UGANDAN GAYS ‘OUTED’ BY NEWSPAPER

Uganda’s Red Pepper tabloid featured an article earlier this week naming the country’s “top homosexuals”, reports the Box Turtle Bulletin.com.

The article not only shows photos of some of these men and women, but also includes names, identifying features, places of employment, residences, boyfriends and girlfriends, and other charges and gossip seemingly intended to destroy their reputations.

According to the publication, the article is “a killer dossier, a heat-pounding and sensational masterpiece that largely exposes Uganda’s shameless men and unabashed women that have deliberately exported the western evils to our dear and sacred society.”

The Red Pepper has published similar features in the past, including 2007’s infamous “Homo Terror” article which sought to ‘name and shame’ gays in the city.

Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda, and public anti-gay vigilante campaigns have resulted in people being arrested, tortured, fired, and driven into hiding and exile. The Red Pepper has been a major supporter of these campaigns.

“We have been exposed to the merciless gaze of hate of a homophobic society. We were, and are, hurting,” an anonymous homosexual Ugandan told The Box Turtle Bulletin.

“There is little that we can do, but we can brave it out, and give strength to one another. We don’t know what the actual fall out will be, individually, on a person to person basis.”