EVEN AT DAVID KATO'S FUNERAL...

From Reuters:

Scuffles broke out between locals and friends of a murdered Ugandan gay activist at his funeral on Friday after the pastor conducting the service berated gay people and villagers refused to bury the coffin.

David Kato was beaten to death with a hammer on Wednesday, police said. His photo was printed on the cover of a newspaper last October that called for gays to be executed under a headline that read: "Hang them".
....

During the funeral -- which was attended by about 300 people, including about 100 members of the country's gay community -- the pastor lashed out at homosexuality, provoking a strong reaction from friends of Kato.

"The world has gone crazy," the pastor told the congregation through a microphone.

"People are turning away from the scriptures. They should turn back, they should abandon what they are doing. You cannot start admiring a fellow man."
....

Villagers then refused to bury the body at which point a group of Kato's friends, most of whom were gay, carried his coffin to the grave and buried it themselves.

Read it all, the whole sorry spectacle of an Anglican priest Lay Reader berating the deceased and his friends from the pulpit at Kato's funeral.

The police authorities say the preliminary investigation indicates that Kato was killed in a robbery, but human rights activists suspect otherwise.

H/T to Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin.

"DAVID KATO, MY FEARLESS FRIEND...."

By Blogger Nsubuga in the Guardian:

I first met David in school. I know he was a few years ahead but apart from that, my memory fails.

I didn't know he was gay. I was yet to put meaning to the impulses I felt then. I knew I was different, but couldn't see the same difference in anyone else.

Later, when I was as "out" as I could be in Uganda's secretive gay community, we met again. We were having a party. My partner had organised it. And David Kato Kisule was the stranger claiming to be gay who wanted to crash the party.
....

I felt like crying when the news came of the death of a friend, confidant, fellow activist. And the manner of his death: horrible. Someone entered his home in the middle of the day and hit him with a hammer. Two blows to the head.
....

By the time Rolling Stone came out, David was so well known outside the community that they thought it fitting to put his photo on the front page. He was one of the three people who sued the paper. On 3 January, they won the case, securing us a small victory.

But in Uganda, such exposure has a price. In court, David was chased by anti-gay activists. Strangers knew he was gay. Even at home in Mukono they also knew.

Read it all.

May David rest in peace and rise in glory.

May God give comfort, consolation, and the peace that passes understanding to all who loved David.

Pray that justice may be done. Pray for the murderer.

Pray that David's death may be the inspiration for many to work to bring about change in Ugandan society, politics, and religion.

UPDATE: read Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's statement on David Kato's murder at The Lead.