Jocelyn Edwards

Despite the risk, Bishop Senyonjo has continued to minister to Uganda’s LGBT community. If he didn’t, it’s unlikely that anyone else would. After the other pastor’s invective against gays at Kato’s funeral, locals from his ancestral village refused to carry the casket to where it was to be buried. Some in attendance grabbed the activist’s white and gold coffin, which was draped with a rainbow flag, and carried it themselves. They would have had to bury Kato, who identified as Christian, without a blessing from any member of the clergy had Senyonjo not stepped in. “I believed that it wasn’t right just to dump the body there without prayers. I couldn’t bear it at any cost,” he said later.

A photo of one of the few Uganda clergy who ministers to gays and lesbians appeared under the headline “Hang Them.”