High Noon

159 days ago on February 24th, Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act, AHA, into power.

Today the court decided to strike down the antigay law on technical grounds that the AHA was passed by Parliament without a proper quorum.

While people are happy to see this erroneous act nullified, it is unfortunate that the court did not rule on the fact that the AHA violates basic human rights.

For the time that the AHA was in effect it essentially upheld the following...

- Those convicted of homosexual acts could potentially face life imprisonment
- It was a crime not to report gay people
- A 7-year prison sentence for the promotion of homosexuality without condemning it

One of my roommate in Kampala works with an organization that addresses basic human rights, including abolishing this bill.  Unfortunately he was away today on vacation and so myself along with a friend decided to go to the hearing.  We thought we got there late, as the courtroom was not filled with the familiar faces of the activitists who are usually on the cover of the newspapers.  We asked the police what had happened and she said that it had been postponed to midday.

#ugandantime

My friend and I decided to wait it out over coffee.  In the meantime she ended up having to leave for a lunch date so I found myself anxiously waiting.  I stuck around and soon found myself sitting next to Martin Ssempa, the pastor predominantly filmed in God Loves Uganda.

Watch Ssempa share some "insightful" information...

I moved into the courtroom around 11:30a to find standing room only.  I patiently waited another 70 minutes until the court officials arrived in their very stylish wigs.

Remember that since Uganda was once a British colony, it follows their legal dress code.

They of course had to review all the minutes and after about 20 minutes of political language I failed to understand... I felt like Elle Woods in Legally Blonde... the five judges said something I understood!

"The recently-enacted Anti-Homosexuality Act is null and void because it was passed without quorum of the necessary one-third members of parliament present."

#justice

There has been talk about appealing the ruling but most people do not foresee that happening.  There has been talk of reintroducing the bill but that means they have to start from the beginning.  Again, something that is not expected.  Plus Museveni just wants to continue his 28 years in power and getting into this hot mess again is not worth the unsupportive and negative publicity from many Western countries.

Ssempa stormed out of the courtroom, embarrassed after he willingly offered to buy everyone cups of tea after the court would obviously rule in his favor.

Not today Ssempa.  Not today.

I left content.  As an ally to the LGBT community, I could openly support my friends and family without fearing about someone coming to arrest me for the personal beliefs.

Then I received a text message from a friend saying the following...

"Hahaha!  Serious lady I saw you on NTV Focus (a Ugandan television network) in the courtroom.  I could see a lot of joy in ur eyes. U need a bottle of beer really."

The last line is probably true... Although I may trade it for a bottle of wine.

In the meantime, here are some reads for you.

BuzzFeed
BBC
Huffington Post
NPR
NY Times
UG Daily Monitor