Producer of ‘gay’ play still in Uganda jail

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David Cecil (Photo courtesy of Radio Netherlands Worldwide)

David Cecil, British producer of a play about being gay in Uganda, remains in jail awaiting trial on charges that he put on the play against an order from the Uganda Media Council.

CBS News reported that his lawyer, Francis Onyango, said his client was not released on bail because he would have needed to show his passport, which had been confiscated by the police.

After first ordering that the play not be performed, the Media Council later banned it, stating that sections of it “implicitly promote homosexual acts”, which “are contrary to the laws, cultural norms and values of Uganda,” according to AllAfrica.com.

Cecil has said he has become enmeshed in a situation similar to what the play portrayed — anti-gay “anger and hatred [that] has been whipped up by politicians and religious leaders for their own purposes,” in the words of playwright Beau Hopkins.