INTERNATIONAL
LGBTQ Ugandans Snared in Raid Released
Queer shelter residents get charges dropped after nearly two months behind bars
BY MATT TRACY
Nearly two dozen queer
Ugandans whose shelter
was raided under
the guise of coronavirus
regulations have been released
from jail after spending almost two
months locked up on bogus charges.
Children of the Sun Foundation
(COSF), an LGBTQ organization in
Uganda that operated the raided
shelter in the nation’s capital of
Kampala, announced on May 18
that a court ordered the release
of 19 homeless LGBTQ individuals,
including LGBTQ youth, after
prosecutors scrapped charges of
“doing a neglect act likely to spread
infection of disease,” referring to
COVID-19. The March 29 arrests
were viewed as suspicious from the
beginning due to a culture of homophobia
and strict anti-LGBTQ
laws in Uganda data back to British
colonial rule.
Upon their release, COSF
thanked other queer groups in the
nation — including Sexual Minorities
➤ LARRY KRAMER, from p.5
removed from the index of mental
disorders, and tried to take his
own life. But Kramer did manage
to connect romantically with a gay
German teacher at Yale and graduated
in 1957. (He had a very complex
relationship with Yale, which
he desperately wanted to teach gay
studies. He donated his papers to
Yale and his brother Arthur donated
a million dollars to the school in
2001 for a Larry Kramer Initiative
for Lesbian and Gay Studies after
an acrimonious four-year fi ght
about how the money would be
spent. It was shut down in 2006.
The university nevertheless gave
him an honorary degree in 2015.)
After a brief stint in the US
Army, Kramer moved to New York
in 1958, eventually working for Columbia
Pictures helping produce
— out of London — such fi lms as
Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove”
and David Lean’s epic “Lawrence of
Nineteen LGBTQ Ugandans sit together after getting released from prison following nearly two months
behind bars for bogus COVID-19 charges.
Uganda (SMUG) — for standing
with the jailed youth, but there
also appeared to be international
pressure from Europe after LGBTQ
advocates fi led a petition with
the United Nations’ Working Group
on Arbitrary Detention.
Among those who were jailed
and subsequently released included
gay, bisexual, and transgender
individuals, according to Reuters.
Arabia.” He optioned the rights to
“Women in Love” and its success
became his calling card.
Kramer learned he was HIV-positive
in 1988 — seven years after
having thrown himself into AIDS
activism. A long-long-term survivor,
he eventually needed a liver
transplant and was the fi rst person
with HIV to get one in December
2001 when expectations had
risen further that people with HIV
could live normal life spans. The
NIH’s Fauci, often his antagonist
but eventually his friend, played a
role in seeing to it that Kramer got
the operation.
Kramer is survived by his husband,
architect/ designer David
Webster who he had an on-again,
off-again relationship with in the
mid-1970s (related fi ctionally in
“Faggots”), but with whom he reconnected
in the 1990s, bringing
great calmness to Kramer’s personal
life. When Kramer fell deathly
ill in 2013, the men were married
COSF UGANDA
“We are fi nally out of Kitalya
prison,” COSF wrote in a Facebook
post before thanking the Irish Embassy
and human rights groups
made known their support for the
jailed youth. On the following day,
COSF’s Facebook page stated that
the organization’s executive director
met with the Irish and Danish
ambassadors to Uganda.
According to a tweet by Ireland’s
in Kramer’s ICU hospital room
by Judge Eve Preminger surrounded
by a few close friends — one of
many scenes in Jean Carlomusto’s
fi ne documentary, “Larry Kramer:
In Love & Anger” (HBO, 2015).
Ann Northrop, an ACT UP stalwart
and co-host of GAY USA, said,
“I loved Larry. We didn’t always
agree. But I appreciated his love of
gay people and his imperative that
we hold ourselves to a high standard.”
AIDS activist Peter Staley,
who joined ACT UP weeks after it
launched in 1987, paid a complex
tribute to Kramer on Facebook,
talking about how happy Kramer
was “fi nally witnessing the community
he dreamed of.”
He wrote, “Larry told us to fi ght
back. In short order, we guilttripped
an entire nation of people
and two Republican presidents to
react. By 1990, the AIDS research
budget at the NIH hit one billion
dollars a year.”
embassy in Kampala, Ambassador
William Carlos met with the United
Nation’s human rights team
in Uganda on May 5 along with
unnamed Danish, German, and
Swedish diplomats to discuss “the
current human rights in Uganda.”
There are lingering concerns
about the health of the HIV-positive
shelter residents after they toiled
behind bars in recent months. Attorneys
representing them said
those living with HIV did not receive
their necessary medication,
while others reported symptoms of
malaria and typhoid, according to
Reuters
Those health challenges piled
added insult to injury after victims
were initially beaten and taunted
due to their sexual orientation
when they were hauled off to jail.
The motivation behind the raid
appeared to have been tied to the
individuals’ sexual orientation or
gender identity.
“Information gathered shows
that the community members in
➤ UGANDAN DETAINEES, continued on p.33
While praising the activist
Kramer, Staley also said, “The second
Larry was the moralist whose
fi nger-wagging, like all fi nger-wagging,
brought adulation from other
moralists, but had no effect on the
rest of us” but added to the shame
that some gay people feel.
Author David Strah, who as a
student at NYU in 1986 took care
of Kramer’s dog Molly and became
his friend, said, “He inspired me to
be an empowered proud gay man
like no one else. He invited me to
the fi rst ACT UP meeting. But his
example of fi ghting for our lives
also pushed me to make key decisions
like having children and
now, as a therapist with LGBT
people, to instill a sense of pride in
my clients.”
ACT UP veteran Mark Milano
wrote, “Larry is the reason I’m an
activist. He helped me change from
a timid, disinterested bystander to
➤ LARRY KRAMER, continued on p.25
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