Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

LGBT activist Ouma on work, Tanzania and future hopes
by Carrie Maxwell, Windy City Times
2014-11-26

This article shared 6548 times since Wed Nov 26, 2014
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


For 41-year old James Wandera Ouma, LGBT activism has become his life's work. As the executive director of LGBT Voice Tanzania ( formerly WEZESHA ), Ouma works to advance equality, diversity, education and justice for LGBT people in Tanzania.

Recently, Ouma was in attendance at the Oak Park Area Lesbian and Gay Association's ( OPALGA ) annual awards gala at the invitation of two of the organization's founders, Mel Wilson and Nathan Linsk. Wilson and Linsk met Ouma when they traveled to Tanzania two years ago and last year they wrote a viewpoint article for this publication about Ouma and his organization. Ouma also attended the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association ( ILGA ) World Conference in Mexico City, Mexico following his visit to the Chicago area.

"Tanzania is a country where human rights are not respected. LGBT people need to be recognized and respected as human beings and Tanzania doesn't recognize us as human beings," said Ouma. "We have a law that allows for a minimum sentence of 30 years in prison to life imprisonment for males who are accused and convicted of homosexual activity."

Ouma, who is openly gay, said that he's been arrested nine times for LGBT activism. The biggest problem, Ouma noted, are police officers who arrest people and leave them in jail for weeks or months without a trial.

"I just got released from police custody after spending four days in jail. They charged me this time with trying to recruit young people," said Ouma. "Recently we started a safe house for young people who've been thrown out of their homes. Our goal is to provide food and shelter for these young people. We also encourage them to continue their education so they will have a better future. When the authorities learned about this project they immediately came to me and accused me of training the young people at the shelter to become homosexuals. That was my only charge."

Ouma noted that the Tanzanian government has accused the west of importing LGBT people and ideas into the country as well as giving his organization money to recruit people into homosexuality and that isn't true. The fact is, Ouma explained, the west is importing religion into Tanzania not LGBT people and ideas.

"I was born in a remote village without any roads and I didn't have a car, motorbike or bicycle. I knew I was gay when I was young and at that time I had no contact with the outside world," said Ouma. "The life I lived didn't allow me to know anything because we didn't have telephones, radios or the Internet in my remote village. The question is how could I know anything about western culture if I didn't have access to any information about the outside world growing up."

Ouma said that it's not just the government that teaches hate, religious leaders in Tanzania also teach hate towards LGBT people. "I believe they [the government and religious leaders] are afraid," said Ouma.

One of the initiatives that Ouma's organization is working on is conducting a study to document human rights violations that are taking place based on a person's sexual orientation and/or gender identity. "We want people to share what is happening in their homes, work places, health facilities and public places. We want to talk to employers and find out why they don't want to hire LGBT people and we want to hear from parents who have LGBT kids," said Ouma. "We will be compiling a report that can be used as a tool and will be submitted to the members of parliament so they have first hand information about what is happening to LGBT people throughout Tanzania."

"We want to see Tanzania be a country where people are free to express themselves," said Ouma. "We want our country to be a place where people aren't sacrificing their lives because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Where people won't go to prison, get thrown out of their families, get expelled from school or lose their jobs just because they are LGBT. We want to reach a place where we can celebrate our lives. Even if we don't see equality in Tanzania today, the foundation has been laid for that to happen in the future."

Ouma explained that it is important for the international community to speak out about what is happening to LGBT people in Tanzania as well as put pressure on the Tanzania government so LGBT people in his country can be free and have the same rights as other Tanzanians.

As for funding, Ouma noted that LGBT Voice Tanzania doesn't have an institutional funder so all of their funds come from individual donors who make donations online. "Our organization needs money so we can continue running our programs. We want to start a clinic where LGBT young people can access healthcare and we already have the building but we need money and technical support so we can open the clinic," said Ouma. Ouma noted that OPALGA has already donated $500 to the clinic project.

See www.lgbtvoicetz.org for more information. To make a donation, visit org2.salsalabs.com/o/7315/donate_page/lgbtvoice .


This article shared 6548 times since Wed Nov 26, 2014
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Women's History Month doesn't do enough to lift up Black lesbians
2024-03-12
Fifty years ago, in 1974, the Combahee River Collective (CRC) was founded in Boston by several lesbian and feminist women of African descent. As a sisterhood, they understood that their acts of protest were shouldered by ...


Gay News

THEATER When growth is paramount: Jim Corti helps fuel Aurora theater expansion
2024-03-01
Out actor/director/choreographer Jim Corti made his Broadway debut in 1974, in the ensemble of Leonard Bernstein's musical Candide. Director Harold Prince's acclaimed Tony Award-winning revival is often cited as a ...


Gay News

WORLD South Africa murder, lesbian couple, Brianna Ghey, Eurovision
2024-02-16
In South Africa, LGBTQ+-rights groups condemned the brutal murder of Diego Jacobs, a queer man in Cape Town, The Washington Blade reported. Reports indicate Jacobs, 21, was brutally murdered (reportedly by a former neighbor) on Feb. ...


Gay News

SPORTS Chicago Hounds' Nick McCarthy reflects on being out in professional rugby
2024-01-24
In recent years, people from numerous high-profile fields have publicly declared themselves as members of the LGBTQ+ community. Among them have been individuals from tech (such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Apple CEO Tim Cook), ...


Gay News

MOVIES Director Daniel Peddle on the sequel to the classic doc 'The Aggressives'
2023-12-05
In 2005, Daniel Peddle released The Aggressives—a groundbreaking documentary filmed during the late '90s and early '00s in New York City that profiled several masculine-presenting/transmasculine people of color. Fast-forward to ...


Gay News

WORLD Mauritius ruling, Justin Trudeau, couple attacked, Dame Shirley Bassey
2023-10-13
In a historic ruling, the Supreme Court of Mauritius decriminalized same-sex sexual relations when it declared the African country's British colonial-era anti-sodomy laws relations to be unconstitutional, The Advocate reported. ...


Gay News

WORLD African efforts, HIV in Amsterdam, Donatella Versace, 'The Queen in Me'
2023-09-28
A new attempt to prevent the recognition of and equal rights for LGBTQ+ people in Kenya through a constitutional amendment has been introduced in Parliament, The Washington Blade reported. The move was in response to this ...


Gay News

DANCE Deeply Rooted performing Nov. 3 at the Auditorium Theatre
2023-09-27
The Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells Dr., is presenting Deeply Rooted Dance Theater—a Chicago-based contemporary dance company rooted in traditions of American and African-American dance—in a one-night-only performance ...


Gay News

Megan Rapinoe receives send-off in last international match
2023-09-25
Lesbian soccer icon Megan Rapinoe received a triumphant send-off in her last international match, and the United States beat South Africa 2-0 at Chicago's Soldier Field on Sept. 24, per ABC News. Trinity Rodman and Emily ...


Gay News

Rapinoe's last international match to take place in Chicago on Sept. 24
2023-08-31
Lesbian soccer icon and two-time Women's World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe will play her last professional match against South Africa on Sunday, Sept. 24, in Chicago, U.S. Soccer announced. The match (scheduled for 4:30 p.m. CT) ...


Gay News

African American Arts Alliance of Chicago names new president for first time in 25 years
2023-08-21
--From a press release - CHICAGO—The nonprofit African American Arts Alliance of Chicago announced Charlique C. Rolle as its new board president, effective immediately. Rolle is the first new president in the Alliance's 26-year history ...


Gay News

LGBTQ+ Chicagoans mark 30 years in Bud Billiken Parade
2023-08-13
By Vernon Hester and Matt Simonette - The annual Bud Billiken Parade kicked off on the morning of Aug. 12, carrying on the tradition of starting the school year with a celebration. Hailed as the largest African American parade in the country—and the ...


Gay News

WORLD Iranian president, HIV in Asia, asylum, lesbian moms
2023-07-21
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi praised Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for signing the African country's Anti-Homosexuality Act, The Washington Blade noted. Iran is among the countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations ...


Gay News

'Succession,' 'Abbott Elementary,' 'The Other Two' score big in GALECA Dorian TV Awards
2023-06-28
--From a press release - Hollywood—GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics named the winners of its 15th Dorian TV Awards, with high-profile hits and under-the-radar gems evenly represented. HBO's final season of Succession, showrunner ...


Gay News

Uganda's parliament passes slightly revised anti-LGBTQ+ measure
2023-05-03
On May 2, Uganda's parliament passed one of the world's toughest anti-LGBTQ+ bills for a second time—and it's largely unchanged. The African country's new bill retains most of the harshest measures of the legislation that passed ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.