GLBTQ rights in Uganda have sucked for years, with open persecution by of gay, lesbians and other queers being propagated by hateful and ignorant people in positions of power. The country has instilled oppressive laws against homosexuality and court cases have challenged these. The police and mobs have taken to routinely beating, torturing and killing gays, ostensibly to protect the population from immorality. (Apparently, killing unarmed people who love each other is not immoral in Uganda. Lucky break, there.)
(Cross-posted at sexgenderbody)
Recently however, things went from bad to worse with the help of the import of US gay-bashing whack jobs. According to Casey Sanchez at the Southern Poverty Law Center:
A bizarre trio of American anti-gay leaders arrived in the Ugandan capital of Kampala Thursday to stage a three-day seminar, “Exposing the Truth Behind Homosexuality and the Homosexual Agenda,” in a country where homosexuality is a crime punishable by death. They are:
• Scott Lively, co-founder of the hate group Watchmen on the Walls and author of The Pink Swastika, a pseudo-history book claiming that “militant male homosexuals” helped mastermind the holocaust.
• Caleb Lee Brundidge, a “sexual reorientation coach” for the International Healing Foundation, whose signature technique, as demonstrated on CNN, involves patients “beating on chairs with tennis rackets and screaming, “Mom, Mom, why did you do this to me?” Brundidge also counsels men struggling with their sexuality to visit mortuaries with a fringe Charismatic ministry team to “practice raising the dead.”
• Don Schmierer, a board member for Exodus International, an international umbrella group covering hundreds of “ex-gay” ministries. Schmierer warns parents in his guide to preventing homosexuality to watch out for boys who show “extreme macho behavior” are “frail, deformed, deaf” or “avoid fights/physical altercations.”
Perhaps these whack-jobs sensed the losing battle against gay marriage in the US and have looked to franchise ignorance and hatred abroad, so they can keep feeding their families from the spoils of gay-bashing. Or, maybe God is whispering in their ear right now about how we all need to be saved, no matter how much it may hurt us.
Uganda is quite capable of fostering its own religious intolerance from both Christian and Muslim factions calling for mass arrests of gays. So, they don’t really need US help in destroying lives. It is sad and sickening to consider that blacks in Uganda are importing the philosophy of hatred disguised as God’s word from the hate-filled “Bible-belt” of the US, which used the same language of intolerance to persecute black slaves. I guess Tarzan was busy.
In the aftermath, bogus arrests are being carried out with one ridiculous charge after another being leveled in a feeding frenzy of persecution and social intolerance.
The situation also has taken a new direction after a 19-year-old man accused Pastor Robert Kayanja of Rubaga Miracle Center of having sodomized him. This story has been running in the Uganda media for almost two weeks now. After police cleared the pastor of sodomy charges, the President of Uganda came out and blamed the Ugandan police for not handling the investigations very well. Anti-gay groups are also strongly supporting the Pastor’s accuser.
So, if you have any time to offer to the cause, please contact
The Embassy of Uganda:
His Excellency Professor
Perezi K. Kamunanwire
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Tel: (202) 726 4758
Fax: (202) 726 1727
pkamunanwire@ugandaembassyus.org
or
IGLHRC
80 Maiden Lane, Suite 1505
New York, NY 10038
Phone: 212.430.6054
Fax: 212.430.6060
Email: iglhrc@iglhrc.org
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