Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) is an umbrella non-governmental organization based in Kampala, Uganda. Headed by Executive Director Frank Mugisha and Chairperson and founder Victor Mukasa and formerly co-headed by Advocacy Officer David Kato (until his murder in January 2011), it pushes for the protection and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Ugandans.
Founded in 2004, the organization is composed of a number of member organizations:
The organization was founded by Victor Mukasa, a female-to-male transgender activist, on March 3, 2004 in Kampala at the Kaival restaurant and Internet cafe. Among the earliest members were Val Kalende and David Kato, who were among the first board members. Members of SMUG achieved controversy through their activism and legal troubles for much of the organization's history, and the profile of the organization increased due to the later-2000s rise of homophobic populism in the country and the introduction of the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill in the Parliament by David Bahati.
In response to an article in the Ugandan newspaper Rolling Stone (of no relation to the American publication of the same name, which rejected the Ugandan paper and its actions as "horrific") which published a gallery of "100 Pictures of Uganda's Top Homos Leak" and stated "Hang Them"[1][2], three members of SMUG whose faces appeared in the magazine - David Kato Kisule, Kasha Nabagesera and Onziema Patience - filed a petition to the High Court seeking for the ending of the paper's circulation of the article. The petition was granted on November 2, 2010, effectively ruling for the end of the Rolling Stone publication[3][4].
However, at 1 p.m. on January 26, 2011, Kato, whose picture was among the 100 listed in the Rolling Stone article and was featured on the cover of the edition, was assaulted in his home in Mukono Town by an unknown male assailant who hit him twice in the head before fleeing on foot; Kato later died on route to the Kawolo Hospital. The murder was decried by Human Rights Watch[5], with senior Africa researcher Maria Burnett adding that "David Kato's death is a tragic loss to the human rights community".
On September 15, 2011, Executive Director Frank Mugisha was designated as the recipient of the annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for his activism[6].