Uganda prohibits performance of pro-gay play

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Uganda prohibits performance of pro-gay play

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Uganda has prohibited a pro-gay theatre production by the human rights groups.

08 November,2012 09:10 pm

Uganda has halted a theatre production being staged by human rights activists, including pro-gay campaigners, theatre officials and gay activists said Thursday.Police at Kampalas national theatre, obeying orders from the theatre management, entered the building as the play was starting on Wednesday and forced hundreds of people attending the event to leave, activists said.If there is any promotion of a special group or an agenda then we cannot allow it, Godfrey Lule, a spokesman for the national theatre, told AFP.The raid occurred just after a member of a local gay rights group had made his opening speech, which allegedly differed from one already approved by the theatre management.Lule said that Ugandas media council, the government media authority, had requested a script of the production in order to review it before allowing it to be performed again.Those involved with the production -- a one-off event titled Lighting the Shadows -- denied that is was promoting homosexuality and said it was simply promoting respect of all human rights.We had spent two months working on it and had made it as flexible and acceptable as possible for anyone to come and see it, Frank Mugisha, executive director of gay rights group Sexual Minorities Uganda, said.Mugisha, who made the contentious opening remarks, said that those behind the production would now take legal action against the theatre for stopping it.Homosexuality is already a crime in Uganda but proposed legislation currently before parliament would see the death penalty introduced for certain homosexual acts.In September Uganda arrested a British theatre producer for staging a play in Kampala about a gay man despite a temporary ban by the media council.Producer David Cecil was charged with disobeying lawful orders and faces up to two years in jail if found guilty.Last month another play titled State of the Nation, which had been running at the countrys national theatre in Kampala, was also suspended.