DignityHeroes: David Kato

“If we keep on hiding, they will say we are not here.”

On the one-year anniversary of his brutal murder, we honor Ugandan human rights defender David Kato. 

David was likely the first openly gay man in Uganda. Imagine being that person! Yet if anyone could walk proudly in such shoes it was David Kato. Single-hearted, loving, self-assured, good humored, he promised his country that “we are going to continue to fight until we see a liberated LGBT people in Uganda.”

He led his sister and brother LGBT/ally advocates to stave off passage of a bill that proposed death for HIV positive gay men and prison for anyone who failed to turn in a known homosexual. He offered sanctuary to gay women in real fear of brutal persecution because of their orientation. 

Though Kato belongs to a culture more frightening than ours in its response to LGBT persons, he stands with our Dignity forebears who were the first to proclaim to the Church their goodness as LGBT persons made in God’s image. He stands with us now whenever we speak and act on behalf of vulnerable LGBT youth or gay adoptive parents or same sex couples called to marriage. 

David Kato knew the toxicity of silence, the consequence of cowering, and he bravely resisted them. “If we keep on hiding”, he said, “they will say we are not here.” 

He did not hide from his or his friends’ inherent dignity and human rights. He fought for them. He died for them. He gave us Christ.