Ugandagate

[Emproph]

This story deals with the ex-gay/anti-gay organization, Exodus International. My concern (and suspicion) is that this is a practice-run for what they plan to do in the U.S. if given the chance (Good luck Obama 2012).

From BTB:
The three Americans who kicked off this latest spasm of anti-gay hostility have really outdone themselves. This whole thing started last March when Exodus board member Don Schmierer, Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, and Caleb Lee Brundidge of Richard Cohen’s International Healing Foundation conducted a three-day anti-gay conference in Uganda.

The following is Jim Burroway’s ananlysis of the bill (text of bill in article):

Here It Is: The Text of Uganda’s Proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Jim Burroway
October 15th, 2009

We just received early this morning the full text of the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill that was introduced into Uganda’s Parliament yesterday. It is greatly expanded from the earlier draft dated April 20, 2009.

Like the earlier draft, the current bill reiterates a lifetime imprisonment on conviction of homosexuality, and defines a new category called “aggravated homosexuality” with provisions for the death penalty upon conviction. Among the factors which can lead to “aggravated homosexuality” is if one partner is HIV-positive. This bill would mandate HIV testing to determine eligibility for “aggravated homosexuality.”

Also like the earlier draft, the bill includes a complete ban on all LGBT activities — including blogging — which could be construed as “promoting homosexuality.” This infringement on free speech, peaceful assembly, and redress of grievances marks the elimination of fundamental human rights for LGBT Ugandans. The bill also bans all organizations which advocate on behalf of LGBT citizens and holds their leadership criminally liable with fines and imprisonment for up to seven years.

The bill also retains provisions which require that if someone knows that someone is engaging in homosexuality, that person is to report them to the police within twenty-four hours or face fines and/or up to a three year prison sentence themselves. The bill also extends jurisdiction to acts committed outside Uganda by Ugandan citizens. In other words, if a Ugandan citizen is known to be in a gay relationship outside the country, he will risk lifetime imprisonment (or death, if he’s HIV-positive) upon his return. The bill also provides for the extradition of citizens from abroad.

The bill also voids all treaties and international obligations which violate ” the spirit and provisions enshrined in this Act.”

The new bill adds some additional provisions over the previous draft. This bill adds the category of “attempted homosexuality” and provides a penalty of seven years in prison. For “attempted aggravated homosexuality,” the penalty is lifetime imprisonment. It also provides for compensation for “victims” of homosexuality, a provision in law which is sure to result in consensual partners turning against their partner to not only avoid the draconian legal penalties, but to claim the status of victim and seek compensation.

Further, the bill now adds an explicit ban on same-sex marriage. Anyone who enters into a same-sex marriage, either in Uganda or abroad, will liable for a lifetime imprisonment. New charges of “aiding and abetting homosexuality” and “conspiracy to engage in homosexuality” would carry a prison sentence of seven years. There is also a new charge for operating a brothel, with a definition so broad as to include any hotel owner. That, too, carries a prison sentence of seven years.

The original PDF of the document is here (PDF: 847KB/16 pages), and the full text is provided below.

BTB’s full coverage is here. There is A LOT to read through.

Exodus has been silent on the matter, save for this comment by VP of Exodus, Randy Thomas:

It isn’t going to be a gay activist yelling at the Ugandan government that will actually get our ssa brothers and sisters out of jail. It will be people like me pleading with these leaders to recognize the Christ-likeness inherent in respecting self-determination and the dignity of every soul that draws breath.

The insideousness of this bill is that it virtually bans even a conversation about homosexuality. Simply helping someone who is gay would be illegal:

7. A person who aids, abets, or counsels...is liable on conviction to imprisonment for seven years.

Again, many anti-gays in this country long for the day when draconian measures like these can be implemented.

[Emproph]

And the proof is in the pudding -- or in this case, the actual text of the legislation, which reads like it could be lifted straight off the hate-filled pages of Exodus International's Web site.

Here's a juicy nugget from the bill:

Homosexuality is a mental disorder. Homosexuality can be cured. Homosexuality can be prevented. Did somebody put some crazy in the Ugandan Parliament's water? [emphses mine]

http://gayrights.change.org/blog/vie...ople_in_africa

[Gennee]

American anti-gay forces are polluting the Ugandan people with their rhetoric and disregard for other people. I've always said that many in Exodus International are denial and I won't back off on that claim. I pray that the Ugandan people will see through all this.

Gennee

[BishopIoan]

and Genee is only too right. There are many anti-gay people in this country who would love to see this sort of thing in America.

What I do not understand is how people like Lively can sleep at night after the hateful things they have managed to get done in Uganda. Of course they would never do this in America--I believe there are enough fair-minded, decent Americans who would raise holy heck at something like this being done here. So, like the cowards they are, they went to some Third World country where ignorance seems to rule and get the legislation passed to oppress and in some cases, indulge in judicial murder. My heart goes out to those in Uganda oppressed by this legislation and the mindset of hatred which inspired it.

Make no mistake...they WOULD do this here if they thought they could get away with it. This is why the LGBTQ community must remain vigilant. People like Lively would send us back not only back into the closet but into the age of the Inquisition and the stake.

[Gennee]

Pathologizing certain groups of people is a method of control. It's still done to African Americans, women, Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. LGBTQ people are another group that anti-gay groups focus on. LGBT organizations need to beware because evenually they will come after them and us.

Gennee

[Emproph]

Originally Posted by Emproph

This story deals with the ex-gay/anti-gay organization, Exodus International. My concern (and suspicion) is that this is a practice-run for what they plan to do in the U.S. if given the chance (Good luck Obama 2012).

Originally Posted by BishopIoan

Make no mistake...they WOULD do this here if they thought they could get away with it. This is why the LGBTQ community must remain vigilant. People like Lively would send us back not only back into the closet but into the age of the Inquisition and the stake.

Originally Posted by Gennee

Pathologizing certain groups of people is a method of control. It's still done to African Americans, women, Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. LGBTQ people are another group that anti-gay groups focus on. LGBT organizations need to beware because evenually they will come after them and us.

Gennee

These propaganda tactics are time-tested. As an example, Jim Burroway notes in a recent article on BoxTurtleBulletin, most people aren’t against same-sex marriage because they know it won't affect them, until they’re scared into thinking that it will affect them by the "Christian" neo-cons who assert that homosexual-sex will be "taught" in schools.

In regard to the Maine initiative (see BTB article) to re-ban same-sex marriage, the lies that are being told by the ego-addicted neo-cons are being met, insufficiently, with happy-go-lucky “justice for all” ads.

Perfectly effective, but insufficient.

This is a point that I have been trying to raise for some time, you can’t meet the violence of lies with simple non-violence. The lies must be refuted as well---which can be done nonviolently, but it must be done.

Further, this isn’t just about the LGBT community, this is about the entire progressive community.

There is a needed place for reconciliation between conservatives and progressives, but if we don’t realize that the fringe neo-cons have no conscience to speak of, then we’re all doomed.

Their goal is a theocratic police state, and they will stop at nothing to get it. Even though it's against their own best interests--because for them, this is a battle of “good against evil.”

And without an enemy, they have no identity. No definition that confirms that they are the ones who are “good.”

I used to think that their biggest fear was death, now I think their biggest fear is being wrong.

[Daniel]

Caught this story on Towleroad a few weeks ago. It strains belief that a country could act so heinously, but apparently, the evils that Germany once perpetrated - that is- sending gay people as well as Jews to their death- are not a thing of the past. Ignorance and fear lead people to commit horrible crimes. All in the name of Christ I might add.

[Steven E. Webster]

Friends,

This is important stuff!

http://www.publiceye.org/ark/africa-report/

Check this out for information about how U.S. religious right wingers are exporting our anti-gay culture wars to Africa. This is a study conducted by an African who is also an Episcopal priest.

Steven Webster