Uganda’s parliament voted to reopen a debate on a bill that seeks to outlaw homosexuality that may be expanded to include the death penalty for gay people.
The bill had died in the previous session of parliament, earlier this year, while under threat of U.S. and European human-rights sanctions. That threat has faded, as the U.S. has promised Uganda additional military aid to fight the Lord’s Resistance Army.
In 2009, Don Schmierer traveled to Uganda and co-keynoted what became the launch conference for the kill-the-gays legislation. Along with Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively and Caleb Lee Brundidge — an acolyte of discredited therapist Richard Cohen — the Exodus board member assured Ugandans that parental upbringing and religious infidelity were to blame for any increase in undesirable sexual honesty and authenticity in their country — and that legal sanctions combined with Christian ex-gay therapy could rid their land of homosexuals.
Schmierer is program officer of Fieldstead & Company, the asset management company of far-right philanthropist Howard F. Ahmanson. Fieldstead has funded some extremist antigay U.S. projects in the United States, such as Linda Harvey‘s Mission America.
Box Turtle Bulletin details the latest Ugandan parliamentary maneuvers to exterminate homosexuals.
People who haven’t dissected a pig since high school won’t want to miss MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s dissection tonight of Ugandan Member of Parliament David Bahati, whose support for antigay genocide in that country has won him financial and political support from U.S. Republicans and evangelicals.
In a blog post on June 1, Exodus International blames the Old Testament for the emergence of a fundamentalist Christian punk-rock music group which espouses Islamist-style genocide against homosexuals. Thomas also denies any responsibility — at headquarters or locally — for the decision by its Exodus affiliate in Minnesota to host that same music group.
Exodus executive vice president Randy Thomas says:
Using Old Testament scriptures to condemn a person to death is not “loving” … it is incomplete theology and powerfully irresponsible.
In other words, Thomas is saying: Don’t blame conservative Christians for the Jewish words of Leviticus — or for preoccupations with the Old Testament that result from Exodus’ own decades-long exploitation of politically selective Old Testament verses. Thomas tries to explain away Exodus’ literalist misuse of the Old Testament by diverting reader attention to the New Testament.
He (Jesus) died and paid the price for all of our sin, including those of us who have or do struggle with homosexuality.
Thomas is speaking of conservative Christians when he says “our” and “us” — not liberal Christians, not Jews, and certainly not atheists, Buddhists or anyone else whom Thomas deems to be spiritually unclean and ostracized.
In rejecting the literalism of music group You Can Run But You Can’t Hide (YCR) as “incomplete,” Exodus is in fact projecting its own incomplete literalism upon YCR. Exodus mandates belief in a literal Bible while averting public attention from the Bible’s numerous literal endorsements of rape, incest, polygamy, slaughter of innocents, bodily dismemberment, stoning, slavery, and ethnic and sexual bigotry. The legalism of YCR reflects the completion of Exodus’ own incomplete and politically neutered fundamentalist theology.
Regarding YCR’s youth outreach events (of which Exodus knew the content), Ex-Gay Watch observes:
At least from this writer’ understanding, there didn’t seem to be any trace of orthodox Christian theology present ‚Äî just constant worship of a nebulous idol called “the law.” These are the extremes of our age, and Dean in particular seems never to have met a conspiracy theory too wild to be considered seriously.
Exodus hosted YCR because it shares much of YCR’s legalism and its abusive “scared straight” attitude toward sinners. How, one may ask, is Exodus legalistic?
Exodus practices religious legalism when it hosts a punk-rock group that is notorious in Minnesota for its legalism and its arrogant hatred of “sinners.”
Exodus practices religious legalism when it routinely cites proof-texted Bible verses to justify discrimination and harassment against LGBT people, regardless of what the U.S. Constitution says about individual rights or the freedom of religious minorities.
And Exodus practices religious legalism when it uses word games to dance around its responsibility for hosting the group — and for its “ministry” guidelines which encourage affiliation with abusive organizations and counselors.
For all his belated and elliptical criticism of the kill-the-gays group, Thomas declines to oppose antigay discrimination and imprisonment. He does not criticize either LWCC or Exodus representative Janet Boynes — a key ally in Exodus HQ’s battle against inclusion of sexual orientation in hate-crime laws — for hosting a notorious hate group, nor does he demand change in Exodus affiliate guidelines for hosted events.
At Exodus, no one is ever held responsible — except, of course, the supposed homosexual sympathizers who expose Exodus’ wrongdoing.
The so-called “Living Word Christian Center,” an Exodus International member organization in suburban Minneapolis, said it neither supports nor opposes a Minnesota-based Christian punk-rock group which endorses the Islamist-style extermination of homosexual persons.
Here’s the organization’s statement, courtesy of Exodus’ blog:
Statement Regarding You Can Run But You Cannot Hide Ministries
Living Word Christian Center (LWCC) did host You Can Run But You Cannot Hide Ministries on March 25, 2009 in our Senior High School Youth department. The speaker was Jacob MacAulay the chief operations manager of their ministry, his topic was on the influences of pop culture in our society. LWCC does not support financially or in any other manner, nor is an affiliate ministry of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide Ministries. Our faith community at LWCC believes it is the love of God who draws all men (people) to Him, not condemnation or judgment.
LWCC does not apologize for hosting the hate group, does not acknowledge the rock group’s loud-and-proud kill-the-gays message, does not clarify its own policy regarding the imprisonment or execution of homosexual persons, and does not admit to the incident on its own web site.
Meanwhile, You Can Run continues to bring its fundamentalist hate to gullible public schools in Minnesota under the guise of anti-drug and anti-sex music.
U.S. cable network Current TV is premiering a can’t-miss documentary this week:
The network’s Vanguard program traveled to Uganda to “trace the influence of American evangelical leaders on a proposed law that could make being gay punishable by death.”
The episode premieres on Wednesday, May 26 at 10/9c. Current TV is available on DIRECTV channel 358, DISH Network channel 196, Comcast channel 107 (most cities) or 125 (Dallas and Seattle), AT&T U-verse channel 189, and various Time Warner Digital channels. Portions of its broadcasts are also available at Current.com/video.
Update: The documentary is now viewable via Hulu. (Hat tip: Ex-Gay Watch)
In 2009, Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively led an Exodus International board member and a representative of former PFOX president Richard Cohen’s International Healing Foundation to support an antigay conference which launched a campaign for antigay genocide and torture in Uganda.
While that initial campaign was dampened under international pressure, Uganda is now considering a new bill to execute HIV-positive gay Ugandans — and the original bill to execute all LGBT Ugandans remains under consideration.
Seeing a new opportunity for influence and fund-raising, Lively is jumping to the forefront of efforts to rejuvenate Uganda’s war against its own citizenry. This year, Lively is posturing as a moderate who merely favors the torture of gay Ugandans in “ex-gay” prison camps until they pretend to change their orientation.
Lively told Edward Ssekandi, the speaker of Uganda’s parliament, in a March 2010 letter that antigay torture is more palatable to the international community than an all-out death penalty. (Read More)
Yesterday was a big day for the intersection between politics and gayness! In this report, Rachel covers it all, from crazy John Sheehan just cold lying and saying that the Srebrenica genocide was caused by gays in the Dutch military (by the way, the Dutch are PISSED — see below the video), to Dan Choi and Jim Pietrangelo handcuffing themselves to the White House fence to protest DADT, to the GetEQUAL sit-in at Pelosi’s office over their seeming inability to get anything done on ENDA. It’s all here in this clip, in case you were sleeping yesterday.
“The remarks were outrageous, wrong and beneath contempt,” [Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter] Balkenende told a news conference. The Dutch Defense Ministry called Sheehan’s claims “absolute nonsense” and added that gay Dutch soldiers routinely cooperate with the U.S. military in the NATO mission in Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen called the claim “the bizarre private opinion of someone without an official function”. Renee Jones-Bos, the Dutch ambassador to the United States, said in a statement, “I couldn’t disagree more” with Sheehan, adding there was no evidence of his claims in the extensive record of research on Srebrenica. Military unions were equally angry. Dutch news agency ANP quoted the head of the military union AFMP as saying Sheehan’s comments were “out of the realm of fiction”, while the head of the gay soldiers’ group SHK called his comments “the ridiculous convulsion of a loner”.
OOOH. “The bizarre private opinion of someone without an official function.” “The ridiculous convulsion of a loner.” I thought I could snark, but I have to go take lessons from the Dutch!
Many thanks to Rob Tisinai for pointing out a serious loophole in Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
The wording of the legislation allows Uganda to execute anyone found guilty of repeat offences involving homosexuality “or related offences” which include speaking out in defense of tolerance, or being a relative, pastor or doctor of a homosexual and refusing to report that person to the authorities for execution.
I was skeptical about the concerns involving this loophole late last week, but Rob has convinced me.
This little nugget was reported in today’s New York Times:
Worshipers at two Malaysian mosques found the severed heads of pigs when they arrived for morning prayers on Wednesday, according to the police. Pigs are considered unclean by Muslims. The incident followed vandalism and arson at 11 Christian churches this month and appeared to be part of a continuing dispute over the use of the word Allah by Christians to designate God in the Malay-language Bible.
I’m overwhelmed by the morality and love demonstrated by these two groups. No doubt that the Muslims setting fires and the Christians lopping off pig heads were fundamentalists believing they were doing God’s work. Surely, these criminals are patting themselves on the back believing God/Allah/Jesus/Mohammad are condoning their psychotic actions. This is the pathological delusion that unchecked fundamentalism can bring certain followers.
Given such extreme behavior by religious fanatics, I wonder how some nations, such as Nigeria or Malaysia, where Christianity and Islam co-exist in tension, can make it without turning into sectarian deathtraps.
By the way, have you ever noticed how gay or mainstream churches never burn down the worship houses of others or mutilate animals for the Lord?
Maybe the conservative crazies could learn a little something about their own religions from the liberals and moderates they so despise.
The State Minister for Investments, Mr Aston Kajara, yesterday said the government was looking at the Bill with the possibility of withdrawing it. “The government’ official position is that we have enough laws to cover homosexuality acts,” Mr Kajara said. “Government did not sponsor this Bill. It is a private member’ Bill. The government is studying it and we may talk to the honourable Member of Parliament (David Bahati) to consider withdrawing it.”
It was reported earlier today that the death penalty may be dropped from the bill, a relatively small concession, considering the myriad of egregious human rights violations that would remain under the bill’s current language. Jim Burroway points out that, though there have been rumblings in the media that the Ugandan government wants the bill dropped, this latest news is different, and possibly much more encouraging:
…[T]here have been reports in outside media that others within the government were considering dropping the death penalty, but keeping other aspects of the wide-ranging and draconian bill intact. Some of those same reports were reported in Uganda’ independent press, but suggestions that the bill would be dropped have not been made publicly by members of Uganda’ government to Ugandan press. Until now, which is why this may well be a very significant development.
This doesn’t mean the bill is dead. Ardent supporters of the Bill vow a nationwide rally on January 19. It has not been withdrawn, but it is encouraging that a member of Moseveni’ cabinet has given the government’ “official position” that the bill is not needed.
So, the fight is not over yet. And in reality, the fight will continue long after this bill is (hopefully) killed, because there are still malevolent forces both within and outside Uganda who are hellbent on scapegoating the gay community for everything from AIDS to child rape to genocide, and that sort of rhetoric doesn’t die quietly.
But this does mean that the noise we’ve all been making is having an effect.
So, as my favorite singer likes to say, “If it’s too loud, turn it up.”
