The Red Pepper 'story' A Scottish MP is urging the UK to offer asylum to 200 people outed by a Ugandan tabloid. James Dornan has written a letter to the Scotland’s Minister for External Affairs asking him to make it clear that asylum should be offered to anyone ‘living in fear of their life simply because of their sexual or gender identity’, Gay Star News reports. Since Uganda’s harsher anti-gay laws were signed into effect, tabloid Red Pepper has printed the names of 200 people it says are Uganda’s ‘top homos’. It outs activists, celebrities and socialites it says are gay themselves, or ‘sympathisers’. It refers to transgender men as “confessed gay” women and repeatedly calls gay men "bum-drillers." There are unverified reports a gay person has since been killed in an attack on an apparent gay couple. Dornan visited Uganda in 2012 and describes the law enacted this week as a ‘depressing step backwards’ for what he calls a ‘breath-taking country’. “In your role as Minister for External Affairs I would ask that you make representations to Her Majesty’s Government and urge them to offer asylum to those 200 men and women who have had their identity splashed across a tabloid newspaper. “Further, I would ask you to push the UK Government to make it clear that asylum will be offered to anyone who is living in fear of their life simply because of their sexual or gender identity, and make clear that Scotland stands ready to welcome them.” He’s also written a letter to the Uganda High Commissioner calling for equality talks when Glasgow hosts the 2014 Commonwealth Games later this year.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 27th February 2014 - 8:49am