The Economist‘s obituary of Sexual Minorities Uganda activist David Kato makes the hard point that although Kato used the self-applied label “same” to describe himself as gay, it was sadly that part of his humanity – that he was made of the same stuff that we’re all made of – that was easy to overlook until it was too late.
… Kato was one of a group so tiny, hated and hounded—indeed, illegal—that most Ugandans had never knowingly met one. Gays like him called themselves kuchus, meaning “same”, as in “same-sex”. He was not the same in any way ordinary Ugandans cared to recognise.
….
Young men continued to mill around his house. One of them was a thief well known in the area: a rough part of town, with 15 iron-bar attacks in two months. Police assumed that when Mr Kato was bludgeoned to death with a hammer, on the afternoon of January 26th, he was just another victim in the series. Gay groups blamed the tabloids for incitement. Neighbours, hanging about, noticed with surprise that his blood on the walls looked much the same as theirs.