Uganda: Gay in Uganda and Not Giving Up

By Laura Conaway

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Fri Dec 23, 2011 12:15 PM EST

From the Advocate

Frank Mugisha, a gay activist in Uganda, writes today in the New York Times about what is happening around him:

A veil of silence enforced by thuggish street violence and official criminalization is falling over much of Africa. Being a gay activist is a sacrifice. You have to carefully choose which neighborhood to live in. You cannot go shopping on your own, let alone go clubbing or to parties. With each public appearance you risk being attacked, beaten or arrested by the police.
I remember the moment when my friend David Kato, Uganda’s best-known gay activist, sat with me in the small unmarked office of our organization, Sexual Minorities Uganda. “One of us will probably die because of this work,” he said. We agreed that the other would then have to continue.

David Kato was killed this year, bludgeoned to death in January. Last month, the man responsible was sentenced to 30 years in prison. And Mr. Mugisha works on, standing, as he writes today, on the shoulders of giants like David Kato.
(Photo: The Advocate)