In the midst of the anti-gay hysteria that has Uganda in its grips, one of the most insidious aspects of the institutional homophobia is the practice of publicly outing anyone thought to be gay for the sake of publicly shaming them. It’s really not much different than when someone would point to a woman in Salem and scream “WIIIIIIIIITTTTTTCCCCCHHHHHH!” It’s religious superstition funnelled into fatal stupidity.
So when a Facebook page opened up, designed to out perceived homosexuals in Uganda, a petition was created to urge Facebook to delete the page before any real-world damage could be caused by it. Thankfully, Facebook actually did something right for a change and removed that shit from their site.
A controversial Facebook page aimed at outing gay Ugandans has been removed, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has confirmed.
AdvertisementThe page, titled “Kampala Exposed: Facts and Rumors,” had originally been created to “expose the rot in society,” according to its organizers, Towleroad reported.
A change.org petition asking Facebook to remove the page drew over 700 signatures. “This highly trafficked page is attempting to incite mob violence, firing, eviction and annihilation of named people in Uganda who are perceived to be gay — or rumored to be gay, or otherwise have angered the woman behind it in some personal way — by ‘exposing’ them online,” members of LGBT organization Freedom and Roam Uganda, who started the petition, wrote. [SOURCE]
Earlier, I compared Uganda’s anti-gay outings and policy to the Salem witch hunt, and the more I think about it, the more parallels there are. Basically, there are two religiously motivated and scientifically lacking societies finding a scapegoat in the minority and accusing people of belonging to said minority knowing full well that they can’t defend themselves. The only real difference here is that Uganda is a part of a world that has the scientific research to prove them wrong, but they willfully choose to ignore it because . . . why exactly?
[Image via Olivia Cheng]
Why you can trust Xtra
