Blogging in Uganda (Part 7): GayUganda

On the subject of homosexuality in Uganda, opinions abound. Back in 1999, President Museveni made his position clear by asking the police to arrest gays. His authority notwithstanding, the Sexual Minorities Groups in Uganda held a press conference in August to demand for their rights. Their lobby drew a response from former Justice Minister Mayanja Nkanji in which he called homosexuality and lesbianism a morally corrupting influence. Others have taken their chance to defend the gay community. Now in the blogosphere, one gay Ugandan is speaking for himself. GayUganda is a blog by a gay Ugandan, as you might expect. He blogs about issues concerning gays, lesbians, and other sexual minorities in Uganda, and about the choice between wanting to live a quiet life away from public scrutiny and persecution, and the compulsion to take part in gay activism. The blogger keeps his profile anonymous, which is to say that he is not a fool. Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda and along with the law, there are tabloids and religious groups to worry about. New content is updated regularly, sometimes a post a day. Much of it is poetry; most of it is introspective. Occasionally though, there is something really engaging, like the blogger's correspondence with Pastor Martin Ssempa. From those letters, it is clear that GayUganda distrusts religious types. However he does concede the divisions that work in his favour when he is defended at his work place by a born-again christian. In this way this blog shows a microcosm of the growing divisions over homosexuality among many christian groups. The fact that the blogger is gay is not a novelty by itself—BBC profiled a gay Ugandan Christian in 2003. The story here is how the he is using his blog as a media outlet. Homosexuals do not have easy access to the media in Uganda. In 2004, Radio Simba was fined $1,000 for hosting homosexuals in a live talk show. In the blogosphere though, Uganda's government is not able to enforce its censorship policies. This leaves GayUganda free to tell his story to those who will listen. No doubt Information Minister Nsaba Buturo is unhappy, but unless he can get Google's CEO on the phone, at least one gay Ugandan is not going to be denied his right to free speech.