At rally in support of LGBT rights today West Hollywood Mayor Abbe Land and City Councilmember John Heilman were joined by screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and Ugandan LGBT activist Frank Mugisha.
The rally, timed at the end of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, which has drawn worldwide attention to that country’s anti-gay laws, featured a torch-lighting ceremony in West Hollywood Park in support of Russian LGBT rights. Among its sponsors were LGBT rights organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign, It Gets Better Project and No H8.
Mugisha is a winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. He is executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, an organization of LGBT rights and service organizations. Uganda is among the 38 out of 54 African countries where homosexuality is illegal. The Uganda president has said he will sign a recently passed law that criminalizes homosexuality.
UPDATE: Watch Dustin Lance Black talk about Uprising of Love and their message below.