The Celluloid Closet is a 1996 American documentary film directed and co-written by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, and executive produced by Howard Rosenman. The film is based on Vito Russo's 1981 book The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, and on lecture and film clip presentations he gave from 1972 to 1982. Russo had researched the history of how motion pictures, especially Hollywood films, had portrayed gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender characters.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Uganda face severe legal and social challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents. Same-sex sexual activity is illegal for both men and women in Uganda. It was originally criminalised by British colonial laws introduced when Uganda became a British protectorate, and these laws have been retained since the country gained its independence.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Africa are generally poor in comparison to the Americas, Western Europe and Oceania.
Scott Douglas Lively is an American activist, author, and attorney, who is the president of Abiding Truth Ministries, an anti-LGBT group based in Temecula, California. He was also a cofounder of Latvia-based group Watchmen on the Walls, state director of the California branch of the American Family Association, and a spokesman for the Oregon Citizens Alliance. He unsuccessfully attempted to be elected as the governor of Massachusetts in both 2014 and 2018.
The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 was an act passed by the Parliament of Uganda on 20 December 2013, which prohibited sexual relations between persons of the same sex. The act was previously called the "Kill the Gays bill" in the western mainstream media due to death penalty clauses proposed in the original version, but the penalty was later amended to life imprisonment. The bill was signed into law by the President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni on 24 February 2014. On 1 August 2014, however, the Constitutional Court of Uganda ruled the act invalid on procedural grounds.
Martin Ssempa is a Ugandan charismatic pastor, activist, and the founder of the Makerere Community Church. He referred to himself as Pastor Doctor Martin Ssempa, but now calls himself Gabriel Baaba Gwanga'mujje Eri Yesu. Ssempa first came to international prominence in 2010, after a presentation video he made at his church, which showcased his opposition to homosexuality, went viral.
Rolling Stone was a weekly tabloid newspaper published in Kampala, Uganda. The paper published its first issue on 23 August 2010, under the direction of 22-year-old Giles Muhame and two classmates from Kampala's Makerere University. According to Muhame, the paper's title was derived from the local word enkurungu: "It's a metaphor for something that strikes with lightning speed, that can kill someone if it is thrown at them." The paper was small, with a circulation of approximately 2000 copies. It suspended publication in November 2010 after the High Court ruled that it had violated the fundamental rights of LGBT Ugandans by attempting to out them and calling for their deaths. One of those listed, David Kato, was subsequently murdered.
Christopher Senyonjo is a clergyman and campaigner for LGBT rights in Uganda. He was elevated to bishop in the Church of Uganda in 1974 and retired in 1998. In 2001, he was barred from performing services. Whilst it is widely claimed that this is because of his stance on gay rights, the church claims that it was because of his participation in the consecration of a man to be a bishop of a church with which the Church of Uganda is not in communion. He has since worked with the Charismatic Church of Uganda and the progressive Episcopal Church of the United States, and founded Integrity Uganda and the Saint Paul's Reconciliation and Equality Centre in Kampala. In 2006 the Church of Uganda declared him "no longer a bishop" and revoked all remaining privileges for his involvement with the Charismatic denomination. For his stance Senyonjo has received several honours including the Clinton Global Citizen Award, and has been invited to participate in documentaries and international speaking tours.
Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) is an umbrella non-governmental organization based in Kampala, Uganda. It has been described as the country's leading gay rights advocacy group.
David Kato Kisule was a Ugandan teacher and LGBT rights activist, considered a father of Uganda's gay rights movement and described as "Uganda's first openly gay man". He served as advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG).
Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera is a Ugandan LGBT rights activist and the founder and executive director of the LGBT rights organization Freedom & Roam Uganda (FARUG). She received the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2011 and the Right Livelihood Award in 2015.
Frank Mugisha is a Ugandan LGBT advocate and Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), who has won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize 2011 for his activism. Mugisha is one of the most prominent advocates for LGBT rights in Uganda.
God Loves Uganda is a 2013 American documentary film produced and directed by Roger Ross Williams, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. It explores connections between evangelicalism in North America and in Uganda, suggesting that the North American influence is the reason behind the controversial Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act, which at one point raised the possibility of the death penalty for gays and lesbians. The filmmakers follow a group of young missionaries from the International House of Prayer in their first missionary effort in another nation, as well as interviewing several evangelical leaders from the US and Uganda.
Kushaba Moses Mworeko is a Ugandan LGBT rights activist, combat medic and blogger. Mworeko, who is gay, was involved in a U.S. asylum case following an interview he gave to an LGBTQ newspaper in the U.S. which published the interview in 2010 along with his picture and full identity—effectively outing him. Following that publication, a Ugandan tabloid saw the interview and reprinted portions of it along with his picture with the headline: "[This] Gay Monster Raped Boys in School but Failed to Bonk Wife" – effectively distorting the content of that interview and putting his life in danger in a country like Uganda where homosexuality is illegal and where at the time Ugandan Member of Parliament (MP) David Bahati has introduced his "Kill the Gays Bill". According to a 28 September 2010 issue published on Box Turtle Bulletin and authored by writer Jim Burroway, Burroway accused the Ugandan tabloid of "gay-baiting and gay-bashing journalism" and for "grossly distorting that same interview in its write-up."
Uganda has a very long and, quite permissive, and sometimes violent history regarding the LGBT community, stretching back from the pre-colonial period, through British colonial control, and even after independence.
Pepe Julian Onziema is a Ugandan LGBT rights and human rights activist. He began his human rights work in 2003.
John "Longjones" Abdallah Wambere is a Ugandan gay rights activist and co-founder of Spectrum Uganda Initiatives, a Kampala-based LGBTI rights advocacy organization with a focus on health education. Because of the threat of violence and persecution he faces in Uganda, Wambere was approved for asylum in the United States by the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services on September 11, 2014. He currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Brandan Robertson is a gay writer, activist, minister, and TikTok religious influencer. He has written on the subjects of millennials, social justice, and Progressive Christianity, and he is an LGBTQ activist. Robertson serves as the Pastor of Sunnyside Reformed Church in Queens, New York.
Sylvia Rhue is an African-American writer, filmmaker, producer, and LGBT activist.
Giles Muhame is a Ugandan journalist, news editor who made international news in 2010 and 2011 for his efforts to out homosexuals. He is the co-founder of Chimpreports; a daily tabloid newspaper published in Kampala, Uganda.
