Thread by @Jenny_Alto

It's hard, dealing with the Ugandan LGBT #genocide, when very few people care. This thread will reach 1000s less than the trans selfie queen du jour's latest pout pic, but what else can I do but keep talking about it?

So. Genocide. Big word. Why are we using it here? ( Thread)

When we think of genocide we inevitably think of the Nazis, of the Final Solution, a mechanised state run industrial killing machine.

This isn't that.

Neither is it like Rwanda, where one large group turned on another.

Instead it's more like Kristallnacht, or lynchings in the USA.

The government have created a legal and societal environment in which it's permissible for people to kill their local queer people.

And they're doing it. In large numbers.

This isn't a genocide with killing fields, mass graves, or gas chambers, instead it's one where a minority, <1% of the country is being hunted and lynched by their fellow citizens.

There are pictures & videos too awful to show, but mostly people are just disappearing.

The results are the same, nevertheless. A systematic persecution and murder of a section of the population.

If you're wriggling to find ways not to call it genocide, then maybe you need to have a little think about your priorities.

You'd think that with a full-on genocide under way against LGBT people, there would be an international outcry, right?

Sort of.

A lot of weapons grade thoughts and prayers and excuses, but next to nothing in the way of other organisations on the ground helping people.

It's too late for thoughts and prayers, it's too late for hand wringing about whether help could be seen as colonialist, and it's too late for milquetoast awareness campaigns.

People are dying. You either care enough to help them now, or you don't.

It's as simple as that.

I've spent the last couple of months knocking on any door I can find about this, and the wall of patronising indifference I have encountered has been staggering.

I have come to the conclusion that for many in the activist community it's all about status. They'll talk to you if they have heard of you or if they want to "collect" you, otherwise they don't want to know.

Meanwhile, the LGBT people in Uganda are dying. It doesn't matter whether Museveni has signed the bill or not, it's already started, has been going on for several months.

And if you think it won't affect you because it's in a country far away, you couldn't be more wrong. There is a clearly documented paper trail from the Ugandan anti LGBT bill to the US Christian Right.

This is their dummy run to see what they can get away with.

You're next.

So, if you've made it this far, what are you going to do?

If you support an international LGBT organisation, ask why they're not helping people on the ground in Uganda.

Because God knows, it's a way bigger job than a tiny trans refugee org abruptly turned LGBT org can handle.

Thanks for reading this.
"We" above is @Trans_Rescue, and if you want to help us you can donate here: transrescue.org/donations/dona…

If you'd like to retweet this thread, that would be appreciated. Here's the first Tweet.

https://twitter.com/Jenny_Alto/status/1655836964132737025?t=KlzRO1_9fgi2dMt0Lgd1GQ&s=19

Addendum: a big thank you to those of you who have made donations to @Trans_Rescue today.