After his death, if not always during his life, the Ugandan gay rights campaigner received the world's support
After his death, if not always during his life, David Kato 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, 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 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 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.
Source: http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/commentisfree/rss/~3/lkMsE6XvJtk/in-praise-of-david-kato
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