Sorry, I have not been able to update this particular blog. Found myself too busy with what was happening. Personal and the open things. Check them out on gayuganda.blogspot.com

A friend S wrote this particular entry.

 

It is a good thing that the Pastors organised this

demo. It falls in an area specifically tailored to the

religious leaders' message. The gay issue is one the

pastors can handle well since they have a ready

reference which their "calling" allows them to quote

authoritatively at will - the Bible.

 

I am of the view that this demonstration was

necessary. Why do I say that? On a very basic level,

it showed that Uganda has taken some baby steps where

freedom of speech is concerned. Yes, the demonstrators

were preaching a message the government wanted to hear

but to me the important thing is that this demo

allowed the viewers to hear the alternative view after

the gay boys and girls had stated theirs at Speke

Hotel.

 

I supported Sempa's demo and would support any others

in the future for a reason I alluded to some time ago;

all publicity is good publicity if you are on the

receiving end of human rights violations. The more

Sempa rallies the faithful, the more the issue of

homosexuality makes the headlines. The more the press

emblazon it onto their front pages, the more critical

thinking it elicits. And history is on the side of

critical thinking on this matter because everywhere

that critical thinking has been allowed to reign, the

threat of homosexuality to civilization has been

debunked even if not the lack of understanding of the

phenomenon.

 

Yet, as the girls and boys eloquently put it last

week, unless they are asking to change their sexuality

(in which case they know where Pastor Sempa is) they

should be left alone. Their houses should not be

raided by prurient LCIs, aided and abetted by the

police, on mere suspicion that that they are

homosexual and they should not be fondled and groped

in police stations either as if the police have the

litmus test for sodomy in their hands.

 

Yesterday, Sempa was correct on the Biblical verses he

selectively quoted but he was dead wrong on the law.

This is because the law in Uganda doesn’t criminalize

homosexuality; it criminalizes the sexual act in this

reference:

 

Any person who --

(a) has carnal knowledge of any person against the

order of nature; or

(b) has carnal knowledge of an animal; or

(c) permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of

him or her against the order of nature,

is guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for

life.

(Chapter XV - Section 140 (Offences Against Morality)

 

So, unless one can prove that the aforementioned

carnal act took place, no crime can be lodged. And if

there is no complainant in a consensual homosexual

relationship, again no law-breaking can be proved.

More interestingly, if a homosexual relationship is

proved but carnal knowledge is not, again there is no

crime.

 

But, an idle LCI could take it upon himself (as one

did with the girls who took the government to court)

to go and investigate whether there is carnal

knowledge going on inside the house of suspected

homosexuals. He would have to get a warrant to break

down the door or else he would have to knock politely

and ask to be let in to investigate – with police in

tow of course because the LCI doesn’t have any

arresting powers. The former would be an invasion of

privacy and so and the latter would be foolish. The

LCI in question knocked, was let in by a fully clothed

but very boyish girl and then he proceeded to rifle

through bags and briefcases upon which he came across

gay activist literature and then made a citizen's

arrest of the sole he found in the house. He took the

girl to the police station where she was forced to

strip, was fondled and groped ostensibly to prove that

she was actually a girl. Now, if that is not a

violation of human rights, and the law, I don’t know

what is.

 

There is something else that Sempa forgot; Uganda’s

law targets straight people, too. Yes, yes, straight

people can and do have “carnal knowledge� of their

wives and girlfriends, usually on a consensual basis.

But the burden of proving that a “carnal� crime has

been committed is exactly the same as it would be if

the couple were homosexual and that might be the

reason why Sempa doesn’t want to talk about

heterosexual “carnal knowledge.� It is impossible that

he doesn’t know about straight carnal knowledge so one

has to assume that he singles out gays and omits the

straights deliberately.

 

All this might sound pedantic but that is the law and

that is why Nsaba Buturo pussy foots and Nyakairima

squirms when he is asked why the gays at Speke Hotel

were not arrested. The answer is simple; based on the

language of Uganda’s current law, which I have quoted

above, you cannot arrest someone simply because they

are homosexual.