Ugandan tabloid Red Pepper, which is regarded by some Ugandans as a pawn of President Yoweri Museveni, today initiated a new witchhunt against presumed enemies of the Museveni administration and antigay megapreacher Martin Ssempa.

According to Box Turtle Bulletin, the tabloid accused numerous individuals, without evidence, of funding human-rights advocates whom the tabloid describes as “homos.” The tabloid provided the individuals’ home addresses and places of employment, and places where the individuals were likely to be found.

The effort by Red Pepper to promote vigilantism and the myth of homosexual colonialism comes despite an ongoing refusal among the Ugandan news media to investigate and identify the U.S. “colonialists” who have bankrolled Museveni, his “ethics” secretary David Bahati, Ssempa, ex-gay activist Stephen Langa, and other supporters of authoritarian government, vigilantism, genocide, and theocracy.

Despite verbal criticism of Uganda’s antigay genocide campaign by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. aid continues unimpeded to Museveni and evangelical abstinence-only programs.

George Oundo, the poster man for a campaign launched by U.S. ex-gay political leaders to promote vigilantism and arrest against same-sex-attracted persons in Uganda, has reportedly been expelled from his ex-gay organization due to sexual scandal.

Earlier this year, Oundo was a frontman for Martin Ssempa, a violently antigay African pastor who allegedly received substantial sums of money from U.S. global anti-AIDS programs begun under the Bush administration. Instead of combatting AIDS or promoting faith-based health assistance to Africans, Ssempa used the money to launch a string of violent antigay vigilante campaigns monitored by Human Rights Watch.

Hosted by Ssempa, Oundo and fellow ex-gay activists Stephen Langa and Paul Kagaba spent months accusing Uganda’s handful of native-born pro-equality advocates of conducting a massive Western youth-molestation conspiracy against the country. Unskeptical, antigay news media in Uganda lapped up the two ex-gay activists’ gossip and defamed not only gay Ugandans, but also the popular heterosexual Catholic priest Anthony Musaala, a rival to Ssempa. How did Kagaba know that Musaala was gay? Because, Kagaba said, Musaala “regularly holds parties for gays at his residence in Gayaza near Kampala.” Violence by antigay vigilantes, antigay arrests, and antigay hit lists ensued.

GayUganda said today that Oundo has been expelled from Ex-Gay Uganda:

According to Paul Kagaba, Ex-Gay Uganda Chairman, Oundo was taking boys to be “sodomised’ to his house. What I could have told Kagaba, and I have known for a few weeks, is that Oundo has been going around asking kuchus for “forgiveness’.

We await confirmation from other sources, and given Kagaba’s false accusations against gay Ugandans, his circular firing squad against Oundo must be viewed with some skepticism. However, it also seems quite feasible that Oundo was, all along, projecting his own alleged pedophilia onto innocent gay Ugandans, with the support of Martin Ssempa, U.S. taxpayer dollars, and Exodus International officials Alan Chambers and Don Schmierer.

As Truth Wins Out and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission have previously pointed out: Exodus board member Schmierer keynoted the vigilantes’ Kampala launch conference in March; Chambers approved of Schmierer’s trip beforehand, and applauded Schmierer’s speech afterward. Schmierer’s speech blamed parents and abuse for the formation of homosexual orientation. His co-speaker Scott Lively blamed homosexuals for the Nazi Holocaust and Rwandan genocide, while Ugandan ex-gay conference organizer Stephen Langa angrily complained that Uganda’s life-imprisonment sentence for homosexuality was far too lenient. A fourth speaker, U.S. ex-gay activist Caleb Lee Brundidge — a protege of former PFOX leader Richard Cohen — promoted magic rituals as a means of converting homosexual persons into heterosexuals.

Jamaica is a nation where antigay vigilantism is culturally accepted; authorities leave violence unpunished; and no GLBT organization can meet in public, hold events, or advocate publicly for justice and equality. In Jamaica, it takes courage to simply say “no” to violence.

Columnist Diane Abbott of The Jamaica Observer on Sunday wrote a column citing numerous recent reports of antigay murder and vigilantism. She warned that public denial of the severity of such violence harms Jamaica’s reputation.

Because attitudes to homosexuality in Jamaica are so hostile, it is not sufficiently understood how damaging its stand on the issue is outside the country.

A U.S.-based, pro-equality boycott against Jamaica was put on hold earlier this year when J-FLAG, Jamaica’s GLBT organization-in-hiding, withheld its support.

Nevertheless, Abbott says Jamaicans should learn from the boycott and from numerous reports of antigay violence:

The boycott has so far been unsuccessful. But a country dependent on tourism cannot afford to ignore the fact that attitudes to homosexuality in other countries have moved on. There are probably as many people in Britain who are privately judgemental about homosexuals and lesbians as there are in Jamaica. But the British take the view that what people do in the bedroom is their affair. So gay marriage is legal and leading politicians in both the government and opposition parties have publicly acknowledged their sexual orientation and married their partners. It is difficult to imagine such a state of affairs coming about in Jamaica any time soon.

But Jamaica could do more to stress that despite the blood-curdling lyrics of much of its popular music, it is a more tolerant society than people think. And violence against gay people should be universally condemned.

Gender Across Borders takes notice of U.S. ex-gay activists’ recent efforts to fund, endorse, and export vigilantism, imprisonment, and torture abroad.

Some Jamaicans have spoken out in favor of efforts to boycott Jamaican goods or music until leaders take serious action to reduce antigay vigilantism.

Perhaps most prominent among music-boycott supporters in 2008 was Gareth Henry, who was the co-chair of Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, Allsexuals, and Gays until he was forced to flee the country for Canada last year. J-FLAG publicly expressed disagreement with the 2008 music boycott, but according to Xtra.ca, Henry said that JFLAG could not be seen to publicly support a boycott.

“They can’t be the ones to call for the boycott,” he says. “They can’t be that voice. But the gays, lesbians and queers on the ground are supportive of a boycott.”

Henry says he’s tried talking to the government.

“We have tried numerous approaches, numerous dialogues with government officials,” he says. “They have been non-responsive to the call. We have to hit people where it’s going to hurt, where they’ll feel it. In the Jamaican context talk is cheap. After 10 years of JFLAG’s existence what else can we do?”

[Addendum: Henry opposes the 2009 boycott of goods and tourism that is advocated by BoycottJamaica.org.]

Stop Murder Music Canada (SMMC) advocated a boycott last year of Jamaican musicians whose songs contain violently homophobic lyrics .

Xtra.ca reported that Canada’s reggae community was split on the issue.

Christian Lacoste, an openly gay Montreal reggae fan who runs the website Murder Inna Dancehall, supported both the music boycott and an official immigration ban on visits by homophobic dancehall artists. But Cezar Brumeanu, who runs the Montreal International Reggae Festival and that city’s House of Reggae nightclub, opposed a boycott.

This year, Jamaican blogger Dave, supports BoycottJamaica.org, a newer boycott of Jamaican goods and tourism. Dave — who is forced to remain anonymous to protect his safety — says:

This could potentially devastate my country during this global recession but this is basically the only thing I can do to improve my living conditions without putting myself in physical danger. Jamaica sucks when it comes to addressing LGBT issues and I am tired of living under these stupid conditions. Obviously, LGBT issues require much more attention Worldwide, even in the US, but Jamaica just refuses to even give us any basic rights. And they NEVER speak out against violence against gays. I don’t F-ing care how long it takes, just Boycott our asses and pass the word along.

The goals of BoycottJamaica.org are modest: There is no requirement that Jamaica affirm same-sex orientation or legalize same-sex intimacy. Instead, BoycottJamaica calls for Jamaican officials to publicly commit to ending antigay violence, and for the Prime Minister to clearly and unequivocally condemn antigay violence and express regret for past violence.

But they refuse. Until Jamaican leaders declare a halt to antigay vigilantism, boycotts appear to be the only way for North American LGBT people and their allies to tell Jamaica that they will no longer subsidize Jamaicans’ war against their gay neighbors and against basic human decency in exported music.

Hat tip: Box Turtle Bulletin