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| David Kato Kisule (February 13, 1964 - January 26, 2011) |
David Kato Kisule (February 13, 1964 – January 26, 2011)
A respected
teacher and iconic LGBT rights activist, considered a father of Uganda's gay
rights movement and one of the founding members of SMUG (Sexual Minorities
Uganda), David Kato was bludgeoned to death with a hammer in 2011, shortly
after winning a lawsuit against the Ugandan tabloid newspaper Rolling Stone,
which had published his name and photograph along with 99 other people, calling
for their execution as homosexuals. The article was published in October 2010
and on November 2, 2010; Kato along with two other SMUG members, sued the
tabloid to force it to stop publishing the names and pictures of people it
believed to be gay or lesbian. The photos were published under a headline of
"Hang them" and were accompanied by the individuals' addresses. Giles
Muhame, the paper's managing editor, commented: "I haven't seen the court
injunction but the war against gays will and must continue. We have to protect
our children from this dirty homosexual affront.” On January 3, 2011, High
Court Justice V. F. Kibuuka Musoke ruled that Rolling Stone's
publication of the lists, and the accompanying incitation to violence,
threatened Kato's and the others' "fundamental rights and freedoms;"
attacked their right to human dignity; and violated their constitutional right
to privacy. The court ordered the newspaper to pay Kato and the other two
plaintiff 1.5 million Ugandan shillings each. It was a short lived victory for
Kato, but he shone the light for the thousands of stigmatized and vulnerable
LGBT people in Africa and gave them courage to
stand up and fight for their rights.
