Statement from ‪‎Pride Uganda 2015‬ Committee

With less than 24 hours to the start of Pride, the committee members are all getting very excited and its heating up shall we say! We would like to first thank everyone who has got us to this point. It has been a long, tiresome, fun and exciting time to be a member of the Pride committee.

This year is the first year anniversary of the nullification of the Anti – Homosexuality Bill so this year is a year of celebration and that’s exactly what this year’s Pride is all about, celebrating Pride as a family as this year’s theme is also “We Are Family” and that’s exactly what we are, here in Uganda and Internationally and that’s the way we will celebrate, together as a family!!

[easy-tweet tweet=”HAPPY PRIDE UGANDA 2015, We Are Family!” user=”kuchutimes” hashtags=”WeAreFamily,PrideUganda2015″]

Firstly we would like to thank all the organisations and individuals that made donations to Uganda Pride 2015 and to all the people who volunteered their time, skills and energy we are forever grateful to you for all your efforts. Without you Pride 2015 would not be happening!! We have received so many generous donations this year from many of our family internationally. Donating Pride goodies to sell and contribute to the funding of Uganda Pride 2015 as well as fund raisers in places like Ireland to raise money and awareness. As a community that lives mostly in the shadows this was an opportunity for others to realise what life is like in Uganda for the LGBTI community and to shine some light on the community here and realise we all need to work together for a better future for all our LGBTI community all over the world. This year is an example of what working together can create. Please everyone who attends this year give thanks to all those who made it possible.

This year’s events are bigger and better than ever before!! The committee this year is trying to achieve something new, this is reflected in the events programme.

· 5th August 2015 Cocktail; our first event of the week is tomorrow evening and this is the only event that is not open to the entire LGBTI, many people have wondered why this is, the committee ask you to trust them that this is not to discriminate against anyone but it is for the future of the LGBTI movement here. The purpose for this event is to bring together Ugandan friends and allies who support LGBTI persons and have a discussion around how they can continue supporting the fight for the human rights of LGBTI persons. You will be pleased to know that every other event for Pride is open to all members of the LGBTI community, friends and family. There are so many other good events to look forward to and to be excited about.

· 6th August 2015 Trans Awareness, Health Awareness and Movie: this event will be used to raise awareness around Trans issues. We will have frank discussions on the misconceptions about trans people within the LGBTI community. We will have health personnel present to discuss health related issues for Trans people and screen LGBTI movies.

· 7th August 2015 Mr. and Ms. Pride: this event will be used to promote diversity within the LGBTI community through a pageant that will celebrate beauty, fashion, and intelligence. This is for sure an event not to be missed and is sure to be the best Mr and Miss Pride Uganda has ever seen!!

· 8th August 2015 Pride Parade: we will march together as a family. We encourage members of the community to come with their families, children and allies to march with us. Further, we encourage LGBTI, health, law, and other support organizations to come and showcase what they do and how people can access their services. On this day; food and drinks will be provided as well as transport to and from the event.

· 9th August 2015 LGBTI Party: Sunday is the closing party for Pride and drinks are also provided on this night. All details of locations will be revealed closer to the time for security reasons.

If anyone is worried about security issues please read the security details that have been released or contact a Pride Committee member for more details, all events will have security and each event has been checked prior to the start of Pride 2015.

The media will be attending but there will be strict guidelines as to what they can do on the day in regards to photos and peoples information. We however as the Pride committee 2015 are not responsible for people who take photos with their smart phones so everyone needs to be vigilant and if you see yourself being in a photo you can remove yourself or if the photo is taken, talk to the person who took it and who owns the device and ask them to either delete or not use it on the internet. You will all be responsible for this yourselves as we cannot take responsibility for people and the use of their phones in a public place.

As a Pride Committee we would just like to say that we wish everyone the happiest Pride you can imagine. We hope that all our hard work will pay off in the celebration of this year’s Pride Uganda 2015. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at all the events and we welcome those that are visiting from neighbouring or further afield countries and we hope they enjoy a Ugandan Pride. We also welcome any family members or friends that wish to come and support our events and show solidarity in our fight for equality within our country.

Thank you all again and HAPPY PRIDE UGANDA 2015! We Are Family!