Uganda will drop the death penalty and life imprisonment for gays in a refined version of an anti- gay bill expected to be ready for presentation to Parliament in two weeks, James Nsaba Buturo, the minister of ethics and integrity told Bloomberg.
The draft bill, which is under consideration by a parliamentary committee, will drop the two punishments to attract the support of religious leaders who are opposed to these penalties, Buturo said today in a phone interview from the capital, Kampala.
Ugandan lawmaker David Bahati presented a private member’s bill on Oct. 14 which sought the death penalty and life imprisonment for gay people in the country. The Ugandan government supports the bill because homosexuality and lesbianism are “repugnant to the Ugandan culture,” Buturo said. Still, it favors a more refined set of punishments, he said.
In addition to formulating punishments for the gay people, the bill will also promote counseling to help “attract errant people to acceptable sexual orientation,” said Buturo.
Next time an ex-gay shill tries to say that “ex-gay” therapy is simply for those who want it, reply with one word: Uganda.
Exodus went to Uganda and now its crackpot therapy is about to be forced on GLBT people. This is coercion, not the religious conversion preached by Exodus.
Belated congratulations are in order for the journalists behind a two-part investigative report that ran in Ecuador’s El Universo about unregulated and illegal ex-gay centers for the supposed treatment of homosexuality.
The disturbing articles, which also drew attention from Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin (”Ex-gay torture chambers in Ecuador“), revealed that there were more than 140 centers throughout the country claiming to cure homosexuality. Most heartbreakingly, those who were interviewed at these centers were teens or young adults sent there against their will by their parents. There was also a strong link between religious fervor and the nature of the teachings at these sites.
Today comes word that reporters María Alejandra Torres Reyes and Marjorie Ortíz received a 3rd place mention for Latin America in the prestigious Lorenzo Natali Journalism Prize for both articles. The award, established in 1992 by the European Commission, “is awarded to journalists for outstanding reporting on Human Rights, Democracy and Development”, according to press materials. This year, more than 1,000 journalist entries from 133 countries were submitted for consideration.
Truth Wins Out reported broadly on Exodus’ complicity in ex-gay boot camps and antigay persecution in Ecuador and elsewhere in the developing world at the time that the El Universo articles first appeared in May 2008.
Duque comments: “I hope (the award) brings additional attention to the plight of teens who are taken to these type of centers throughout Latin America, often against their will, and that it helps to shut down such illicit ventures once and for all.”
While boyfriend Travis Swanson struggles to free 23-year-old Bryce Faulkner from less-than-voluntary seclusion at an ex-gay boot camp, Faulkner’s antigay family members and a couple of friends appear to be conducting a Facebook campaign in support of Faulkner’s ex-gay reprogramming.
First, Faulkner’s mother Debra twice convinced Facebook to shut down a Facebook group that sought to locate and support her son. (Previous TWO stories.) Now two alleged friends or family members of Faulkner have started a closed Facebook group in support of his isolation and ex-gay re-education. The group introduction says:
Bryce Faulkner is many things to many people, but to Michael and myself he will always be one of the most caring, loving, generous people we have ever been blessed to know.
Contrary to what many people have heard, Bryce is not missing nor does he need to be saved or rescued. Bryce is safe, healthy and, most importantly, happy. Recently, he chose on his own accord to separate himself from the distractions from life that he believed were pulling him away from God. Seeking a spiritual reformation away from the worries and struggles of daily living, Bryce is in an environment where he has said he has come closer to the Lord than he has been in some time.
As recently as two days ago, Michael and I were both able to visit with Bryce. He appears to us as if a burden has been lifted from his shoulders, and he is at peace for the first time in a long time. Bryce was optimistic, joking and laughing through the majority of our visit. His outlook on life is something we admire and many strive to achieve, but he realizes there is still more to sort out as he plans his future.
The group description does not identify the group creator or Michael.
The claim that Faulkner is happily enjoying the isolation and amateur-led, shame-based counseling sessions that are typical at Exodus International boot camps is dubious: Numerous former ex-gays including Zach Stark have emerged from such boot camps to say that they were not there voluntarily and did not enjoy their stays, contrary to claims by relatives.
Swanson, for his part, continues to refute false information that has been released by Debra. In a lengthy interview with Quest, Swanson says: (Read More)
Parents of 23-year-old Bryce Faulkner have gone public on Fox News to declare that Faulkner is doing “fine” and voluntarily submitting to “Christian counseling.” Fox News failed to obtain a statement directly from Faulkner and failed to disclose Faulkner’s location.
(Faulkner is pictured at top center with friend Travis Swanson, far left, and other friends.)
Debra Faulkner, of El Dorado, Ark., falsely characterizes Faulkner’s concerned friends as people who were “pulling him” toward homosexuality. “He just wants to take some time and figure out what he wants to do with his life.”
The parents claim that Faulkner has released the following statement from seclusion: “Every decision that I’ve made has been based solely upon my beliefs and I have not been manipulated or coerced by anyone to do anything.”
Bryce’s friend Travis Swanson, 24, disagrees. (See previous TWO story.) He said the pair had been pursuing a happy relationship, mostly via Skype with occasional personal visits, until Debra gained access to her son’s e-mail account and discovered Bryce’s secret.
According to Fox News:
The next time they spoke, Swanson said, Bryce was inconsolable.
“He was crying really, really bad, I mean, like uncontrollably crying,” he said. “He said [Bryce's parents] made him read quotes aloud from the Bible and said that he’s going to hell.”
The following day, Swanson said he received a text from Faulkner indicating that his parents wanted to take him to a “place in Pensacola” to address his sexuality. Swanson would later call the Union County Sheriff’s Department to say that Faulkner was being taken against his will by his “fundamental Baptist” parents.
The Fox News story greatly exaggerates the number of ex-gay affiliates of Exodus International to “roughly 250 local ministries.” Fox also misleadingly tells readers that president Alan Chambers has two children — concealing their adoption. Exodus International refuses to issue an official policy opposing coerced or involuntary participation in its programs; Fox News did not inquire about this.
Update, July 21: According to pinknews.co.uk, the parents of Bryce Faulkner are threatening to sue friends and youth-safety advocates that set up a web site to locate and protect Bryce from further abuse by an ex-gay re-education center.
A Wisconsin man, Travis Swanson, claims that last month, his 23-year-old boyfriend, Bryce Faulkner, was economically blackmailed by his parents into entering an “ex-gay” boot camp. Swanson believes that Faulkner is in a ministry in Florida, where the ex-gay organization Exodus International is headquartered.
When Faulkner’s family found out their son was gay, they reportedly told him to enter an ex-gay program or lose financial support.
“Sadly, Bryce Faulkner is not an anomaly,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. “Ex-gay organizations commonly use coercion to recruit new clients and often play on the fears of parents. We hope that he is found and escapes this boot camp before he is brainwashed and emotionally scarred.”
“We will do our best to help find Faulkner and end the psychological abuse that young people face as a result of being forced into such damaging programs against their will.”
Faulkner was a pre-med student from Arkansas. He was reportedly about to come out to his fundamentalist family when his mother found email correspondence with Swanson. If you know of his whereabouts, please contact Truth Wins Out.
Oklahoma Baptist Pastor Steve Kern, husband of notorious Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern, reportedly believes gay Americans should be incarcerated and forcibly “cured.”
“We have to get rid of that and start curing those sinners. It’s past time that this nation stopped placating sin and start putting them in education programs. Courts can force drug offenders into treatment centers and violent people into anger management. There’s no reason our courts can’t do that with homos.”
While he builds support among ex-gay activists for arrest and involuntary quack medical treatments, Kern in the meantime is said by the Gossip Boy blog to be teaming up with Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett to rid the city’s public libraries of accurate health, scientific, and therapeutic information about sexual orientation. According to James Miko and Wayne Fuller, the pair plan a campaign to “rid the library system of all gay and lesbian materials, as well as those their church-based philosophies find objectionable.”
Their goals:
Win the 2010 governor’s race and gain power at any cost
Deprive Oklahoma families of any information that might help them accurately and constructively understand gay family members
Censor information that exposes the persistent failure of ex-gay programs to “change” their participants’ sexual orientation
Use government power and taxpayer money to enrich corrupt ex-gay quacks from Exodus International and NARTH, the religious-rightist reparative-therapy lobby.
Zach Stark, who endured more than a month of involuntary detention in Exodus International’s costly live-in ex-gayification program Love In Action, appears briefly in the upcoming ex-gay documentary This Is What Love In Action Looks Like, which is planned for release later this year.
Unlicensed “doctor” Daniel Serrano served 15 months in prison after he promised a youth-restoring treatment that would be superior to Botox to Hollywood celebrities such as Priscilla Presley — and injected them instead with low-grade industrial silicone.
It’s illegal to practice medicine without a license. Yet it is perfectly legal in the United States for unlicensed and uneducated “therapists” and self-appointed “counselors” to engage in the ex-gay industry’s own version of bait and switch: Promise false cures for sexual attraction, then inflict confirmed and long-lasting harm against counselees and their families — sometimes, even, against the will of youths who are involuntarily “treated.”
In 2005, the Exodus-affiliated, ex-gay, live-in treatment facility Love In Action drew national attention when it became known that the program was admitting teen-agers against their will.
Bryce Faulkner is many things to many people, but to Michael and myself he will always be one of the most caring, loving, generous people we have ever been blessed to know.
(Faulkner is pictured at top center with friend Travis Swanson, far left, and other friends.)
Oklahoma Baptist Pastor Steve Kern, husband of notorious Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern, reportedly believes gay Americans should be incarcerated and forcibly “cured.”
Their goals:
