PRESS STATEMENT BY THE LESBIAN AND GAY EQUALITY PROJECT

IN MEMORY OF DAVID KISULE KATO

FOR QUEER EQUALITY IN A DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S AFRICA

PICKET AGAINST DAVID BAHATI (UGANDAN MP WHO PROPOSED ANTI-GAY LAWS) AND SOLIDARITY WITH ARRESTED ZIMBABWEAN ACTIVISTS

The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP) calls on all activists and organisations in the Gauteng province to join a picket against David Bahati, the anti-human rights Member of the Ugandan Parliament who, last year abused his public position to propose and promote a draft law that would criminalise lesbian, gay, bisexual and others who share intimacy and sex with people of the same sex. We also call on all organisations to endorse this picket by issuing statements in its support. Bahati joined up with and others to up an irrational frenzy on the basis of conservative and retrogressive religious and cultural ideologies. This crusade led to the cowardly murder of queer and human rights activist David Kisule Kato in his Kampala home in January after his picture, home address and other personal details were published in a clear and explicit anti-gay campaign by Bahati's allies in The Rolling Stone newspaper. Bahati must be held personally responsible for the murder of Kato and the ongoing persecution of many others in Uganda simply on the basis of their sexuality and gender identity.

The picket will take place as follows

DATE : Sunday, 27 February

TIME : 11h30 to 15h30

VENUE : outside the recording studios of Urban Brew, 28 Harley Street, Ferndale, Randbur

In a recent protest in Cairo, protestors chanted “"Leave, leave, Mubarak. Tel Aviv is waiting for you. We've had enough. They've raised the price of sugar and oil. They've wrecked our homes. Raise your voice, people of Egypt.”

This Friday, COSATU, with people from organisations and groups around Gauteng will protest outside the Egyptian embassy in Tshwane to raise their voices in support of the demands of the Egyptian people: Bread, Jobs, Education, Dignity, Democracy, Freedom of Expression.

On Tuesday the 1^st of February, the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, the Treatment Action Campaign, Section27 and various other civil society, faith-based and community organisations will stage a protest at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO).