July 5, 2007

Reformed Ugandan Homophobe Appeals to Gay-Hater Buturo

From AllAfrica.com, the Perspective of a Ugandan in Canada — which is well worth the click and the full read.

The effort is no doubt futile, but we’re warmed by the writer’s epiphany, and admire his honesty and courage to come out as a former gay-hater:

Dear Dr. Nsaba Buturo, Minister of Ethics and Integrity,

I understand where you are coming from in making homosexuals appear to be dangerous deviants that should be relegated to the dustbin of society.

In fact, your utterances about gays remind me of someone I once knew - me. You see, when I arrived in Canada in 1981 as a refugee, I came face to face with an alien culture that turned my life upside down.

At Queen’s University in Kingston, about two and half hour drive from Toronto, I became aware of an organisation called the Queen’s Homophile Association (QHA). When I asked fellow students what the organisation was about, I was told that it supported homosexuals, bisexual and transidentified individuals to live openly and positively with their sexual orientation.

I did not know what all those terms meant. Imagine my horrors when it was explained to me that members of QHA were young men and women who were attracted to their own gender rather than the opposite sex. I was thoroughly confused, disgusted, and very scared.

Nothing in my upbringing in Pamin-Yai village, west of Gulu town had prepared me for what I saw as an abomination to society. I was afraid that, alone in this twisted new world, I might become a victim of these strange people who could hurt, worse, make me a member of their group.

. . .

… Interestingly, I cannot recall any headline about homosexual violence against heterosexuals. …

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Posted by: Sapphocrat