David Kato In His Coffin Photo By Justin Dralaze Reuters
By Mark Singer (Washington DC) JAN 28 | Fistfights and shoving matches erupted during the funeral services for slain Gay Rights Activist David Kato in his native village of Mukono, Uganda, yesterday after denunciation of Kato and other LGBT persons by the pastor conducting the service.
A Reuters Wire Service correspondent in attendance at the funeral reported:
"The world has gone crazy," the pastor told the congregation through a microphone. "People are turning away from the scriptures. They should turn back, they should abandon what they are doing. You cannot start admiring a fellow man." Gay activists, wearing T-shirts featuring Kato's face with sleeves coloured with the gay pride flag, then stormed the pulpit and grabbed the microphone. "It is ungodly," the pastor shouted, before being blocked from sight.
An unidentified female activist then began to shout from the pulpit. "Who are you to judge others?" she shouted. "We have not come to fight. You are not the judge of us. As long as he's gone to God his creator, who are we to judge Kato?"
Local villagers intervened on the side of the pastor and fights broke out before he was taken away to Kato's father's house to calm the situation. There were about 300 persons in total attending the funeral of which approximatively 100 were gay persons from all over Uganda.
After the melee broke-out, the villagers refused to bury Kato, forcing his friends to carry the coffin to the burial site and burying him themselves.
"I'm very upset," Julian Pepe, gay rights activist and a friend of Kato's who attended the funeral, told Reuters, her voice breaking with emotion.
"After we had read statements from everybody, including Obama, after all the nice things friends said about David, that this man could stand up and throw dirt at someone who should be resting in peace. It's just disgusting."
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