Global Sexual Freedom Watch

Call for Justice

In 2006, I went to Congo and was fascinated to see observe what I had been taught in school about the eruption of volcano mountains.

People in this part of the country have been experiencing unending wars. Wars in and out, whether they are from within or out, or their own making or imposed on them. On top of the wars, then the eruption of the Virunga Mountains covering the whole city, ending in Lake Kivu. Luckily enough, people didn’t die because they were warned in advance but nothing of the property left behind was recovered.

The airport was very busy not with local passengers but the MONUC –United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The so-called peace keepers.

I still don’t understand the UN’s role, if it’s to protect citizens, why people are still dying in large numbers without anything being done. Why doesn’t the UN declare DRC a crisis area. People in this area have suffered for too long!

Much attention has been put on the Ivory Coast, North Africa, and the Middle East, crises that are just months old. The only thing they are good at is changing the mission’s name, which I think becomes more confusing to the local people. It’s now MONUSCO, United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Silence has killed people and it’s high time people stepped up — the media, the International community, every person. Listen to the outcry of the Congolese. Remember, their’s is one of the richest African Countries in minerals and natural resources, and war, famine, and poverty enable those in power who would exploit us and the others who stand by silently. Just my opinion.

Please take a look at this documentary for more.

A Wake Up Call! — Kushaba Moses Mworeko

Since last May when the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda seemed dead with the end of the 7th Parliament, Ugandan and international LGBT activists grassroots organizers and the media felt a relief from what had become a “talk of the town” issue. Speculations on the reintroduction of the bill were rumored when the key sponsor of the bill, Member of Parliament David Bahati, was said to be a presidential nominee to Uganda’s Cabinet as its new Minister of Ethics and Integrity.

We shouldn’t forget that the death of this bill was in our sights when some Cabinet ministers and President Museveni disagreed on parts of the bill and the effects on the country from the International reaction to the bill overall. Putting Bahati in the Cabinet would have helped get the bill passed but fortunately he did not get the post, although he intends to reintroduce the bill in the next parliamentary session with revisions such as those made by the country’s Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee.

 

Ultimately, the choice for Minister of Ethics and Integrity was Catholic Reverend Priest Lokodo Simon, sending a strong signal to Ugandan and international LBGT activists that the fight wasn’t over but just beginning. Either way, Simon’s views on homosexuality, religious and governmental, will create dire outcomes to people.

So where are we now? Less than three months from the inauguration of the 8th Parliament, rumor has it that the so pronounced dead bill will be resurrecting in a month or so. I am glad that people are already garnering momentum. This includes investigative work being undertaken by activists in the United States to put an end to the secretive web of American fundamentalists comprising “The Family” or “The Fellowship”  that is playing an instrumental role and funding through U.S. tax dollars, capitalizing homophobic extremism and inhumane bills in Uganda and other countries desperate for financial aid.

As we have fought through the last two sessions of the Ugandan Parliament, this time we must expend extra efforts and resources because factors have combined to work harder against us. Keep an eye on unfolding events and work harder than ever before to have this craziness STOPPED here because the alternative means that more and more countries will follow suit as quickly as possible to pass these same bills that haunt humanity. As I write this note, Ghanaian gays are on the run fleeing for their lives.

I have been working with Team COLUMBIA at venusplusx.org to keep an updated Global Sexual Freedom Annotated Bibliography available to help activists and advocates informed and inspired to help bring about laws and protections for persecuted sexual minorities all over the world. We hope more and more people will answer this “wake up call.”

— Kushaba Moses Mworeko

Why sexual freedom is the bedrock of all freedoms

(También en Español)
Our sexual pleasure response is completely individual. When we feel it, those precious moments, we experience unbridled exhilaration that is at the same time indescribable by mere words, even in great art or poetry.

There is only one way to replicate this experience of unrestrained freedom and that is to recreate — re-create increasing favorable circumstances to plug in at a healthy pace. Although sexual pleasure exists by definition in a time and space all one’s own an imperative to share it and enhance it with others is built in. Studies have demonstrated over and over again the irrefutable benefits to mental health, prosperity, and longevity of a life regularly punctuated with the desired number and rate of pleasurable encounters. This inviting pressure brings people into relationship, the midwife of personal growth.

These cumulative states of sexual pleasure, those knowings of  at-one-ment in the universe, can be mutually acknowledged as both a singular experience and the bodily guarantee of true pluralism. It is the one authentic human experience that virtually all other humans agree exists, and no other experience comes close to this criteria. Pluralism leads inevitably to democracy and the extension to more and more people their birthright to pursue sexual freedom and all other freedoms that emanate from this mutual acknowledgement of each other’s immutable bodily freedom in the form of sexual pleasure.

Our own sovereign portal to experience physical pleasure and love in infinitely inexhaustible manifestations makes possible a mutuality of individual autonomy that is expressed as true pluralism and the quest for universal equal rights for each person without qualification. Everyone shares that inner experience of freedom to the same extent everyone else does and is why civilizations progress in making all freedoms universally felt in society.

This inner experience of sexual pleasure is what joins together each and every person on earth, an organic unity all of us can recognize and agree is important, even a type of magic, that makes our world better day by day.

Party on.

Creative Commons images by: rileyroxx, DavidSpinks, and Lori_NY

We are our pride – Kushaba Moses Mworeko

It was June 5, 1981, when the first cases of HIV were reported (CDC.gov).

Yes, in the USA, this was referred to as a gay disease and to some people it still is. But to a person like me who comes from a place where the disease was and is heavily among heterosexuals, I have to disagree.

As years have gone by, education and awareness campaigns and research on this disease have helped to dispel the myths. It has taken years for Africans to understand that a witch doctor’s diagnosis and prescription of expensive sacrifices for this disease were not only hurting the patient but the whole family, culture, and tribe. On this other side of the world, in North America, where technology flourishes, people have come to understand that HIV/AIDS is a non-discriminatory disease and is not a curse deserved by sexual minorities because of alleged deviant behavior.

While attending an HIV/AIDS conference in South Padre, Texas, two years ago, I shared the impact of this disease on me, and practically everyone on this planet. Everybody has either been infected, knows someone who is, or been affected in one way or the other. Some may argue there has been no personal effect on them personally, but consider that by just going school and hearing about or being taught something about HIV/AIDS, or just listening the nightly news makes an impact on each person’s attitude.

Now that we are no longer pointing fingers at each other, whether straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, young, old, educated, uneducated, upper-class, peasants, white or people, what do we know and what don’t we know still about this disease? How do we feel about ourselves now? Yes, progress has been made in our knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and advancements in technology, research, and medicine, is that all? Are we done?

Definitely NO, people are still getting it and dying, so what are we missing here?

Yes, there must be something missing because in spite of advancements in treatment there has been a RELAPSE. People need to wake up and look at this disease afresh, fear it as if were back in the 80s. Take precautions and use preventative measures at all time. Take medication as prescribed. And, TALK about it.

Last week on Thursday, June 2, 2011, I watched a documentary Messengers of Hope about a gospel choir from Oakland, California, that engages African American churches in conversation about HIV and AIDS. This whole concept of this documentary is a new strong voice about the importance of speaking out, especially in religious organizations where finger pointing remains common. The film goes a step further in urging pride in who we are, one of the choir members saying, “This is what HIV looks like; strong people, people of faith, black people.”

One thing I have noticed after coming to America is that people have taken for granted the privileges and rights that come with being an American. I am talking about the freedom, the liberty, the equality, the power . . . all this is taken for granted.

I was reading Ida B. Well’s (1862-1931) autobiography, Crusade for Justice (University of Chicago Press 1970) and came across this statement, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

Ms. Wells argues that although the United States does have some ‘wonderful institutions’ to protect our liberty, we have grown complacent and need to be ‘alert as the watchman on the wall.’” I totally agree with her because it is still so relevant today, not just regarding the end of slavery, but all human rights.

Last weekend was Black Pride, and this weekend is Capital Pride in Washington, D.C. We must ask ourselves hat are we proud of?

Pride can be one of the times throughout each year we remind ourselves of our rights, human rights that we are born with, not man-made. We should embrace them and ponder what we have and what we have been denied.

Pride reminds me of the unforgettable occurrence of the pneumonia that was found in these gay men 30 years ago. It reminds me of the resistance that people have put on fighting this terrible disease.

It’s time to show the world that LGBT people are great people, with great potential. If gay men exit the church . . . there wouldn’t be any services. If we decided not to pay tax the states would file for bankruptcy. If we didn’t enlist, there would be shortages in the military. We are everywhere . . . we are not silent and never will be.

With Charlie Sheen’s “Winning” mantle still echoing in our ears, we say too,” The only thing I’m addicted to right now is winning.” Recently it seems like everyone is addicted to winning.

The White House launched a new page in concert with D.C.’s Pride Month 2011 called
Winning the Future: President Obama and the LGBT Community.” During its launch, the President said, “We’ve got a lot of hard work we still have to do, but we can already point to extraordinary progress that we’ve made . . . on behalf of Americans who are gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender”

I strongly believe that, we are going in the right direction to WINNING. I am talking about WINNING THE FUTURE.

Let us not be afraid or ashamed. Let us embrace who we are…it is our PRIDE.

— Kushaba Moses Mworeko, independent global LGBT and HIV+ rights activist, guest blogger, and Editor of VenusPlusX’s Global Sexual Freedom Annotated Bibliography.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What lies in our power — Kushaba Moses Mworeko

A few days ago I was watching CBS’s “Criminal Minds” and the show ended with this quote, “What lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do,” which I remember from reading Aristotle’s writings.

It reminded me also of what most people have been asking me over the last 17 months: Moses, what do you intend to do? I have not been answering this question well because of the uncertainty surrounding my future.

Being in limbo for over a year has taught me a lot. My patience, assertiveness, and aggressiveness were all put to the test. These are qualities that all human rights activists and defenders have to have. You can’t wake up one day and go to Capitol Hill and tell them what you want and get it, no, no, there are procedures, there are bureaucracies, there are many stakeholders who have to be involved to help advance the cause by recognizing its legitimacy. Yes, we have what we believe in, and the fundamental human rights that we cannot be denied, so we have to keep fighting until…

Now the limbo part is over for me, and the threat to my own personhood has ended. After 17 months I have finally qualified for U.S. asylum and the ability to work in this country. At last, the fight, my fight, is restarted in earnest.

What next?

One goal has been with me since my teen years — reaching out to disadvantaged people, restoring them to their normal life functioning. This is what I have always wanted to do and it’s what I want to do and I will do it. It lies in my power.

Today, I can see with renewed clarity where I am going, that I will do whatever I can, for the sky is the limit.

May I humbly say thank you to all of you who have touched me and held my hand through these past tough 17 months. Thank you for being my friend.

–Kushaba Moses Mworeko

Editor’s Note: Moses is a frequent contributor to VenusPlusX and edits our Global Sexual Freedom Annotated Bibliography. He is also featured this week in Metro Weekly.

 

No call for celebration – Kushaba Moses Mworeko

Editor’s note: Moses has this month received official notice that he has qualified for U.S. asylum, finally. He will post something trying to capture his personal joy soon, but here republished is his post from April when the Ugandan bill was again in flux, showing how important it is to be thinking globally about human rights. Also see Will O’Bryan’s spotlight on Moses today in Metro Weekly and visit Moses’ Global Sexual Freedom Annotated Bibliography in our Library for more information.

 

Even as Uganda’s government shows it might shelve its “kill the gays” bill, there can be no call for celebration.

 

 

 

 

 

The country’s reluctance to move forward is due to the international pressure it has experienced since the bill’s inception and how the country’s image has been tarnished. I can imagine now the millions of dollars it has lost in tourism and other areas because of being referred to as “the world’s worst place to be gay,” collateral damage as one blogger put it.

But more is to be done. It is paramount for the world to know about ther repressive legislation in Parliament now and or already the law in Uganda, such as The Sexual Offences Bill, The Pornography Bill, The HIV AIDS Bill, and The Marriage Bill which prohibits same-sex marriage or cohabitation, and its entire Penal Code is rife with infringements on several basic human rights such as the right to Privacy.

In Ugandan society, the mere introduction of this “kill the gays” bill has actually created a new trigger on how to treat lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people (LGBTI). Since the government has strongly and consistently said that it is illegal for people to be LGBTI, then this gives citizens a strong backup to punish them, feeling they are acting within the constitution’s jurisdiction. This is evident in the case of leading gay activist David Kato’s brutal murder and other murder attempts against his associates. This week alone, the notorious rag sheet in Uganda Rolling Stone, reported two incidents of mob justice against gay men alleging they were killed because one stole a necklace and the other a motorcycle. Now that people believe that homosexuality is the worst of sins, then one can imagine what is likely to happen to LGBTI people. I can imagine a scenario where a gay person is lynched by the community while their family members watch in despair.

Mob Justice Increases as Court Backlogs Escalate by Joshua Kyalimpa covers the supreme court’s order to the media houses in Uganda to cease publishing LGBTI names in newspapers. This brings a temporary sense of relief to the LGBTI community but the actual result is that this has encouraged more mob justice since society seems to think that even if these homosexuals are reported, the courts will not do anything, so the community would rather punish them than report them to the authorities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bad seed has been sown by religious extremists and its consequences are now spreading like bush fire across the world. Even in countries where homosexuality has not been talked about, the governments are now pushing for bills that will criminalize the act. This is scary politics. We have a great deal of work to be done. We have to double our efforts like never before.

Frank Mugisha is a leading Ugandan LGBTI activist on the front lines, currently serving as the Executive Director of SMUG, Sexual Minorities of Uganda, believes it one thing for government to stop the bill but without creating laws on hate crimes, there are many dangers we are still faced with. “This is simply government saying let us not talk about homosexuality in Uganda, but we want government to be clear and create laws on hate crimes against LGBT people and also to decriminalize homosexuality.”

Mugisha extended his gratitude to all who fought for the Bill to be stopped. “We appreciate so much our efforts and our partners’ both nationally and internationally in stopping the bill.”

The Ugandan Penal Code criminalizes homosexuality with a life sentence for consensual sex between adults of the same gender. “We need to pay attention to what will happen to the Sexual Offences Bill (SOB) as much as we paid attention to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” Ugandan activist Val Kalende said.

“We are waiting to see what comes out of the SOB and yes it is a bill to worry about as it could carry clauses from the Anti Homosexuality Bill,” warned Mugisha. He highlighted that the next steps will be to continue with their advocacy, not allow any form of discrimination against LGBTI people, and to “make sure that we have equal rights like any Ugandan.”

Working with Team COLUMBIA at venusplusx.org, we have kept updated a Global Sexual Freedom Annotated Bibliography to keep activist and advocates informed and inspired to help bring about laws and protections for persecuted sexual minorities all over the world.

KMM

On The Brutal Murder of David Kato-by Kushaba Moses Mworeko

The brutal and horrific death of Ugandan Human Rights Defender David Kato is a blow to our efforts fightinginjustice in Uganda and the world over. David’s charisma can never be replaced, however his death gives us more strength than ever to fight on. Unfortunately David’s death has become part of the price that we have to pay to win full equality.

I send a strong message to those exporters of hate to our already vulnerable communities to stop it lest the world return to the dark ages.

Let us pledge to fight to keep his spirit alive and help bring equality and freedom for all to David’s home town, Mukono, Uganda, and to the rest of the world.

May his soul rest in peace.

-Moses

You can read more about global human rights in our Annotated Bibliography

What Sexual Freedom Means To Me – Kushaba Moses Mworeko

To me Sexual Freedom is the inherent liberty of people to embrace our God-given, beautiful, and sexy bodies, sexual organs, feelings and acts.

I look  at myself  as “a free and empowered person” working to emancipate LGBT and HIV-positive people in Uganda, Africa, and elsewhere from a life of bondage into a world of freedom, liberty, diversity, and respect for all experiences.


As adults, mature people, productive citizens, and observers of the law can we have sex with whomever, whenever, wherever,however we want?

Can we lay a foundation for the young and the generations to come to have and enjoy all the human rights including sexual freedom they are entitled to?

Is it possible to liberate those people still in bondage, unempowered, suffering at the expense of traditional belief systems?

The resounding answer is: “Yes We Can!”

When we KNOW what we DESERVE what we DESIRE we are able to pursue our desire with boldness and determination.

-Kushaba Moses Mworeko

Kushaba Moses Mworeko: International Sexual Freedom Advocate

Kushaba Moses Mworeko is no stranger to adversity. After losing both his parents and newborn sister to AIDS-related illness as a teenager in Uganda, Moses took it upon himself to raise his five younger siblings, eventually putting himself and his brothers through college in his home country. Despite being repeatedly harassed, his dedication, moral resolve, and religious faith helped him to successfully pursue a Master’s Degree at Uganda’s Christian University. It was here, while preparing for a career in Child and Maternal Health, that a snooping secretary uncovered a private email correspondence between Moses and a male friend, a discovery that resulted in the loss of his teaching position, as well as the escalation of suspicion, persecution, and threats of violence on the part of his fellow citizens in the virulently anti-gay cultural climate of Uganda.

Because of the repeated persecution he faced, Moses decided in October 2009 to seek asylum in the United States, refusing to return to his home country after attending an HIV health conference in Texas. After months spent continuing his work in international HIV and LGBT activism and winning the hearts and minds of an increasingly large circle of supports and friends, Moses’ initial application was denied in June 2010 by a judge at the Alexandria, Virginia, office of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, who cited “Material implausibility(ies), in light of country conditions and/or logic” of Moses’ case. A clerk handling Moses’ case clarified: “That mean things are not so bad in Uganda.” His asylum application is now under review again, and in the meantime he is emerging as one of the most important figures in the struggle for LGBT equality and global human rights.

At the February 3, 2010 American Prayer Hour held in protest of the National Prayer Breakfast, which invited anti-gay Ugandan delegates, Moses spoke out against the increasing entanglement of US evangelicals with militant anti-gay campaigns in his own country. He wore a paper grocery bag over his head to conceal his identity for fear of reprisals against friends and family.  Later in the spring he appeared in a documentary on anti-gay politics in Uganda, this time anonymously backlit.

Last summer Moses decided to go public. In Will O’Bryan’s July 28, 2010 DC Metro Weekly article entitled “The Promised Land,” Moses bravely outed himself to an international audience, thrusting his story to prominence in activist circles  and capturing the attention of media ranging from the American progressive blogosphere to sensationally anti-gay tabloids in his home country. He has called on African Anglican Bishops to condemn anti-homosexuality legislation and current state-sponsored criminal homophobia.

Between faith and fear, respect and ignorance, and the First and Third World, Kushaba Moses Mowreko now stands at a set of crossroads that define our age; his journey has been long, and it is far from over.

Visit our press room for more information on Moses’ workshop “Sexual Freedom and Human Rights” next week in Minneapolis in conjunction with Creating Change 2011.