David Bahati, who is an Ugandan politician and a member of the Ugandan parliament, was born on August 6, 1973. Bahati is the author of the “Kill The Gays” Bill in Uganda. He received a Bachelor degree of Commerce from Makerere University, as well as Master of Business Administration degree from Cardiff University. Before Bahati entered the political field, he was head of finance and administration at Uganda’s Population Secretariat. David Bahati is an open homophobic and racist person. Bahati hit the international spotlight in October of 2009 after he introduced Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The proposal of this bill included the intentions to perform the death penalty for gay adults who have had sex with those of the same gender under 18, with disabled people, when the accused person is thought to be HIV-positive, or when one had previously been convicted of homosexuality-related offences. As Bahati freely, and simply expressed the desire to “kill every last gay person.”
Victor Juliet Mukasa, born in 1975, is a Human Rights Defender who works for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Liberation in her homeland, Uganda and throughout Africa. In addition, she is the chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG.) Mukasa has an incredible story. She claims that she began realizing she was transgender at a young age through childhood. Throughout childhood, it wasn’t much of an issue, that is until she had a job that required her to wear a skirt, and that’s when it hit her, as she stated, “ ‘If I wear a skirt or a dress, then it affects my brain. I cannot think about any other thing. I am concentrating on how I look.” Mukasa’s journey to figure out answers about her sexual orientation and gender identity lead to church. She came from a very Catholic family, and she felt at this time in her life, it was necessary to go from church to church in seek of healing. When this seek lead to her standing in front of a thousands of people at a popular Ugandan Church. The pastor, which she trusted to help her healing, began telling everyone that she was harbouring a male spirit from the Indian Ocean, to explain her why she was a transgender. The pastor then began to lay hands on her and all his boys from the healing ministry came and laid hands all over her body, and began to remove her clothing, then touching her private parts to remove the male spirit. She was so humiliated and felt so violated being touched the way she was. As she began to hate herself and suffer from depression, that’s when she began to take action. Mukasa and two other women decided to begin an organization known as Freedom and Roam Uganda, which was a lesbian, gay, and transgender organization."We want people to see us as their equals, as human beings, as people who have brains, as people who can work, as people who excel and should be credited for that. We are just like everyone else – sexual orientation and different gender identities should not be a big issue.” Victor knows this is not an easy subject to be an activist for, however, she will continue to try and pursue.
Martin Ssempa, is an Ugandan pastor and activist, was born in 1968 in Naluzaale, Masaka District. Throughout his teenage years he was known for his break dancing skills. In addition to being a pastor, he was the founder of the Makerere Community Church. Ssempa strongly rejects the ideas of separation of church and state, and he’s also opposed to the usage of condoms to prevent HIV contradictions and supports abstinence. Not only does he disagree of separation of church and state and the use of condoms to prevent HIV, but he also is a strong advocate of the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which includes the killing of gays and lesbians. Since Ssempa is a pastor, and he supports the bill by showing gay pornography in his church and at different conferences. United States President, Barack Obama, has referred to the bill as “odious”. In 1998 when Ssempa was attending college at Makerere University, his siblings, brother and sister were diagnosed with AIDS. As he had to watch them grow sicker and sicker, he decided to take action right then and there. He went with a drama club group around the country to different schools trying to educate people about AIDS. He later graduated from Makerere University with a Bachelors degree in Social Science, specializing in sociology. Later, received a Master of Arts degree in counseling from Philadelphia Biblical University.
Robert Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe was born 21 February, 1924 and is still alive. He was born in the Zvimba District in Southern Rhodesia. Mugabe was raised as a Roman Catholic and was known as a very anti-social kid who really enjoyed being alone rather than playing with other kids. Mugabe was very successful in college. He studied Fort Hare in South Africa and graduated in 1951. However, he wasn’t done there, when he went on to study at Salisbury (1953), Gwelo (1954), and Tanzania (1955–1957). He originally graduated from Fort Hare University with a Bachelor of Arts degree and then got 6 additional Bachelor degrees. He received a Bachelor of Administration and Bachelor of Education from the University of South Africa and a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Laws, Master of Science, and Master of Laws; all from the University of London External Programme. In 1987, the position of Prime Minister was removed and that’s when Mugabe wanted to be President of Zimbabwe, which would lead to him gaining additional powers in the process.When in 1990 and 1996, he was re-elected and in 2002. His term expired at the end of March, 2008, but he was re-elected later that year. In regards to homosexuality, Mugabe has been quite uncompromising in regard to his opposition to LGBT rights in Zimbabwe. As he expresses homosexuality as, "an alien practise that is being exported into our country." Zimbabwe’s parliament introduced legislation banning homosexual acts in September 1995.