Uganda Anti-Gay Bill "Not Necessary"

Ugandan minister says that the gay death penalty is "unnecessary".

Under current Ugandan law, a person can go to prison for 14 years if they are caught involved in a homosexual act, and Minister of State Investments Aston Kajara says that this punishment is "quite enough".

Some countries, like Sweden, are threatening to stop their aid to Uganda if they pass the anti-gay bill, and so this voice of dissension in the government may be financially--rather than humanistically--motivated, but it is a start. I hope that, under the current system in Uganda, no one accuses Kajara of homosexuality or tortures or murders him for his dissension. If that is the case, then Uganda is not a democracy after all.

Be Careful What You Wish For

This article was published in today's New York Times online:
US Evangelical's Role Seen in Uganda Anti-Gay Push

The best part is that some of the American gay haters who are invited to Uganda feign total ignorance regarding what their words mean to Ugandans. Don Schmierer, a board member of Exodus International who was invited to Uganda to to tell Ugandans how to convert homosexuals to heterosexuals, had the nerve to say that "He felt duped", and even goes so far as to say "That's horrible, absolutely horrible. Some of the nicest people I have ever met are gay people".

That's right, Schmierer. Once you are gay, you are always gay, and your life may now be in danger if you set foot in Uganda...unless the proposed laws do not affect mzungus. That's horrible, indeed! Wishing for the eradication of gay people, and then saying that some of them are the nicest you have ever met...

Scott Lively, Caleb Lee Brundridge, Don Schmierer, and Rick Warren who funded it with the money from his church--you all might as well be eugenicists, or Nazis. And now you all claim shame, even though your books and actions express that you want gay and lesbian people not to exist. Well, you got your wish in Africa. Now innocent lesbians are being raped by HIV-positive men, and innocent gay men are being beaten, castrated, and murdered, with full consent from the Ugandan government, church, and general public.

To all of you church goers out there--please read the fine print on where your donations might end up. If your church is supporting homophobic missions to Africa that promote the persecution and eradication of gay people, or missions that provide faulty information about HIV/AIDS, do a few hours in the soup kitchen or make sure that your donation is specifically earmarked for your local Sunday school or coffee money. Make it a resolution in 2010 not to fuel further hatred or ignorance in this world.

Ugandan Travel Videos

They are not travel videos, nor safari videos, but the sickest anti-gay rally videos you will see in the modern world.

If the Ugandans weren't going after LGBT folks, they would be going after albinos, or Indians ("the Jews of East Africa"), or Muslims. Ultimately, someone is responsible for why Uganda is messed up. Instead of exercising the powers of critical thinking, the Ugandan government would resort to Dark Age witchhunts and the mass murder of innocent human beings.

Blame the British and German colonizers of this land, blame Christian missionaries, blame American AIDS educators who were sorely uneducated about the true needs of Ugandans, and last but not least for fundies like Rick Warren for pumping money into Christian missions going to Africa, for what we have now.

At the same time, do not use what is happening in Uganda as a smokescreen to make LGBT civil rights in the United States look so much better. Use it as a tool to show people that the same thing could happen here in the United States should the same right wing and Christian fundamentalists who pumped money into Uganda pump money into anti-LGBT legislation and perpetual resistance here in the United States.

What Uganda and the United States Have In Common

Uganda and the United States both start with the letter "U". They share a more insidious similarity as well. The governments of Uganda and the United States both reduce LGBT people to second class citizenship. Both governments are manipulated by religious leaders who consider homosexuality an abomination.

The proposed government plan for LGBT people and their allies in Uganda involves the "eradication of homosexuality" and withdrawal from international treaties or protocols that recognize the human rights of gay people. Ugandans who speak against the bill will also be labeled gay and targeted for persecution.

The Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 would jail consenting adults who engage in gay sex. It would give life sentences to people in same-sex marriages. It would also extradite gay Ugandans living abroad and prosecute them.

David Bahati, the writer of this bill, calls it a "very wonderful piece of legislation".

American evangelicals can be blamed for encouraging Ugandan homophobia. Their limited imaginations did not envision an African government taking the big step. In the United States, human beings have many protections under the law, while in Uganda they do not. This is why Americans must be careful as to what they preach in Uganda.

If you would like to stay current on LGBT rights in Uganda, bookmark Gay Rights Uganda to watch how our brothers and sisters in Uganda are living. Do not think for one moment that LGBT people in the United States are safe from discrimination, when our own Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty expresses regret over his passing of an LGBT anti-discrimination bill because it protects "cross-dressers".