By: Ally Millar

A prominent Ugandan gay rights activist was found murdered in his home following a successful court battle against the country’s Rolling Stone tabloid.

David Kato, the advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda, was discovered yesterday bludgeoned in the town Mukono in Kampala near Lake Victoria in the east African state.

His recent high court victory over Rolling Stone – which ran a campaign of identifying homosexual people in its pages – elevated his profile and made him even more of a target for harassment and threats.

He was one of three who battled the newspaper – completely unaffiliated with the US music magazine – resulting in an injunction that banned it from identifying homosexuals. He was pictured last year holding a copy of the paper which brandished the headline “Hang Them”.

Authorities are not speculating on the reason for Kato’s murder but in a country where homosexuality is illegal – as it is in many sub-Saharan African countries – and punishable by imprisonment for up to 14 years, it’s a sadly inevitable conclusion.

Uganda remains one of the most intolerant nations when it comes to homosexuality. A 2009 and 2010 bill pushing for the death penalty for members of the LGBT community remains before parliament; staggered only thanks to wide international condemnation.

UK-Based Human Rights Lawyer Sarah Hoey said: “Ill treatmen and persecution against people based on their sexual orientation is unfortunately common in many countries around the world.  One would be surprised. It is tragic when someone who faced up to the persecution is brutally killed for doing what’s right and it’s a great loss to human rights.

“Luckily the UK government is starting to recognise this is an issue which needs international protection, however it is a very new development.  It was a radical and necessary change in the right direction as until recently many seeking Asylum on the grounds they’re homosexual were told to go home and essentially ‘act straight’.”