Following this meeting, the organizing committee released a statement canceling the Parade. They said they had taken this decision with the safety of the people in mind. However, even with the main event cancelled, people met up in small groups and shared their ‘personal Pride’ pictures on social media.
Kuchu Times Editor
Academic Earth has a great selection of online courses; this one is on International Relations it includes sections on conflict, human rights institutions, and globalization. The course format uses a sequence of linked video lectures made available on YouTube.
The police locked the gates of the club, arrested more than 16 people—the majority of whom are Ugandan LGBT rights activists—and detained hundreds more for over 90 minutes, beating people, humiliating people, taking pictures of LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) Ugandans and threatening to publish them, and confiscating cameras.
The Police who were in the company of plain clothed officers started pin pointing at whichever two men they saw together and also picked out the transgender individuals. It was a heartbreaking sight as they searched and sexually assaulted transgender persons by touching their genitals and breasts all in an attempt to determine whether they were male or female.
The court sentenced each of the men to six months in prison and a fine of 500 dirhams (US$50) on a single charge of homosexual acts. The Agadir Appeals Court affirmed the verdict but reduced the sentence to a month and a half for J and three months for A. The court did not explain the unequal sentences.
The reason for this post is to announce that Pride Uganda 2016 will be streamed live again this year. Please stay tuned to the page for further updates as the dates for the activities are upon us.
Uganda’s Kuchu Aquatic team is training tirelessly to join other LGBTI participants from all around the world for the International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics slated from 8th to 14th August in Edmonton Canada. We now bring you three of the people on the team as they talk about their hopes for the team as well as what motivated them to join competitive sports.
According to the five, they started organizing and planning Pride a couple of months back and first order of business was community consultations. “We had to first understand what the community wanted out of Pride this year and what they wanted to leave behind. It has been a process well thought out and we are positive, we will deliver to the best of our ability,” Zak said of the organization process.
Excitement is in the air, as we near the kick off this year’s Pride Festival in Uganda and as usual, one of the most looked forward to events is the MR AND MISS PRIDE pageant. To give the community a sneak peek into what they should expect, we talked to some of the contestants that will grace the runway.
According to the team, this would not have been possible without the relentless efforts by Nate Freeman an American citizen from the state of Iowa. Nate who is an athlete and a human rights activist while doing his internship with Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), initiated this great move after interactions with sports men and women from the Ugandan LGBTI community whom he says had promising talent.