One Percent
I would rather die struggling to break the chains of bondage than live pretending to be comfortable with the chains. I will fight to whatever level as long as I am not accepting oppression. I will not negotiate with anyone about freedom of gays and lesbians. I will not compromise my vision of a free Uganda for LGBT people. I will not bow down to oppressors or traitors. I am a human being who is homosexual and will forever fight for equality and justice. I will not be intimidated. My homosexuality does not deprive me of my citizenship of Uganda. I am only exercising my constitutional rights. Enough is enough! No guts no victory.…..Julie Mukasa - Chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)
We are honored to donate one percent of all book sales to the legal fund for Ugandan human rights activist Julie Victor Mukasa. Why are we doing this? Because Julie now lives in exile as she fights against the bigots in her home country in Uganda. That’s the short answer. For a longer answer, keep reading.
WHO IS JULIE?
Juliet Victor Mukasa is transgender and recently spoke movingly about the experience of being transgender in Africa.
In Africa, transgender people are seriously punished for being who they are. While still with my parents, I was always beaten by my father for “behaving” like a boy. In school, the same story. While peeing one day my neighbours daughter found me peeing while squatting and she screamed like she had seen a monster. I became the laughing stock of the village and I expelled myself because of the humiliation. I could speak the whole day about the discomforts. I have suffered in life more because I am a transgender than a lesbian.
All trans people that I have interacted with mention such or even worse moments in their lives. It can be a very deep violation of our being to be forced to perform our gender differently than we want it and feel it for ourselves.
Some people, like myself, are born with a sense of ourselves as male in some ways, even though we are biologically female.
As a transgender person, I am constantly demanded to explain and justify why I am not fitting into other people’s idea of what a woman or a man should be.
Mukasa goes on to describe the type of violations faced by transgendered people in Africa.
• Raped to prove that you are really a woman
• At school: public assembly and humiliation: beaten
• Thrown out of family home
• Thrown out of subsequent homes by landlords
• Lose job because feel violated wearing a skirt
• Psychological Effects of Abuse: Depression, Anger, Drinking, Suicide
• Daily level: holding full bladder for 12-18 hours
• Being undressed and humiliated:
o By government: To get passport
o In church – I was once stripped naked as in naked!, in church, before a multitude of people. The pastor ‘saw’ a spirit of a young man inside me and they burnt my clothes and shoes in order to kill the male spirit.
o By Police: humiliation, mocking, mistreatment
Juliet Victor Mukasa is one of the few transgender Africans that has spoken out on this issue. Writes Sokari at Blacklooks, “The emerging LGBT activist community in Africa is without a doubt the most radical and progressive group of human rights defenders on the continent. The community has come of age and will no longer be silenced. The more trans people and the more the whole lesbian gay bisexual communities speak out against these human rights abuses, the more likely change can be affected sooner than later.”
Mukasa first publicly counterattacked Ugandan homophobia on the radio, in December 2003. Her motivation was the death of Paula Rwomushana, an eighteen-year-old student who committed suicide shortly after being caned in front of her classmates. Rwomushana had been caught with love letters sent to her by other females.
Mukasa’s radio appearance led to the story in Red Pepper a month later. The piece ran alongside a photo, displaying her distinctive pouty lips, curly eyelashes, and buzzed head. Now thoroughly outed, Mukasa decided to become a professional activist. “I thought “Okay, I’m exposed. What have I got to lose’” she says.
Plenty.
She was kicked out of a friend’s house and found herself unwelcome in family members’ homes. (” What if we have a gay child!” her brother-in-law yelled at his wife.) Mukasa, who comes from a prominent Kampala family, moved from place to place, at one point spending two nights in a pit latrine. She met with other homosexuals and became the first elected chair of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a coalition of groups that lobbied the government and the media about the discrimination gays face. Mukasa would “beg around” for money, telling people she needed it for bus fare and lunch, then use it to pay for letters and press releases she typed up at Internet cafés.
These efforts culminated in a raid on her housely. A local council official wanted to apprehend her, she believes, but she was away at the time, so he stole documents relating to her organization and had a visiting lesbian friend arrested for being “idle and disorderly.” According to Mukasa, the official produced a witness who complained about drinking, drugs, and noise—and that the women who hung out there “wear shoes that are for men.”
People say, “You have freedom in your bedrooms, isn’t that enough’” Mukasa muses. “But it’s not about sex. It’s about being able to put your arm around the one you love in public. Why should we tell lies when things are truly in our hearts.
Mukasa went into hiding under the protection of Amnesty International because of this illegal raid. This attack is part of a systematic campaign targeting human rights activists in the whole region of East Africa and lesbian and gay activists in particular. Rather than hide or capitulate Julie Victor Mukasa has chosen to fight by suing the government official, Mr John Lubega, who authorised and took part in the raid and arrests.
Because he unlawfully entered and searched my home. On top of that he assaulted my guest and confiscated my documents. I know that he comfortably, unlawfully did all this because he felt that since I am a homosexual, I did not deserve any dignified treatment as he has always been on the case of homosexuals in Uganda. Normally officials and police who harass homosexuals always get away with their actions because it is believed that homosexuals are not human beings. This “legal violence” against homosexuals in Uganda is a violation of our human rights and must stop.
I/we have never harmed anyone. Even robbers, murderers, corrupt officials and all sorts of criminals are treated with more respect. Many times gay men, lesbians and transgenders have gone through so many similar injustices. We have remained silent and not reported these cases for fear of being thrown behind bars instead of the perpetrators. I personally have faced worse things but kept silent but now it is enough.
By taking the matter to court Mukasa hopes to use the case as a tool in the advancement of gay rights in Uganda and elsewhere in East Africa. By declaring the violation of her rights she is making a larger statement about the rights of LGBT and human rights advocates to be able to carry out their work and live their lives without treat of invasion. She hopes that her actions will accomplish the following:
- That the government and people of Uganda will be reminded that LGBT people in Uganda are human beings and therefore should not be treated differently from their heterosexual counterparts.
- That the LGBT community in Uganda will realise that they have rights and that when they are abused they should go ahead and report the injustices to the relevant authorities in the country.
- That these actions in Uganda will give courage to LGBT communities in other parts of Africa who face similar abuse and discrimination.
Despite Uganda and other African countries being signatories to the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgendered people still face social exclusion, discrimination and in many countries they are criminalised. Homosexuality is attacked as being a “western disease” imported like coca-cola and and hip-hop from the US and Europe and as a betrayal of African culture and mores. The same words are spoken about the feminist movement and “rights of women”. By dismissing homosexuality as being a “disease” and “foreign”, governments and religious leaders are able to dehumanise and criminalise homosexuals to the extent that the general public do not see LGBT rights as a valid part of human rights.
LGBT rights in Uganda are abused extensively while the so-called `democratic´ government strengthens the homophobia. The press gives this homophobia a voice while the unjust laws stipulated in the Penal Code Act institutionalise it. In addition to these are religious teachings, cultural beliefs and hate campaigns engaged in by political leaders. Homosexuals in Uganda, therefore live in rejection, fear, shame, guilt, disease, homelessness, poverty and the like because of the stigma.
The issue of homosexuality is a reality in Uganda just like else where in the world. Let us stop looking at it as a moral issue and focus on it as a completely human rights issue. The LGBT struggle naturally encompasses poverty, homelessness, violence, unemployment, sexism, HIV/AIDS, issues that humanity stands against. That is the human rights culture, which is non-discriminatory and treats all human beings as equal.
A victory for Julie is a victory for all LGBT peoples worldwide. We are honored to contribute to justice.
