by a pastor and his congregation as they attempted to exorcise her.

On the weekend the government rejected the criticism.

“Many lies are being peddled,” Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo told a news conference. ” Such lies include foolish claims that some people are born as homosexuals. They are busy enticing Ugandans to join them. This is causing great concern among Ugandans.”

Nsaba Buturo also told reporters that the government has instructed its ambassador to the United Nations to oppose any resolution that would support homosexuality in Uganda.

“Yesterday, I spoke to Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda and reminded him of Uganda’s position, which opposes legalization of homosexuality. It is the duty of Ugandans to be vigilant because agents of immorality are busy using all lies and deceptions to hurt our society,” he said.

Last month the Obama administration formally endorsed a U.N. declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality.

Uganda has a long history of homophobia.

In 2007, Uganda’s leading Muslim cleric called for gays to be rounded up and marooned on an island in Lake Victoria until they die.

Sheikh Ramathan Shaban Mubajje told reporters of his plan following a much publicized meeting with President Yoweri Museveni.

“I asked President Museveni to get us an island on Lake Victoria and we take these homosexuals and they die out there,” Mubajje said. “If they die there then we shall have no more homosexuals in the country.”

Mubajje’s remarks followed similar threats by other Islamic leaders.

Muslim Tabliqh Youth announced a plan to form an ‘Anti-Gay Squad’ to fight homosexuality in Uganda.

Sheikh Multah Bukenya, a senior cleric in the Tabliqh Organization, was quoted during prayers at Noor Mosque in Kampala as saying that his followers are “ready to act swiftly and form this squad that will wipe out all abnormal practices like homosexuality in our society.”

Anti-gay attacks are commonplace in Uganda.

A coalition of Christian and Muslim religious groups filled a downtown stadium in 2007 demanding mass arrests of gays.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission following the rally said that it had uncovered evidence that the Bush administration had funded groups in Uganda that actively promote violence and discrimination against lesbians and gay men.

Among those receiving money, according to US government records, was Uganda Muslim Tabliqh, and the Makerere University Community Church,

The church’s leader, Pastor Martin Ssempa, was a leading organizer of the anti-gay rallies in Kampala.

Ssempa and his coalition, which includes Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, and Evangelicals, also have threatened the safety of Ugandan LGBT rights activists by posting their names, photos and addresses on a Web site.

Sex between two people of the same sex  already is a criminal offense in Uganda – punishable by life imprisonment – although there are no records of any recent convictions.

Last October the government announced it would expand the law to make it a criminal offense to be gay. 

“We want it to become law in that if someone is a homosexual or confesses to being a gay or lesbian, then he is a criminal,” said Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo at a news conference announcing the bill.

Last week for several days hundreds of protestors staged anti-gay rallies, accusing gays of attempting to convert schoolchildren to homosexuality.

On Tuesday about 20 gays and lesbians staged a rally in the capital, Kampala.

One woman said she was publicly stripped naked and taunted by a pastor and his congregation as they attempted to exorcise her. 

“That did not stop me from being a lesbian,” she said.

Uganda also has been criticized by international human rights groups for its abuse of gays and lesbians.

The government later said it had no intention of either repealing the sodomy law or dropping the bill to make any public display of being gay a crime.

“Uganda is a Christian country” Buturo told reporters, adding that the country ” loves gays and homosexuals” but hates their activities. 

In 2007, Uganda’s leading Muslim cleric called for gays to be rounded up and marooned on an island in Lake Victoria until they die.

Sheikh Ramathan Shaban Mubajje told reporters of his plan following a much publicized meeting with President Yoweri Museveni.

“I asked President Museveni to get us an island on Lake Victoria and we take these homosexuals and they die out there,” Mubajje said. “If they die there then we shall have no more homosexuals in the country.”

Mubajje’s remarks followed similar threats by other Islamic leaders.

Muslim Tabliqh Youth announced a plan to form an ‘Anti-Gay Squad’ to fight homosexuality in Uganda. 

Sheikh Multah Bukenya, a senior cleric in the Tabliqh Organization, was quoted during prayers at Noor Mosque in Kampala as saying that his followers are “ready to act swiftly and form this squad that will wipe out all abnormal practices like homosexuality in our society.”

Anti-gay attacks are commonplace in Uganda.

A coalition of Christian and Muslim religious groups filled a downtown stadium in 2007 demanding mass arrests of gays.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission following the rally said that it had uncovered evidence that the Bush administration had funded groups in Uganda that actively promote violence and discrimination against lesbians and gay men.

Among those receiving money, according to US government records, was Uganda Muslim Tabliqh, and the Makerere University Community Church,

The church’s leader, Pastor Martin Ssempa, was a leading organizer of the anti-gay rallies in Kampala.

Ssempa and his coalition, which includes Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, and Evangelicals, also have threatened the safety of Ugandan LGBT rights activists by posting their names, photos and addresses on a Web site.

Sex between two people of the same sex  already is a criminal offense in Uganda – punishable by life imprisonment – but Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo told a weekend news conference he does not know of a single conviction.

Buturo said the government is concerned about what he called the “mushrooming” number of gays and lesbians in the country.

Under the legislation being planned it would be illegal just to be gay

“We want it to become law in that if someone is a homosexual or confesses to being a gay or lesbian, then he is a criminal,” Buturo said.
Last year Uganda’s leading Muslim cleric called for gays to be rounded up and marooned on an island in Lake Victoria until they die.

Sheikh Ramathan Shaban Mubajje told reporters of his plan following last October after a much publicized meeting with President Yoweri Museveni.

“I asked President Museveni to get us an island on Lake Victoria and we take these homosexuals and they die out there,” Mubajje said. “If they die there then we shall have no more homosexuals in the country.”

Others at the meeting reportedly said that the president did not respond to the suggestion.

Mubajje’s remarks followed similar threats by other Islamic leaders.

Earlier last year, Muslim Tabliqh youth announced a plan to form an ‘Anti-Gay Squad’ to fight homosexuality in Uganda.

On 28 August 2007, Sheikh Multah Bukenya, a senior cleric in the Tabliqh Organization, was quoted during prayers at Noor Mosque in Kampala as saying that his followers are “ready to act swiftly and form this squad that will wipe out all abnormal practices like homosexuality in our society.”

Anti-gay attacks are commonplace in Uganda but have increased since August when Ugandan LGBT rights groups for the first time held a public news conference to demand basic civil rights. Many of the participants wore disguises out of fears of government reprisals.

A week later supporters of a coalition of Christian and Muslim religious groups filled a downtown stadium demanding mass arrests of gays.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission last year said that it had uncovered evidence that the Bush administration has funded groups in Uganda that actively promote violence and discrimination against lesbians and gay men.

Among those receiving money, according to US government records, is Uganda Muslim Tabliqh, and the Makerere University Community Church,

The church’s leader, Pastor Martin Ssempa, was a leading organizer of the anti-gay rally in Kampala.

Ssempa and his coalition, which includes Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, and Evangelicals, also have threatened the safety of Ugandan LGBT rights activists by posting their names, photos and addresses on a Web site.

Usaam Mukwaaya was on his way back from Friday prayers when he allegedly was stopped by a police patrol car and taken off a motorbike taxi that he had hired to transport him. 

Three men in police uniforms and a fourth in civilian attire put Mukwaaya in the patrol car. He was driven to a building where he was led through a dark hall to an interrogation room, and aggressively questioned about the Ugandan LGBT movement.

Mukwaaya was cut around the hands and tortured with a machine that applies extreme pressure to the body, preventing breathing and causing severe pain, according to Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and Sexual Minorities Uganda .

Sexual Minorities Uganda – a coalition of 3 LGBTI organizations in Uganda – and representatives of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission searched unsuccessfully for Mukwaaya for nearly 24 hours, inquiring as to his whereabouts at five police stations in Kampala.

He surfaced the following day saying he had been driven from the building where he’d been held and dumped. 

Shaken and bruised, he said he boarded a motorbike taxi to the city center and telephoned colleagues from SMUG who found him weak, filthy and without shoes and some of his clothing.

Earlier this year Mukwaaya was detained while demonstrating for access by gay people to HIV services. 

“The abduction and torture of a Ugandan HIV and AIDS activist who faces trial for holding a peaceful protest reveals the danger to those who challenge the government’s policies,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

All three groups called on Ugandan authorities to “investigate the abduction and torture and sanction those responsible.”

“Uganda’s government promotes homophobia when it should be protecting its citizens against HIV and Aids,” said Scott Long, HRW’s director for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program.

Although the activists were released on June 6, Human Rights Watch urged the government to drop all charges against the three and to stop future arrests and prosecution of activists working on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.

On June 3, 2008, police in Kampala detained Onziema Patience, Valentine Kalende, and Usaam Mukwaaya while demonstrating during the HIV/AIDS Implementers Meeting – a conference aimed at sharing lessons learned and best practices for HIV/AIDS programs. 

The three activists were protesting remarks made the day before by the chair of the Uganda AIDS Commission, Kihumuro Apuuli who had declared that “gays are one of the drivers of HIV in Uganda,” and that the government could not afford direct prevention and care.

“Silence around HIV/AIDS kills,” said Juliana Cano Nieto, researcher of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “LGBT people do not ‘drive’ HIV in Uganda, but they have driven many community-based responses. They deserve recognition and inclusion, not repression and jail.”

The three activists face charges of “criminal trespass” under article 302 of the Uganda Criminal Code. Even though cosponsors of the Implementers Meeting later provided the activists with appropriate accreditation, the police detained one of the activists for over four hours and charged him with “forgery of documents.” All three face a court hearing on June 20, 2008.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly criticized Uganda for abuse based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

In an August 2007 letter, Human Rights Watch wrote to President Museveni concerning threatening statements made by government officials against LGBT people in Uganda. In an October 2007 letter, Human Rights Watch expressed alarm over authorities’ call to tighten enforcement of the country’s draconian sodomy law, which punishes homosexual conduct with up to life imprisonment. 

“When police silence voices defending public health, the only winner is the virus,” Nieto said. “Uganda’s once-praised HIV prevention efforts are giving way to prejudice and fear.”