Gay Panic

Doug Ireland describes a witch-hunt in Uganda, where a publication linked to the president is outing homosexuals and then police and private bigots do the rest:

The police in Jinja, Uganda's second largest city, have "launched an operation to repress the gays, who were on the verge of winning the heterosexual generation of the district," announced the September 7 issue of the popular sex-and-scandal tabloid daily newspaper Red Pepper under the screaming headline, "JINJA COPS HUNT FOR GAYS."

The newspaper called on the public to cooperate in tracking down "sodomites" to prevent them from "polluting" the general population, published the photo of a young gay man who was said to have intimate links to a man already imprisoned in for homosexuality -- which is punishable with life imprisonment in Uganda -- and urged its readers to help track down the young man.

The next day, September 8, under the headline "KAMPALA'S NOTORIOUS LESBIANS UNEARTHED," Red Pepper published the names of 13 alleged lesbians, including two boutique owners, a basketball player, and the daughters of a former member of parliament and of a prominent sheikh. "To rid our motherland of the deadly vice [of lesbianism], we are committed to exposing all the lesbos in the city" of Kampala, the nation's capital, the newspaper proclaimed, while telling its readers to "Send more names"…

Last July, police raided the home of SMUG's [Sexual Minorities-Uganda, which may boast the worst organizational acronym of all time] chairperson, lesbian activist Victor Juliet Mukasa, seizing documents and arresting another lesbian activist. Mukasa said those named in the new outing campaign are "living under unbelieveable fear of being arrested, ostracized by their families, or sacked from their jobs."

Comments

[SR]

Are the Ugandans hoping to recruit Rick Santorum and Katherine Harris as legislators after they become free agents this November?

[MUTT]

Such Godly people......perhaps we cant convince our, uh, Godly people to move there, and leave this horrible, Soddom. We can trade them for a bunch of gay Ugandans. Win/win, I say.....

[Postmodern Postdoc]

How dare you report such drivel. All cultures are equally worthwhile.

[PiGuy]

Life terms for convictions of being gay? Is this intended to deter homsexual activity? Maybe it's just folk lore but don't we tend to think that cons here engage in homosexual behavior?

What is it about homosexuality that scares people so much? I always hear that they're going to influence otherwise straight people into being gay. It seems to me that if there were more people like that there would be less people like that...

[Mr. Nice Guy]

NOTORIOUS LESBIANS UNEARTHED
"...we are committed to exposing all the lesbos in the city."

For a moment I thought it was an episode in the "Girls Gone Wild" series. Sigh.

[joe]

Uh, yeah, post-doc. There certainly aren't political campaigns and law enforcement operations based around gay bashing in civilized cultures.

You know, like Texas.

[Son of a!]

I always hear that they're going to influence otherwise straight people into being gay.

Yeah, I don't get that. It reminds of the "He's trying to steal my girlfriend!" mentality. You can't let your girlfriend/wife hang around with just any old guy, or else she'll be compelled to cheat on you.

Full disclosure: My [ex-]wife cheated on me. I'm sure that's just a coincidence, though.

[Isaac Bartram]

You know, like Texas.

Y'know joe, I'm not really convinced that your average beat cop in Texas is anymore homophobic than one in...oh say...Massachusetts. But presented with evidence I would concede I was wrong.

[joe]

Isaac, I just picked Texas because that's where the Lawrence case came from.

More importantly, I'll note that "a publication linked to the president is outing homosexuals and then police and private bigots do the rest" is frighteningly similar to Rwanda, where radio stations linked to the newly-installed president's party egged on Hutu militias and passed on information about where to find the Tutsi and moderate Hutu that were their victims.

[JD Jackson]

Do they have Perez Hilton on staff?

[Isaac Bartram]

joe

Point taken.

[pigwiggle]

"Isaac, I just picked Texas because that's where the Lawrence case came from."

I'm partial to the show COPS. One episode I saw was based on several 'sting' operations around Texas cities and rural areas. Two male cops would walk down the street holding hands waiting to be assaulted. Invariably they were (of course, it's tv) and then the perps were arrested. It's the only state I know of that does such a thing, not that others don't.

[rhywun]

One episode I saw was based on several 'sting' operations around Texas cities and rural areas. Two male cops would walk down the street holding hands waiting to be assaulted.

Um... WTF?! That's just wrong on so many levels.

[pigwiggle]

"Two male cops would walk down the street holding hands"

non-uniformed I should add

[rhywun]

Are you sure it wasn't "Reno 911"?

[Stevo Darkly]

"Two male cops would walk down the street holding hands"

non-uniformed I should add

Was one dressed as a construction worker and the other as an Indian chief?

[Aresen]

Well, the not in uniform part cuts the Navy out.

[Mad Max]

Isn't it possibl that the paper is simply trying to shake down the local gays -- "how much is it worth to you to keep your names out of the paper?"

[joe]

"Two male cops would walk down the street holding hands waiting to be assaulted."

What kind of mud-brick, coal-fired gaydar do you need to have for that to work?

Texas cops?

[mai_neh]

I think the worst organizational acronym of all time was UGLY (United Gay/Lesbian Youth), a youth group I belonged to during the late 1980s in Norfolk, VA.

[Grand Chalupa]

"Two male cops would walk down the street holding hands"

non-uniformed I should add

Will someone E-Mail me and remind me to find out when this is going to be on TV (again?) in my area when I'm sober?

[martin]

I'm afraid this is no joke at all to the targets of the "outings". Wait for the reports of the first ones hacked to death with machetes or necklaced.

Apparently the Uganda paper has been to school with British tabloids like the Sun, whose favourite acronym for their targets is "sex beast". Unfortunately they have quite the ear of the PM and Parliament. They fall over each other to pass laws in response to the latest tabloid social crisis du jour. Makes you wonder what dirt the papers have on the pols.
In this country it's TV. Geraldo was responsible for fanning the satanic ritual abuse flames in the 80s and then there are Jerry Springer, Nancy et al.