The award-wining documentary Call Me
Kuchu opens Friday in New York City and next Friday in Los
Angeles.
The film documents activist David
Kato's fight for gay rights in Uganda.
Kato, known as Uganda's first openly
gay man, was brutally murdered in his Kampala home on January 26,
2011. He fought to repeal Uganda's anti-gay laws and liberate his
fellow lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender men and women, known as
“kuchus.”
Filmmakers Katherine Fairfax Wright and
Malika Zouhali-Worrall followed Kato as he and his fellow activists
fought against passage of a controversial bill that sought to
increase the penalties against homosexuality in a nation where it is
already a crime. The new bill proposes death under certain
circumstances.
In a clip from the film released
Friday, Giles Muhame, managing editor of the Rolling Stone
newspaper, discusses the paper's decision to print the names and
photographs of gay activists – including Kato's picture – under
the headline “Hang Them.”
“We are quoting a church leader who
called for the hanging of homosexuals,” Muhame says in the clip.
“So, we are not telling people to hang. No, in Uganda people do
not hang their fellow, it's government that does that.”
Muhame says that the paper infiltrated
the gay community for the story.
“You pretend that you're one of them.
You join them. You drink with them. You know all the members, you
get their pictures at parties, you see?”
He goes on to defend putting the lives
of gay men and lesbians at risk by suggesting that gays are
pedophiles.
“If your intent is to take minors to
your bedroom, then we shall surely raid your house. … We shall
ignore the right of privacy in the interest of the public.”
In a second clip, the bill's author, MP
David Bahati, insists that gay people are recruiting young people
into homosexuality and that being gay is not a recognized human right
in Uganda. (The video is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
Call Me Kuchu has won nearly two
dozen awards, including the Teddy Award for best documentary at the
Berlin Film Festival.