Ugandan gays and lesbians ‘attacked after being outed’
Several gays and lesbians in Uganda say they have been attacked after a newspaper published their names, photographs and addresses.
After the Rolling Stone newspaper called for them to be hanged, a gay activist in the country says that one woman was almost killed when her neighbours pelted her house with stones.
Frank Mugisha of Sexual Minorities Uganda told the BBC that most of the people who appeared on the list had been harassed and some had been physically attacked.
He said: “We have got people who have been threatened to be thrown out of work, people who have been threatened by their own family members, who want to throw them out of their own houses.”
Some of those on the list are thought to have gone into hiding.
Police said they had not received any reports of homophobic attacks.
Rolling Stone, which is not related to the US magazine, said it would continue to publish the details of gay people to protect the “moral fabric of our nation”.
Giles Muhame, the managing editor of the newspaper, defended his story, saying it was his duty as a journalist to “expose the evil in our society”.
“Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda but nobody is taking action against these people,” he told the Guardian.
“They are recruiting new members among our kids, and destroying the moral fabric of our country.”
Last year, Uganda’s attitudes to gays and lesbians came under global scrutiny after an MP introduced a bill to execute or jail for life people convicted of homosexuality.
The bill is thought to have been shelved for now.
