Gay rights foe Scott Lively has
suggested that Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato might have been
killed by a gay lover.
Hundreds
of people gathered Friday to say goodbye to Kato, 43, who was found
bludgeoned to death with a hammer in his home near Kampala, the
nation's capital.
Kato and his group, Sexual Minorities
Uganda (SMUg), had campaigned against a proposed bill that includes a
death penalty provision for people who repeatedly engage in gay sex
and those who are HIV-positive. Being gay in Uganda is already a
criminal offense punishable by life imprisonment in some cases.
Friends told the BBC that Kato had
received repeated death threats after his name, photograph and
address were
published in Uganda's Rolling
Stone
newspaper late last year. The cover story of Uganda's “top 100
homos” included a yellow banner that read “hang them.”
Lively, who has argued
that gay rights are dangerous and has admitted that he traveled
to Uganda to give testimony in favor of the anti-gay measure, argues
that Kato's death was just as likely the result of a lover's spat as anti-gay sentiment.
“Ugandan homosexual activist David
Cato [sic] was murdered yesterday in his home,” Lively
wrote on his blog. “To my knowledge, no one has been arrested
for the crime so the motive at this time is purely a matter of
conjecture. CNN is reporting that money and clothing had been stolen
from his house, which would suggest a run-of-the-mill criminal
intent. There is also the possibility that he was killed by a 'gay'
lover, as was the case with another homosexual activist two weeks ago
in New York. Carlos Castro was castrated with a corkscrew by his
boyfriend and bled to death in his hotel room.”
Lively's reference neglects to include
the fact that Portuguese
journalist Castro – unlike Kato – wasn't the target of
anti-gay hate.