Hate No More!

BY NOREEN FAGAN – Gay activists and human rights group in Uganda have launched a four-month-long campaign: Hate No More.

The campaign is a human-rights marketing blitz by Freedom
and Roam Uganda (FARUG) and the Uganda Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights
and Constitutional Law.

Hate No More aims “to create awareness of sexual and
physical abuses against LGBT people in Uganda,” and its timing preempts the
possible reintroduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda’s parliament.

Like any savvy social media organization, FARUG set up a Facebook page with this message:

“Time to go out to the masses and educate them about our
existence and also call for their tolerance and understanding of sexuality and
sexual orientation issues. We are calling for an end to HATE towards the LGBT
community.”

According to the website Behind the Mask, the Hate No More campaign will use various tools —
including social media and one-on-one meetings — to call for an end “to discrimination, stigma, hatred and
humiliation of homosexuals.”

One week before the launch of the campaign, the FARUG
offices were broken into and vandalized. All the computers, printers and
electronic databases were stolen and acid was poured into padlocks, on the
floor and around the office.

In an article on the African Activist website, Kasha
Jacqueline Nabagesera, director of FARUG, said that they were unsure whether the
robbery was a “normal robbery or a targeted one.”

She was also adamant that the Hate No More campaign would go ahead.

At the launch
of the campaign Nabagesera said, “gays are not asking for special rights… for a
long time, gays in Uganda have been harassed, cajoled, insulted, discriminated
against and referred to as beasts.”

She added that
homosexuals live in fear because of who they are.

“The homophobia
is given a voice by the press, institutionalized by the Penal Code and given
strength by the politicians and religious leaders,” Nabagesera said. “We demand
because our rights are inherent and are enshrined in the Constitution of the
Republic of Uganda.”

Bravo!

Let’s hope that Hate No More does a great job and that it
gets all the support it deserves. I certainly stand by it and will keep checking
in to see how it is doing.