British Producer Deported from Uganda After Imprisonment for Staging Gay-Themed Play

Back in September we reported that David Cecil, a British theater producer, had been jailed in Uganda after staging the country's first gay-themed play, The River and the Mountain. Cecil was later granted bail.

He has now been deported, AFP reports:

"We have confirmation of deportation," High Commission spokesperson Chris Ward told AFP.

"We are quite concerned that he has not had the opportunity for due process under the Ugandan system," he added.

Cecil's partner Florence Kebirungi, who has two children with him, said he was likely "already back in the UK." She said he was taken on Monday evening from the police station where he was being held to the capital's main airport, where he was put on a flight for Britain.

"He called me from the airport, he didn't sound OK," she said, adding that immigration officials told her that Cecil was being deported because he was an "undesirable" person. "It is a big surprise as we did not have a chance to make a legal challenge," she told AFP.

President Obama Attends National Prayer Breakfast Sponsored by Anti-Gay Group 'The Family'

President Obama and other Congressional leaders this morning attended the National Prayer Breakfast, hosted by The Fellowship Foundation, a conservative Christian organization more widely known as "The Family."

"The Family" has strong ties to anti-gay African leaders, specifically Ugandan Parliamentarian David Bahati, sponsor of the infamous so-called "kill the gays" bill.

LGBT activist group GetEQUAL, which has protested outside the past two National Prayer Breakfasts did not do so this year because the organizer of the previous 'Breakfast Without Bigotry' protests, Michael Dixon, died last week.

They did, however, send out a statement objecting to Obama's participation.

Said Heather Cronk, managing director of GetEQUAL and a seminary graduate:

"For another year, President Obama has chosen to set aside his stated values of inclusion in order to attend the National Prayer Breakfast -- an event rooted in hatred of LGBT people and covered up by pastries and coffee. There are so many communities of faith that fully embrace LGBT people and that are rooted in social justice -- we really don't understand why President Obama continues to give his permission for 'The Family' to support killing LGBT folks abroad. If the president is looking for ways to publicly demonstrate that he's a man of faith, he needs to find ways to do so without simultaneously putting the lives of LGBT people in jeopardy. The 'Kill the Gays' bill has been moving through the Ugandan Parliament at the very same time that President Obama was speaking to the group supporting it -- this practice has got to stop, and the president needs to understand the role he is playing in supporting the execution of LGBT people around the world."

The group added, in its press release:

At a previous National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama said "We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are -- whether it's here in the United States or ... more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda."

Despite this assertion of the rights of LGBT Ugandans to live in peace, President Obama continues to attend and, therefore, support this event. Given the fact that President Obama has recently come out in favor of LGBT equality -- including references in his inaugural speech and in an interview just days ago on Super Bowl Sunday -- we are deeply saddened that the president continues to support this event.

Sundance Film Explores Anti-Gay American Evangelism in Uganda: VIDEO

A new film from director Roger Ross Williams premiering today at Sundance explores the relationship between American evangelical churches, their missionaries, and anti-gay laws in Africa like Uganda’s so-called "Kill the Gays" bill.

Writes Williams in a director's statement:

I thought about following the activists-brave and admirable men and women-who were fighting against these policies. But I was more curious about the people who, in effect, wanted to kill me. (According to the provisions of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, I could be put to death or imprisoned.) Notably, almost every evangelical I met – American or Ugandan – was polite, agreeable, even charming. Yet I knew that if the bill passed, there would be blood on the streets of Kampala.

What explains that contradiction? What explains the murderous rage and ecstatic transcendence? In the well-known trope about Africa, a white man journeys into the heart of darkness and finds the mystery of Africa and its unknowable otherness. I, a black man, made that journey and found – America.

The film's teaser on YouTube, though more thematic than explicit, has already inspired wrath from anti-gay pastor Martin "eat da poo poo" Ssempa, who left a comment on its page:

I knew all along that Roger wanted to perpetuate the myth that the "evil" well funded, American right was responsible for Uganda's resolve to fight the homosexuality agenda. He being a homosexual is biased and hates Africa and true Christianity. He wishes to get sympathy as a typical "feel sorry for me" they wanted to kill me when indeed he was living large in the protection of "Bishop" Robert Kayanja a state connected operative whose team included many machine gun wielding body guards.

The film has the support of activist group AllOut. Says its executive director Andre Banks:

“The world has never had an up-close look at how anti-gay animus is exported from the United States to places like Uganda. The film also raises urgent questions for American people of faith who care about justice and human rights. The large majority of churches in the U.S. raise money to do good in their communities and abroad.  But this film makes clear that we must each be certain that our contributions at the collection plate are not going, directly or indirectly, toward supporting laws that call for the death of gays and lesbians."

Watch the teaser, AFTER THE JUMP...

Uganda: Anti-Gay Evangelist Scott Lively Appears in Federal Court, and Facebook Takes Down 'Outing' Page

After hearings yesterday, a federal court is weighing a request for dismissal from anti-gay evangelical Scott Lively of a case brought against him by Pepe Onziema, a transgender gay rights activist and SMUG (Sexual Minorities Uganda) accusing Lively of crimes against humanity.

The AP reports:

Following court arguments Monday, it is now up to U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor to decide whether to grant Lively’s motion to dismiss a civil action that Sexual Minorities Uganda filed against him last year. The Uganda-based group for which Onziema serves as program director alleges that Lively waged a long campaign of persecution of gays in the East African country.

Lively’s lawyer, Horatio Mihet, called the case an attack on the U.S. Constitution and his client’s First Amendment right to free speech. Plaintiff’s attorney Pam Spees, from the Center for Constitutional Rights, said Lively conspired with others in Uganda to persecute gays.

With every courtroom seat filled, court officials broadcast the proceeding to two overflow rooms so spectators could watch the arguments live.

In related news, Facebook has taken down an anti-gay user page aimed at outing Ugandans which Andrew posted about over the weekend, thanks to some exposure and outreach from GLAAD:

The page, called "Kampala Exposed: Facts and Rumors," was brought to wider attention by a Change.org petition started by the LGBT organization Freedom and Roam Uganda, and reported on by Towleroad. In the petition, Freedom and Roam Uganda cited a previous "outing" of Ugandans perceived to be gay in a local newspaper and the anti-gay bias believed to have led to the murder of prominent Ugandan LGBT advocate David Kato. GLAAD reached out to Facebook regarding the anti-gay page.

Petition Calls On Facebook To Ban Page Outing Gay Ugandans

A fresh petition just popped up on change.org asking Facebook to suspend "Kampala Exposed: Facts and Rumors," a page based in Uganda's capital city and created to out gay people. Kampala Exposed's creators says the page is not there just to fight homosexuality, but to combat all "rot" in Uganda.

"This page was not created to fight against homosexuality in Uganda, it was created to expose the rot in society Why gays have turned into a page that is against them beats my understanding," they said before mocking the change.org petition. They also said that if gay people are so upset by their tactics, then they should just come out themselves, knowing full well the consequences of such a move.

Here's the change.org petition asking Facebook to ban Kampala Exposed:

This highly trafficked page is attempting to incite mob violence, firing, eviction and annihilation of named people in Uganda who are perceived to be gay - or rumored to be gay, or otherwise have angered the woman behind it in some personal way - by "exposing" them online.

This has resulted in disasters before; since the Ugandan newspaper Rolling Stone exposed 100 people as gay in 2010, those people have lived in fear and many have been attacked, lost their jobs and had to be relocated.

In 2011 gay human rights activist David Kato, one of the people "exposed" by the paper, was bludgeoned to death.

The page has been blocked and returned 6 times so far in two weeks with more and more hate speech. Facebook has clear policies on hate speech and harassment, but hasn't banned this page completely. We urgently need Facebook to permanently BLOCK the user's account, or otherwise prevent her from posting pages on Facebook.

Join us to stop more terror in Uganda in the wake of the pending "Kill the Gays bill" by signing this petition. We are counting on you. Thank you!

Think Facebook will listen?

Ugandan Court Dismisses Case Against Brit Producer Jailed Over Gay Play

Finally, some good news for a gay person in Uganda: it was announced today that the case against David Cecil, the British producer arrested for putting up a gay-themed play, has been dismissed.

From Cecil's statement, via Box Turtle Bulletin:

A win for freedom in Uganda! A case against a British script producer, David Cecil (accused of staging a "homosexual play" - The Mountain and the River - and disobeying "lawful" orders) has been dismissed for lack of evidence by the Magistrates Court at Makindye. We can now sue the State for the malicious prosecution.

This is the type of work I’m willing to do for the rest of my life. No man should be arrested, detained, charged and imprisoned arbitrarily for expressing himself.

Rights and Freedoms are inherent and not granted by cultural and religious beliefs/institutions, families, parents, the Government or the State.

The play The Mountain and The River is about a gay man whose mother tries to "turn" him straight, something that's no doubt a topic of interest for those brave enough to come out to their families in the overwhelmingly anti-gay country.