Ugandan gay group’s office robbed, vandalized

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI — The offices of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) have been robbed and vandalized, Identity Kenya reports.

Stolen items include computers, a gas cooker, an audio recorder and a water dispenser, according to the report.

Gay rights campaigner Frank Mugisha says the incident poses risks to the country’s gay community. “‘Since I got the news, I am worried what those who stole will get from the information on the computers,” he told Identity Kenya.

While police are said to be investigating the incident, no arrests have yet been made. The robbery occurred just two weeks after parliament adjourned before debating the anti-homosexuality bill, which reportedly still includes the death penalty for so-called aggravated homosexuality.

Last July, the offices of another gay organization, Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG), were also broken into. Items stolen included a membership list, the report notes. No one has been arrested in connection with that incident, either. Identity Kenya says that four days before that robbery, SMUG offices were also broken into, but someone was present in the building.

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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