Alison Gardner

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

Sexual Freedom Blog Swarm

Our Sexual Freedom Blog Swarm is underway and will continue through next week’s Creating Change 2011, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s annual conference at the Minneapolis Hilton. Here’s one from David Castillo for The Bilerico Project, Freeing Myself from Sexual Repression

We will be live blogging from the Exhibition Hall and you can follow us on Twitter: @venusplusx and Facebook.

If you want to make sure your blog post is included, please contact me, Andrew@venusplusx.org, or leave a comment below. More background and information on VenusPlusX’s and Team Columbia’s programming at Creating Change, visit our Press Room.

Thank you.

Andrew Fogle

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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.

Sexual Freedom Video

We made this video for Woodhull Freedom Foundation’s Sexual Freedom Day in September 2011 asking people on the streets of Washington, DC, and New York City what sexual freedom means to them.

At VenusPlusX.org’s exhibit table at Creating Change 2011 next week in Minneapolis, Team Columbia will again be interviewing people on camera asking the same question for the sequel. Stop by and check it out.

Sexual Freedom Website Launch Today!

Sexual FreedomWelcome to VenusPlusX — powered by Team Columbia.

From this modest beginning our goal is not just to change the conversation about equal rights. We intend to change the very atmosphere in which this conversation is taking place.

Friends of reality can demonstrate how to protect and advance our innate sexual freedom. The individual autonomy we each possess commands mutual respect and is grounded in all other human rights. Sexual freedom is a more inclusive concept than even government-granted civil rights.

“Sexual Freedom — You Are Born With It” is our slogan and also our battle-cry.

Sexual freedom advocates are aligning around the world to publicly discredit the tyrants that seek to marginalize and criminalize people through uninvited and unnecessary incursions in the name of the state, a religion, or always the worst of all, the unholy combination of the two.

Today heralds the end of our collective enslavement. Signs of an epochal tipping point are everywhere. It is a near future where reproductive rights, sexual orientation, gender identification, and sexual practice are not matters of some busybody’s politics or defective ideals.

Compassion, tolerance, enhanced creativity, proven leadership, and diverse personal relationships are emblematic of those who choose sexual freedom over sexual repression. We are the new generation, a rising majority wielding love and truth to disarm those who try to erase us from the face of the earth, who will at long last eliminate the stain of discrimination and set the world free.

We hope you will stay tuned and join in our one and only cause: universal sexual freedom.

Alison & Dan

Sexual Freedom Media Advisory

Sexual FreedomFriends, editors, producers, bloggers, and organizational leaders . . .

Please visit the Press Room to find the latest Media Advisory and other materials about our programs coming up in conjunction with this year’s National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change conference at the Minneapolis Hilton (February 2-6, 2011).

Team Columbia is doubling the sexual freedom programming by adding more workshops, demos, political caucuses, and parties on Friday and Saturday, February 4 and 5. All of our events will be at the Hotel Ivy (just across the skyway from the Hilton), and are free and open to Creating Change attendees and the general public.

All the details can be found in our Press Room, including a Calendar Listing and Program Schedule, for your info and use. If you wish to participate in our blog swarm for sexual freedom currently in progress, please contact Andrew@venusplusx.org, or me, Alison@venusplusx.org.

Alison

P.S. To further promote these sexual freedom programs and events, please lift the little flashing advertising banner, from the upper right corner of our home page, and publish it on your website or blog. We’d be happy to do the same for you, too.

Sexual Freedom Program Schedule

Sexual FreedomWe are happy to share the Program Schedule of special sexual freedom programming on Friday and Saturday, February 4-5, 2011, at Minneapolis’ Hotel Ivy across the skyway from the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change 2011 conference. All events take place in The Hotel Ivy “Beethoven” Room and free to the general public and Creating Change attendees.

Program highlights include:

A New Paradigm for Equal Rights;

Sexual Freedom and Human Rights, featuring Kushaba “Moses” Mworeko;

Exploring Your Sexuality and Gender in Second Life;

The New Age of Erotic Freedom: A Conversation with Loraine Hutchins and Dan Massey;

Campaign Planning and Messaging Training;

Sexual Freedom Political Caucuses, Demos, Parties, and more.

All events are free and open to the public and Creating Change attendees. Click here for the entire Program Schedule.

Banner Ad or Calendar Listing available

See the ad banner in the upper right of our home page with the icon of Columbia that looks like this:
Sexual Freedom

If you want to help promote Team Columbia’s upcoming special programming in connection with the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 2-6, 2011, just drag that little poster onto your website or blog. We’d like to hear from you, too, of course, about how we can cross-promote what’s important to you.

Below, is a prepared blurb with brief details, also for your use.

Thanks, everyone, for your ongoing support.

CALENDAR LISTING

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 12, 2011 (Minneapolis, MN)

MEDIA CONTACT: Jay@venusplusx.org, 202-290-7077, www.vensusplusx.org

SEXUAL FREEDOM WORKSHOPS. In conjunction with Creating Change, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s conference in Minneapolis, a two-day program of Sexual Freedom Workshops, Demos, Political Caucuses, and Parties will take place Friday and Saturday, February 4-5, 2011, at Hotel Ivy (201 Eleventh Street). All events are FREE and open to the public and Creating Change attendees. Sponsored by DC-based Team Columbia and www.venusplusx.org, 202-290-7077.

Get a Second Life

Have you ever dreamed of flying naked high above a city? Or making love to an eight-foot-tall humanoid? If you’ve netflixed James Cameron’s Avatar some lonely weekday night in the past few months, chances are you have.

Imagine and experience a virtual reality where you are free to privately and anonymously explore your sexuality and gender, to understand all the possibilities without any judgment, limitations, or consequences.

On Friday and Saturday, February 4 and 5, 2011, at The Hotel Ivy in downtown Minneapolis, VenusPlusX.org is sponsoring a 90-minute workshop and two noontime demonstrations all about the alternate universe of Second Life, which claims 15 million registered users worldwide. These events are part of two full days of sexual freedom programming, FREE and open to the general public and anyone going to the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change conference, expected to attract more than 2,000 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender visitors to Minneapolis Hilton right next door.

The Second Life workshop and demonstrations will make real-time use of this alternate reality. Virtual reality artists will be on hand to escort participants through its lush world of beaches, forests, and cities by providing individuals with custom-built avatars on laptop computers that will showcase the sexual and gender expression potential of the game.

The world of Second Life offers an opportunity that human beings have dreamed of for millennia, but that has been made possible only recently with developments in computer technology. The intersection of 21st century technology and the adult erotic experience has really just begun. Being able to exchange one set of names, faces, bodies, and identities for another, whenever one wishes, and for whatever reason offers us the potential to achieve greater, multi-dimensional understanding of our erotic selves.

For more, take a quick look at our schedule of workshops, presentations, demonstrations, political caucuses, parties, and more, in the Press Room.

VenusPlusX.org’s Team COLUMBIA