The American fundamentalist group, The Family, has to make an important strategic choice. It can have its influential National Prayer Breakfast each February in Washington, or it can have its Anti-Homosexuality Bill become law in Uganda. It likely cannot have both.
It would be naïve for this secretive and powerful organization to believe that it can turn Uganda into a concentration camp for gay and lesbian people without transforming its signature affair into a symbol of such oppression. It would be madness for The Family to think it can sell the loving Higher Path Jesus at their breakfast, while unleashing its anti-gay Psychopath Jesus in Kampala.
If The Family does not kill the Anti-Homosexuality Bill before it becomes law, the cruel piece of legislation will end up killing The Family, by stripping it of its moral authority and tying its members to genocide. What respectable politician would want to attend an event marred by protests and hosted by human rights abusers?
Last year, a prominent member of The Family, David Bahati, wrote and introduced The Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda’s Parliament. In Jeff Sharlet’s latest book, “C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy”, the bill’s author said he believes that homosexuality is worse than murder and calls it “a threat to our existence”.
Aside from persecuting LGBT people and snuffing out their right to exist, the bill punishes anyone who offers support or friendship. Some of its provisions:
Three years in prison for failure to report a gay person to authorities within 24-hours of disclosure
Seven years in prison for “promotion”, which includes activism or simply acknowledging that homosexuality exists
Life imprisonment for one homosexual act
The death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” (which includes sex while HIV-positive, sex with a disabled person, or sex more than once, marking the person as a “serial offender”)
The Anti-Homosexuality Bill was put on the backburner last year after the National Prayer Breakfast was protested. The efforts to shine a light on The Family’s activities led to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemning the bill at the event.
Unfortunately, Bahati has revived the bill, claiming it will pass and “close the door to homosex”. Last week, he made a trip to The United States to furtively rally support for his efforts. The Ugandan legislator says that he has strong support in America, but his prominent evangelical friends are afraid to publicly back him because they fear reprisals.
Indeed, Bahati believes he is vindicating his American friends who have lost the culture war against LGBT equality. The grand plan is for Uganda to be used as a proxy in a global war against homosexuality. Once the bill passes in Uganda, the hope is to spread copycat bills throughout Africa. These conservative African nations can then be used as vivid examples to Western countries of how to re-stigmatize homosexuality. Of course, the larger utopian fantasy is to use homosexuality as a wedge issue to establish theocracies across the planet.
We should take this effort very seriously and make it clear to The Family that there will be consequences for such bloodlust. A few of the options include:
Working to have Congress cut off all foreign aid to Uganda
Large demonstrations at The National Prayer Breakfast
Denying Ugandan officials visas to America
Denying prominent members of The Family visas to Uganda
Stripping David Bahati of his degrees at the University of Cardiff and the University of Pennsylvania
Exploring efforts to prosecute Bahati, and others affiliated with this bill, for crimes against humanity.
A media campaign exposing The Family
Bahati justifies his planned purge by disguising it as a morality campaign to protect Ugandan children from predatory Western gay men. However, he has put forth no credible evidence to back his bizarre assertions, and all available information points to an eliminationist witch-hunt against innocent people.
Bahati also rationalizes his cruelty by saying that Ugandans support his bill. Of course, the bill’s popularity and the demonization of LGBT people are only maintained through artificial means. To tar homosexuals as despised villains, Bahati and his goons have to create a repressive culture where free speech is stifled, LGBT people can’t come out, pro-gay allies are punished for “promoting” homosexuality, the media is cowed, and a robust smear campaign is relentlessly waged with no opposition.
Incredibly, Bahati plays the imperialist card, arguing Americans should stay out of his nation’s business, even as he hypocritically does the bidding for American evangelicals that made his career.
In the name of God, these thugs and theocrats are playing God with the lives of LGBT people across the globe. The only Family these tyrants remind me of is The Sopranos – except they are more sadistic. It is time civilized people stand up to such Bible-based barbarism before it is too late. A good place to start is at The National Prayer Breakfast.
Dr. Warren Throckmorton reports that David Bahati, author of Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill, was denied entry to an economic summit in Washington, DC.
He arrived mid morning and was informed of the decision. It turns out that we didn’t have his proper e-mail address for his phone. There was a frank but calm discussion and Mr. Bahati was not able to enter the building.
There is heavy speculation that Bahati used the economic meeting as a front to coordinate his anti-gay eliminationist campaign with prominent evangelicals — such as the C Street Family.
If you are in DC or New York City and happen to see this madman, do not hesitate to confront him. He is our Hitler and should be treated accordingly. Make it very clear to him that we will not willingly walk into his prisons or death chambers without a fight.
Bahati will be on the Rachel Maddow show this evening to discuss his psychotic fixation with LGBT people — who are innocent and have done nothing to harm him. Yet, he wants us imprisoned or dead.
In my view, Bahati’s visa should be denied and he should immediately be arrested and deported. The United States and other civilized nations should make Bahati and anyone connected to the Kill the Gays bill international pariahs. If the bill passes, he should be arrested for crimes against humanity.
This video is an example of what this atrocious monster has done to peoples’ lives.
TWO Pledges To Help Educate The World Bank About PFOX’s Record of Hate and Harm
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out today praised the World Bank’s plan to eliminate matching funds for the “ex-gay” hate group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX), and called it a “positive step in the right direction.” The bank took this extraordinary step after learning more about PFOX’s reprehensible record and strong objections from staff who were upset PFOX had been included on the World Bank’s list of approved charities.
“We are grateful that the World Bank ensured that taxpayers will not be subsidizing PFOX’s anti-gay campaign,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We pledge to continue educating the World Bank on this vital issue. The more they learn about PFOX’s history of hate and harm, the less likely they will consider PFOX a legitimate charity.”
Last week, Metro Weekly’s Chris Geidner discovered that a small number of anti-gay staff-members at the World Bank had recommended PFOX as a charity for this year’s Community Connections Campaign. World Bank matching funds were to be given to the chosen charities. Depending on the level of employee participation, the bank’s matching funds are either 50 percent or 100 percent of the employee donations.
Truth Wins Out and Change.org launched an online petition to drop PFOX from the list of charities. World Bank staff also made a persuasive case against using taxpayer funds to assist PFOX. The World Bank decided to take another look at PFOX and elected to change their guidelines. According to the new rules:
Bank-matching funds will be provided to those organizations that have, through prior participation, established a track record of support with staff. Organizations that have come on the list this year will not be offered matching funds in this year’s campaign, though the Bank will match any contribution that has been made to this latter group prior to today, November 15, 2010. We will review the new organizations after one year, to see if they have the staff and community support to warrant a match in the FY12 campaign.
Truth Wins Out preferred that PFOX be completely dropped from the list this year, but is satisfied with this interim measure that starves the hate group of taxpayer funds. In 2011, TWO will disseminate key information to World Bank staff and management to ensure they are aware of PFOX’s dubious record.
“It is a shame that other first time charitable organizations will have to suffer because of PFOX’s unseemly presence,” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “Sadly, the PFOX baby is so toxic that the bathwater had to be flushed to avoid contaminating the entire program’s reputation.”
In August, two key members of PFOX spoke at the “Truth Academy”. The conference was hosted by Americans For Truth About Homosexuality’s founder Peter LaBarbera, whose website was listed as an official “hate site” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
At the Truth Academy, PFOX Board President Greg Quinlan raised eyebrows with an offensive speech. Quinlan explained how he allegedly went from gay-to-straight, and found support from an Assemblies of God Church that accepted him because he allegedly was not effeminate.
“I wasn’t your flaming faggot, you know,” Quinlan told the chuckling crowd. “I can say that because I’ve been there and done that. You know, the one’s whose wrists are so limp that when the wind blows they slap themselves in the face. I wasn’t one of them.”
At the same conference, Arthur Abba Goldberg, the convicted Wall Street thief who runs PFOX’s speakers bureau, demonstrated PFOX’s unscientific use of stereotypes.
“By the way, did you notice that a lot of gays who remain in the gay lifestyle also do a lot of body building,” said Abba Goldberg. “They will be in the gym a lot trying to build up their pecs…Because they have these body image issues and don’t feel they are masculine enough.”
“PFOX is a dangerous organization that traffics in ugly slurs and crass stereotypes,” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “Given PFOX’s level of vitriol, it would seem reckless and irresponsible to give this group charitable status in the future.”
PFOX’s former board President is Richard Cohen, who still serves as the “therapy” guru of the organization. Cohen runs the International Healing Foundation and sent his protégé, Caleb Lee Brundidge, to Uganda. The result of his visit was the introduction of the deadly and draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Cohen was permanently expelled from the American Counseling Association on March 23, 2002 for multiple ethics violations.
PFOX is an anti-gay political organization founded in 1998 by Anthony Falzarano with the help of an $80,000 Family Research Council grant. Falzarano once called University of Wyoming hate crime victim Matthew Shepard a “predator to heterosexual men.” He also said on CBS News that, “AIDS comes directly from Satan. He uses homosexuals as pawns and then he kills them.”
“PFOX likes to claim that they ‘love’ LGBT people,” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “But their syrupy rhetoric does not match their record, nor reality. From the moment this organization was founded, it showed open hostility and extreme animus towards LGBT people.”
There are also lingering questions as to whether PFOX should have been listed as a charity, given that to be included in the World Bank’s Community Outreach Program, an organization is required to have, “a substantial local presence in the Greater Washington metropolitan area.”
PFOX fails to fulfill the criteria. The organization is based in Reedville, VA — placing PFOX 127 miles — and a two hour and forty minute drive — southeast of the nation’s capitol. PFOX also does not list any legitimate chapters in DC or Virginia. The only “contact” e-mail listed in DC or VA is that of the national organization based in Reedville.
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that defends the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community against anti-gay misinformation, counters the so-called “ex-gay” industry and educates America about the lives of LGBT people. Our goal is to fight for a world where LGBT individuals can live openly, honestly, free of discrimination and be true to themselves.
The member of the Ugandan Parliament behind a controversial “anti-gay” bill that would call for stiff penalties against homosexuality — including life imprisonment and the death penalty — says that the bill will become law “soon.”
“We are very confident,” David Bahati told CNN, “because this is a piece of legislation that is needed in this country to protect the traditional family here in Africa, and also protect the future of our children.”
Governments that have donated aid to Uganda and human rights groups applied massive pressure since the bill was proposed a year ago, and most believed that the bill had been since shelved.
Not so, says Bahati, adding, “Every single day of my life now I am still pushing that it passes.”
Who knows how much weight should be given to Bahati’s words here, but things are getting scarier and scarier for gays and lesbians in Uganda.
I know our readers run the gamut of faiths and lacks-thereof, but I think even our readers of faith would probably agree that the fact that Freethought Kampala exists in Uganda is a reason for hope. With all the controversy over the “Kill the Gays” bill over the last year (helped by their favorite American fundamentalists!), it’s nice to know that there are people over there thinking.
Unfortunately, we’ve been consumed with Mehlman fever (antibiotics should do the trick) the past twenty four hours, so I missed this. Jeff Sharlet has a new book, and a new piece in Harper’s, which unfortunately isn’t available yet, but an NPR interview with Sharlet drops a bit of a bombshell about the private ambitions of the sick, twisted, maniacal Ugandan MP David Bahati, the sponsor of that nation’s infamous “kill the gays bill”:
“Bahati said: ‘If you come here, you’ll see homosexuals from Europe and America are luring our children into homosexuality by distributing cell phones and iPods and things like this,’ ” Sharlet recounts. “And he said, ‘And I can explain to you what I really want to do.’ ”
Sharlet accompanied Bahati to a restaurant and later to his home, where Bahati told Sharlet that he wanted “to kill every last gay person.”
“It was a very chilling moment, because I’m sitting there with this man who’s talking about his plans for genocide, and has demonstrated over the period of my relationship with him that he’s not some back bencher — he’s a real rising star in the movement,” Sharlet says. “This was something that I hadn’t understood before I went to Uganda, that this was a guy with real potential and real sway and increasingly a following in Uganda.”
And he has connections to American leaders. Sharlet explains that Bahati is one of the Uganda leaders of an American evangelical movement called the Fellowship, or the Family — the secretive fellowship of powerful Christian politicians who wield considerable political influence, both in Washington and abroad.
If that’s what Bahati says to an American journalist with a history of reporting facts, I’d hate to imagine what he says behind closed doors to American Religious Right wingnuts.
Bahati is an aspiring genocidal maniac, and continuing American support from fundamentalist Christian leaders just proves what so many have always said: They are our American Taliban, and the only reason they haven’t started bombing things is because they live in a developed country where the Enlightenment and secularization have had a civilizing effect on the most grotesque applications of Deep Religious Faith. Bahati just has more “freedom” where he lives than our American mullahs do.
I love how evil always dresses itself up with high-minded, euphemistic names. For example, the repressive government of Myanmar is known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council(SLORC). In Zimbabwe, the brutal and corrupt Robert Mugabe’s political party is known as the Patriotic Front. And, of course, during the Joseph McCarthy era, we had the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee. There are countless other examples of reprobates disguised as responsible leaders or political parties.
We can now add the The Society for Truth and Light to this repugnant list of phonies who hide their sinister behavior, sinful lies and outrageous cynicism behind a facade of “good”. The Society is an anti-gay “Christian” outfit based in Hong Kong that has published an irresponsible report hawking unscientific “ex-gay” snake oil cures.
Although the 52-page booklet is raw hatred of gay people, it is deceptively named, “Acceptance–Caring for Homosexuality”.
How much does this group care?
They are using materials from the discredited anti-gay organization, The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). This is an organization that:
1) Had to kick George Rekers off its board this year after the “esteemed” doctor was caught taking a prostitute on a European vacation that he had met on Rent Boy.com
2) Had to kick off another board member this year, Arthur Abba Goldberg, who had been exposed by South Florida Gay News and Truth Wins Out as a convicted felon. Goldberg refers clients to a “life coach” who asks clients to strip naked and fondle themselves.
3) Had for years regularly published essays by Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, who also is a catalyst behind Uganda’s infamous “Kill the Gays” bill. Lively is recognized by the Southern Poverty Law Center for running a certified hate group.
4) Has virtually no peer review studies on homosexuality, yet mysteriously claims expertise on the topic. NARTH’s information runs counter to every respected medical and mental health organization in the nation — including the American Psychiatric Association, American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
5) Had a board member, Gerald Schoenwolf, who wrote a noxious essay on NARTH’s website that seemed to justify slavery
6) Had used widely condemned and discredited “life coach” Richard Cohen as a therapy trainer. Cohen was permanently expelled from the American Counseling Association for misdeeds.
Given NARTH’s sordid history, why is this Hong Kong organization — that claims to stand for morality — peddling its lies?
Clearly, this organization is obscuring truth and shedding little light on the topic of LGBT people.
Hong Kong residents should beware of this ministry.
It is selling outdated and bankrupt ideas hatched in America that no one here takes seriously.
Please, do your research. Do not be misled by ideologues and money-hungry charlatans who are out to commit consumer fraud.
Cliff Kincaid is a peach. Really. He’s one of the only Radical Christian Imams who is honest about the fact that he wants gay people dead. He made his original statements last week, and now he’s gotten on the internet again to flesh out his explanation for why gay people should be dead. He also has some harsh words for Senator Tom Coburn, who has joined up with Al Franken and Russ Feingold in drafting a Senate bill condemning the Ugandan legislation. (Absorb that last sentence before I go on, will you? Coburn has joined with Franken and Feingold. That’s how universal the disgust over this bill really is, among evolved, sentient human beings. Lambs are lying down with wingnuts, for god’s sake. Apparently Cliff Kincaid is not an evolved, sentient human being, at least not by any rational definition.) So let’s have a look at what Cliffy has to say:
Echoing the claims of liberals in the media, who have targeted Uganda for isolation and a denial of foreign aid for considering the legislation, Coburn has called it “an absurd proposal to execute gays” that somehow threatens progress against AIDS. Lesbian MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow has repeatedly referred to the legislation as the “Kill the Gays bill.”
But as AIM has reported in a series of articles, this is deliberate distortion. Maddow and her media collaborators, such as Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post, have tried to obscure the fact that the government of Uganda is considering passage of the anti-homosexuality bill because of the growing concern by officials and religious leaders that foreign homosexuals and special interest groups are trying to spread homosexuality throughout the country and undermine the country’s return to traditional moral values. Campaigns and groups promoting the rights of “sexual minorities” have emerged in Uganda and other African countries, with funding from billionaire George Soros, a major financial supporter of “gay rights” in the U.S.
Sadly, no. It’s too bad Cliff Kincaid is an unrepentant pathological liar, but he is. There is no distortion in the reporting. Any literate human being (sorry to exclude you, Cliff) can read the bill. The fact that certain Christian leaders in Uganda are fools who either truly believe that “foreign gays” are invading Uganda, or are deliberately manipulating the people in order to distract them from the real problems facing that nation is not a proof that the reporting on the legislation is any less than factual. What’s sad is that Cliff Kincaid apparently is just as easily spooked by gay people as the Ugandan religious leaders, what with all the factual information at his disposal.
Of course, you know you’re dealing with a nutcase when they bring an issue back to George Soros. The fact that this one billionaire who happens to support progressive causes (like the Right doesn’t have any parallel figures) has become such a villainous boogeyman for much of the American Right exposes just what scaredy-pants ninnies right-wingers really are.
Uganda emphasizes abstinence and monogamy in its fight against AIDS, in contrast to the reckless “safe sex” approach popularized by “progressives” in the U.S. who want to avoid finding homosexuality itself to be a dangerous “lifestyle.”
Uh, actually, the safe sex (scare quotes not necessary for things that actually exist, Cliffypants!) approach is the effective approach. Uganda used to be a model for HIV/AIDS prevention, but their numbers have actually plateaued (and may be rising) over the last several years, as the emphasis on abstinence began to overshadow a comprehensive approach. So, wrong again, Clifton!
The Ugandan bill does provide for harsh measures against homosexual conduct, including the death penalty for such practices as pedophilia, facilitating homosexual activity, and deliberately spreading AIDS. As such, however, Ugandan Christian ministers see the legislation as a necessary and continuing part of Uganda’s successful anti-AIDS effort.
Well, if Ugandan Christians think it’s necessary, far be it from us to question them, right, Cliff? I mean, there’s nothing wrong with a little genocide, as long as the leaders have a rationale, right?
Conservatives were shocked to see Coburn, a conservative leader and medical doctor, jump into bed with Feingold and Franken and other liberals to attack Uganda’s legislative process and pro-family political leaders and activists.
Uh, what conservatives were shocked, Cliff? It’s not a good idea to refer to yourself in the plural, sir. It’s a good indicator of mental illness.
Uganda was once ruled by a homosexual pedophile King named Mwanga, who tortured and murdered Christian youth who refused his sexual advances. Their sacrifices are celebrated every June 3, Martyr’s Day in the nation. This terrible period in Uganda’s history has never been forgotten.
Relevance? The Mwanga thing has been repeated by Scott Lively as well. Here’s the thing: As usual, these men are lying. Even when they keep the general parameters of the story correctly intact, they lie. Here are the actual details of the Martyr’s Day history. The young men were killed for their Christian faith. The timeframe for this was 1885-1887. Mwanga was born in 1868. This means that his time of “pedophilia” happened when he was ages 17 to 19. The martyrs ranged in age from 18-25. There is no scenario under which sexual advances toward grown men can be considered “pedophilia,” especially when the supposed pedophile is younger than them!
The extent of Cliff Kincaid’s pathological lying is truly stunning.
Anyway, he goes on and on and on, and it gets boring after a while, but at no time does he express any personal problems with the idea of genocide against gay people, and he continues to condemn Coburn for speaking out against it, so we must only assume that Cliff Kincaid actively desires the death of gay people. I hope the Southern Poverty Law Center* is paying attention.
*Incidentally, we reported the other day that the Illinois Family Institute had been put back on the list of SPLC anti-gay hate groups, because they had. Jeremy Hooper also reported it. But now their name is mysteriously missing from the list again, and I’d like to know why. More when I find out.
(Weekly Column)
There is heavy speculation that Bahati used the economic meeting as a front to coordinate his anti-gay eliminationist campaign with prominent evangelicals — such as the C Street Family.
Last week, Metro Weekly’s 
I love how evil always dresses itself up with high-minded, euphemistic names. For example, the repressive government of Myanmar is known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council(SLORC). In Zimbabwe, the brutal and corrupt Robert Mugabe’s political party is known as the Patriotic Front. And, of course, during the Joseph McCarthy era, we had the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee. There are countless other examples of reprobates disguised as responsible leaders or political parties.
