David Kato: An Open Letter

We the undersigned condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of Mr David Kato, the Ugandan gay rights campaigner. We wish to state emphatically that homosexuality is neither a sin nor a social or cultural construct. It is a biological given. Homosexuals are human beings like everybody else. Scientific research has been helpful in clearing the fog of ignorance entrenched by some religious texts in regards to homosexuality. Our opinions of homosexuality must change for the better, just as our opinion of slavery has changed, even though it was endorsed by those same religious texts. All violence against gays and people deemed to be gay in Africa must cease forthwith.
We call on the government of Uganda to find and prosecute all those involved in the murder of Mr Kato, including the newspaper that called for the hanging of gays. We also call on African governments to learn from the South African example by expunging from their laws all provisions that criminalise homosexuality or treat homosexuals as unworthy of the same rights and entitlements as other citizens. African states must protect the rights of their citizens to freedom and dignity. Homosexuals must not be denied these rights.

An open letter which has appeared in several newspapers around the world.
For a complete list of signatories - gratifyingly too long to post here - see comments.
A documentary about Uganda - The World's Worst Place To Be Gay? - will be shown by BBC3 on Monday February 14th.

David Kato:

Ugandan gay activist, beaten to death.
With a terrible irony, David gave a talk at Oxford University last year called 'A Matter Of Life And Death: The Struggle For Ugandan Gay Rights'.
What a world, what a world...

• There is a memorial vigil for David Kato tomorrow, Friday 28th January, 10.30-12.30am, outside the Uganda High Commission, 58-59 Trafalgar Square, London.

Uganda: Court Bans Rolling Stone Outing

"The Ugandan High Court has ruled that one of the country's newspapers cannot identify people as homosexuals," CBC News reports.
"The Dec. 30 decision said the Rolling Stone newspaper — which published stories in October identifying people the editor said were gay — could no longer publish the identities or home addresses of the people in the case, nor of homosexuals generally...
"At least four people said they were attacked because of the article, including one woman who said she had to move to a secret location after people began pelting her home with stones..."
As you can see from stories today about Jo Yeate's murder, above, and the Ford prison riots, below, outing is still a popular practice in the British press.
Sadly our own Press Complaints Commission has no problem with papers outing LGBT people.

UPDATE: The editor has issued a press release saying he'll fight the ruling.
He also argues the information and photos are in the public domain as they are taken from Gaydar.