David Kato

A couple of days ago, a man named David Kato was murdered in Uganda, bludgeoned with a hammer. Kato was an openly gay man and activist, working for the group Sexual Minorities Uganda. He had recently won, along with two others, a case against a Uganda tabloid that had published a cover story with photos of him among others and the headline, “Hang them".

Whether or not he was murdered because he was gay, what happened at his funeral certainly was due to his sexuality. Reports are a bit muddled, but what seems clear is that the Anglican minister leading the service berated the mourners and began to expound upon the evils of homosexuality, when the mourners took over, "storming the pulpit" as the BBC put it. Reuters continues:

An unidentified female activist then began to shout from the pulpit.

"Who are you to judge others?" she shouted. "We have not come to fight. You are not the judge of us. As long as he's gone to God his creator, who are we to judge Kato?"

Locals intervened on the side of the pastor and scuffles broke out before he was taken away to Kato's father's house to calm the situation.

Villagers then refused to bury the body at which point a group of Kato's friends, most of whom were gay, carried his coffin to the grave and buried it themselves.

More thoughts on this in future. For the moment, I want to leave it there, maybe say a prayer. May David's soul, and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.