Japan has developed a more favorable view of sexual minorities in recent years, but activist Mameta Endo wants to raise awareness of the issue further by encouraging people to take in a documentary that captures the hatred, harassment, and risk of prison time such people face in Uganda.
Parliamentarians in the East African country passed an anti-homosexuality bill in December 2013 that was signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni last February. Being homosexual is now a crime that carries a minimum sentence of two years in prison and a maximum of life behind bars, said Endo, who helped translate the script of the documentary "Call Me Kuchu."
The film, to be screened Saturday in Tokyo as part of the Amnesty Film Festival at Yakult Hall, features David Kato, a Ugandan gay rights activist who fought the bill's passage.