Black Looks

The CHOGM and the big white chieftess are meeting this week in Kampala Uganda – a chance for leaders to come together and exchange tips on how to steal money, mismanage their economies, how to repress and generally ignore the needs of their citizens.

This year’s CHOGM includes a People’s Forum -

The People’s Space at the Commonwealth People’s Forum is a free space, quite literally for the people!

A People’s Space is being created to provide a bold, exciting and inclusive experience for people other than the official delegates to be part of the Commonwealth People’s Forum and CHOGM experiences……..Through various interactions hundreds of people will leave the People’s Space with renewed energy to facilitate social change with a clear sense of working and building together in a different way. The People’s Space will attract participants from other CHOGM events including government officials, youth and business sector delegates……….The People’s Space will be open from Monday 19 – Friday 23 November.

On Wednesday, the People’s Forum issued a memorandum proposing the rights of minorities including LGBTs, be recognised and presented it to CHOGM. Following the presentation of the memorandum, members of the East African LGBT community also went to the People’s Space to speak but were physically prevented from speaking by the Ugandan police.

SMUG (Sexual Minorities Uganda) have issued this press release stating the “violence and discrimination”they faced at the People’s Space.

The Ugandan police displayed embarrassingly inhuman and unprofessional
behaviour, attacking the LGBT speakers and breaking sticks from trees
in preparation for greater harm to the speakers. The LGBT speakers
entered the People’s Space to prepare for the addresses they were
scheduled to give according to the programme. Police began forcibly
removing them. Victor Juliet Mukasa, a Ugandan LGBT Human Rights
Defender stood her ground, declaring, “I am not moving a single step
from this place.” The police continued their aggressive affront.
“They threw me down. Those who came back to help me from the ground
faced it tough. One person was caned for doing so.” Both homosexuals
and straight Ugandans are increasingly becoming fed up with the
violence and discrimination being directed toward people of different
sexual orientations. Heterosexual Ugandans have begun to speak out
against such police brutality, stating that they will not tolerate any
kind of violence against another human being, regardless of their
sexual orientation.

The LGBT speakers remained standing outside the gate in quiet protest,
waiting to be allowed back in to deliver their speeches. They were
there for a total of seven hours. What was supposed to be one of the
greatest fora for free speech has become a disappointment and an
embarrassing case of discrimination for Uganda.

During the showing of a film discussing homosexuality made by a Ugandan film company, Amakula anti-gay religious leaders held a press conference calling on the Commonwealth

“to not legislate for human wrongs. Homosexuality is an evil, which should never be discussed during Chogm. In Chogm meetings, we should advocate for them to change because the act is unnatural,” Bishop Niringiye said……The issue of rights of gays and lesbians was one of the recommendations in the Civil Society Statement to the Commonwealth Heads of State Meeting……Bishop Niringire said, “As a church, we are telling Commonwealth heads of governments to formulate value systems to solve the question of lesbianism and homosexuality being a human right.”

Tags:

Sexual Minorities
LGBT
CHOGM
Uganda