Ugandan tabloid prints list of ‘tycoons who bankroll homos’
The Red Pepper, a Ugandan tabloid, has published a full-page article with the personal details of people who, it claims, ‘bankroll Ugandan homos’, Box Turtle Bulletin reports.
The paper, which has previously incited action against supporters of homosexual rights, printed the names, addresses, offices and makes of car belonging to the people it suspects are financing rights movements in the country.
In the article, ‘coordinators’ in the African country’s LGBT community are reported to be paid a monthly salary in the region of US$780, many times more than the average Ugandan.
It also claims the blogger GayUganda shares in a US$20m fund from foreign sources. The claim was dismissed on the blog today.
The paper has previously run articles ‘outing’ scores of men in the country. Red Pepper’s exposé explained “how to spot a gay man”, “terminologies used by gays” and “how the gay men shaft”, a description of gay sex.
It claimed that lubricants were “sent to the gays here from abroad.”
The Box Turtle and blogger GayUganda identify the paper’s source for its most recent article as Paul Kagaba, an “ex-gay”.
Uganda is currently under the international microscope for its proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which would criminalise advocacy and support by and for LGBT people in the country. The penalties include five to seven years’ imprisonment, and fines of up to US$50,000. The law would also punish Ugandan citizens who have gay sex abroad.
Homosexuality is currently punishable by life imprisonment in Uganda, under laws introduced by colonial administrations in the nineteenth century.
The bill’s proposal to implement the death penalty for certain homosexual offences caused international outrage. The BBC has been criticised for its handling of the debate.
The Minister for Ethics subsequently suggested that penalty would be removed in favour of rehabilitating offenders. According to Reuters, he said: “There have been a lot of discussions in government … regarding the proposed law, but we now think a life sentence could be better because it gives room for offenders to be rehabilitated. Killing them might not be helpful.”
Friends and family members of gay Ugandans who do not report them to authorities would face up to three years in prison.
The bill is due to be debated again in January.
