Tanzanian gay rights activist found dead at home

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI – Identity Kenya says that a Tanzanian gay rights activist was found dead in his Dar es Salaam home, and murder is suspected as police begin their investigations.

The Kenya Sexual and Gender Minorities News Service says Maurice Mjomba appears to have been strangled and may have been dead for several days, but results of an autopsy are pending. It is also unclear whether his death was motivated by homophobia.

Mjomba was a founding member of Stay Awake Network Activities (SANA), a sexual health
education organization for men who have sex with men (MSM). Fellow activists and friends remember Mjomba as hardworking, diligent and honest, saying his death is a loss to the fledgling queer community in Tanzania, Identity Kenya says.

Meanwhile, here in Canada, Xtra‘s Justin Ling has learned that a Toronto-area lesbian faces deportation to Uganda, after her most recent rejection letter from the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Her deportation date is set for Aug 4.

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

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