WHERE IS GOD'S LOVE FOR LGBTIQ PEOPLE?
The relationship between religion and the LGBTQI communities has significantly varied across time and place, within and between different faiths, concerning sexuality.
There are many different types of opposition among religious denominations that generally reject these orientations, ranging from quietly discouraging same-sex relationships, explicitly forbidding same-sex sexual practices among their adherents and actively opposing social acceptance of homosexuality, supporting criminal sanctions up to capital punishment, and even condoning homophobic murders.
A recent study by East African Visual Artists (EAVA Artists ) connected religious fundamentalism with homophobic attitudes and physical antigay hostility.
Attitudes toward homosexuality are determined not only by personal religious beliefs but also by the interaction of those beliefs with the predominant national religious context, which is generally antigay.
This has denied many LGBTQI persons in Uganda the right to worship and associate freely. LGBTIQ persons find places of worship are no go areas because of the apparent religious homophobia fueled by hate preachers.
Dambisha (not real name), a 45-year-old former Teacher and a queer activist, was born and raised in the Catholic Church. He only went to Catholic Schools and joined an Islamic University in Uganda for a bachelor's degree in Education. Like any other person with a solid religious background, Dambisha is deeply entrenched in Catholicism.
He is one of the people going to participate in next week's launch of a campaign addressing religious homophobia in Uganda by East African Visual Artists (EAVA Artists) and partners.
"I am queer but still a staunch Catholic.
