The Apologia
Being gay in Africa has not necessarily been a walk in the park, quite the contrary, while the whole world is waking up to the reality of homosexuality Africa as usual is left behind, I have witnessed firsthand the ugly side of homophobia living in Uganda, a country which was at one point referred to as the worst place to be gay. For instance I received a lot of criticism from my peers when I added a rainbow filter on one of my social media accounts, I almost immediately received direct and veiled threats warning me to reconsider my course of action, most of my peers had to block and dissociate from my social account feeling that association with me may agitate their parents, hardly a week later my parents were summoned to school to discuss my discipline, however this meeting turned out to be a deliberate attempt by the school to discredit the homosexual community due to information they had received pertaining to my afore mentioned actions, when I clearly stated my support for equality, the deputy head teacher threatened to have me expelled from the school boarding premises and subsequently the school if I did not reconsider my decision for fear I may spread my bad habits to my peers, she later reconsidered her position on the matter after a closed door meeting with my mother which I was barred from attending, I went on to finish my final year as the black sheep of the class with very few friends and open hostility from the school administration.
This is just one of the many similar stories of lives African homosexuals or sympathizers are forced to endure and believe it or not mine is actually one of the good ones, there have been instances where Homosexuals are tortured, neglected and killed sometimes by their own families, once it became clear I was being witch hunted for my sexual orientation very many of my peers and even strangers came to me and admitted that they were also gay and lesbians and they actually thought I had connections to societies for homosexuals, they all thought I was mad to stir up such a controversy without any powerful backing from anyone, that is the kind of society we live in in Africa, in backward unjust dictatorship where you need to know powerful people in order for your voice to be heard and you also have to make sure your opinion doesnt offend other powerful people. Unfortunately the subject of homosexuality offends many powerful people in Uganda which was clearly demonstrated in 2014 when the government passed into law the anti-homosexuality bill whose name leaves nothing to the imagination.
It is honestly sad and disheartening that while other countries are passing legal amendments to grant more freedom to homosexuals, African countries are passing laws to put homosexuals further in bondage all for the crime of being different, last year I may have survived being expelled from a school for homosexuality but this year I am not even sure I will get a school to go to, there are of course schools that would take me but my (single)mother does not approve of them because she doesnt agree with my stand on homosexuality even though she does not know my sexual orientation. Much as the whole world celebrates enormous gains for the homosexual movement worldwide the situation only gets worse in Africa. It is a sad day indeed for all of us.