ATTACKS AGAINST GAY UGANDANS REPORTED

There are reports that there have been attacks on gay and lesbian Ugandans outed by the anti-gay Rolling Stone newspaper.

According to an activist from Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), Frank Mugisha, most of the people named in the publication have been the victims of harassment.

He also said that one woman was “almost killed” when neighbours attacked her home with stones.

“We have got people who have been threatened to be thrown out of work, people who have been threatened by their own family members, who want to throw them out of their own houses,” Mugisha told the BBC .

Despite publishing the headline “hang them”, Rolling Stone editor Giles Muhame insisted that he was not responsible for the violence.

He said that his aim was to ensure that the authorities took action against people “recruiting children to homosexuality”.

The Ugandan publication – unrelated to the US magazine – earlier this month outed 15 gay and lesbian Ugandans, published their contact details and called for them to be executed by hanging.

Muhame had promised to publish at least 100 names and told the BBC that he remains committed to doing so.

Uganda’s Independent Media Council has criticised the newspaper for its lack of journalistic integrity, describing its actions as “witch-hunting”.