Prominent Ugandan LGBT activist renounces ‘sin’ of homosexuality
Val Kalende, a prominent activist for pro-homosexual causes in Uganda, has renounced her former lifestyle, which she now considers a sin. Kalende is a self-described “preacher’s kid” and journalist who left her career at the Ugandan newspaper Daily Monitor in 2007 to focus on LGBT activism, according to a 2015 Daily Xtra profile , going on to work with organizations such as Freedom and Roam Uganda, Sexual Minorities Uganda, and the Dignity Initiative. She left the country for Canada as a refugee in 2015, following the 2014 passage of legislation to criminalize homosexual behavior. “Val Kalende is here to stay,” declared the headline of the profile, which notes that she identified as “genderqueer” and preferred to be referenced with the pronoun “they.” On Tuesday, however, Edge reported that Kalende is a changed woman who is even getting married, announcing the news live on Uganda’s Salt TV . “I joined lesbianism right after Makerere University. I’m born of Christian parents. All of t