From The Times
May 22, 2010

Jacqui Goddard in Miami and Jonathan Clayton in Nairobi

When he arrived at Kampala’s Hotel Triangle for a three-day conference, the Rev Kapya Kaoma knew that he would not like what he heard.

The clue was in the event’s title — “Exposing the truth behind homosexuality and the homosexual agenda” — and in the line-up of guest speakers arranged by Stephen Langa, head of the Ugandan-based Family Life Network (FLN), and an outspoken advocate for the criminalisation of homosexuality in Uganda.

Given top billing at the event hosted by the FLN was Scott Lively, president of Abiding Truth Ministries, an American conservative Christian group from California, and a Holocaust revisionist whose controversial book The Pink Swastika names homosexuals as “the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities.”

Weeks after the Kampala conference in March last year — which followed a meeting between the speakers and members of the Ugandan Parliament — a clause appeared in the country’s draft Anti-Homosexuality Bill recommending life imprisonment for certain homosexual “crimes” or, for “serial offenders”, the death sentence.

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Local chiefs and Kenyan officials have prevented a planned gay wedding in Kenya – where such unions are illegal.

The marriage had been due to take place in a private villa near the resort of Mombasa but chiefs took action after it was reported in the local press.

“I was shocked… I won’t allow it,” Chief Hussein Swaleh told the BBC.

Homosexuality has become a hot topic in Africa after a Ugandan MP last year proposed a bill which includes the death penalty for some homosexual acts.

A couple were arrested in Malawi in January after holding an “engagement party”.

Homosexual acts are illegal in most Africa countries and only South Africa allows gay weddings.

Councillors in the Mnarani area near Mombasa planned protests against the union and wanted to evict the two men from their houses.

“We had planned with our area chiefs to give them notices… and tell these people to move from our area,” said councillor Esther Kache.

The BBC’s Odhiambo Joseph says the wedding party left the area in three minibuses before the marriage could go ahead.

Meem participated in a workshop that reached out to young people in schools and youth centers in Belgium to talk about the challenges of LGBT rights around the world. The experience gained in working with youth was important in helping us formulate a strategy to combat school homophobia in Lebanon in the future.

Meem members have launched a petition at the American University of Beirut in protest of strongly homophobic remarks directed by a Professor at two students in his class. The petition, currently being signed by AUB students, calls on the administration to take strict measures to maintain a campus life and university education that is non-discriminatory on the basis of sexual orientation.

Bekhsoos has made its first media appearance in Menassat.com, an online Arab news portal You can read the fantastic article in Englishand Arabic. After the exposure we got from those articles, Bekhsoos il Homophobia, our first issue was discussed on many blogs and news websites such as Caledoniyya, Muslimah Media Watch, and Jiha5 Saudi Magazine.