After his death, if not always during his life, the Ugandan gay rights
campaigner received the world's support
Editorial
Tuesday February 1 2011
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/01/in-praise-of-david-kato
After his death, if not always during his life, David Kato [http://
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/27/david-kato-my-fearless-friend-nsubuga"
title="] received the world's support. As a campaigner for gay rights
in Uganda, a nation that has been whipped into a fever of homophobia
by its politicians, tabloid press and some Christian leaders, he was
at risk. Early last week he was murdered in his home; his death
prompting tributes including one from President Obama [http://
www.whitehouse.gov/search/site/david%20kato" title="], whose Kenyan
ancestry gives his words potency in Africa. "He was a powerful
advocate for fairness and freedom. The United States mourns his
murder, and we recommit ourselves to David's work," said the
president. "No one should have to live in such fear because of the
bigotry of others," said the Archbishop of Canterbury, facing his own
battle against bigotry inside parts of the African Anglican church.
Kato's funeral was disrupted when the Anglican pastor presiding over
it denounced homosexuality, before being shouted down. Anti-gay hatred
in Uganda has been greatly encouraged by a small number of visiting
American Christians: one suggested after Kato's death [http://
ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=7441&MediaType=1&Category=24"
title="] that he might have been killed by a gay lover. The Ugandan
authorities pointed out that he lived in a dangerous area. But late
last year Uganda's Rolling Stone [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/
jan/27/uganda-paper-david-kato-death" title="] newspaper put his
picture on the cover alongside other gay men under the headline "hang
them". Kato and two other activists from Sexual Minorities Uganda, the
organisation for which he worked, secured an injunction in early
January. At the end of the month he was dead.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2011
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