This is rich.  The Guardian reports that, on the eve of his first visit to the United Kingdom, Pope Ratzi is condemning various legislation in that nation that gives a fuller measure of equality to gay and lesbian citizens:

Pope Benedict XVI has condemned British equality legislation for running contrary to “natural law” as he confirmed his first visit to the UK later this year.

(…)

[H]e criticised UK legislation for creating “limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs”. It is thought his comments relate to laws that came in last year preventing adoption agencies from discriminating against gay couples and also Harriet Harman’s equality bill, currently going through parliament.

(…)

[Bishops and priests] told him sexual orientation legislation that came into effect on 1 January 2009 had forced the closure of half the Roman Catholic adoption agencies because the law making it illegal to discriminate against gay applicants went against their beliefs.

Yeah, first of all, just as in the United States, no Catholic adoption agency was “forced” to close.  They simply decided to put anti-gay animus above serving children.  You have to understand their reasoning, though.  Adopting children to nice gay and lesbian couples could lower the chances that those kids would stay in the church, where the priests and bishops have full access to them.

Second of all, it’s been established that the phrase “natural law” when used by the pope is approximately as meaningless and unscientific as the phrase “macroevolution” when used by creationists.

Whatever, Ratzi.

UPDATE: The National Secular Society has a petition drive to ask that the Catholic Church, rather than British taxpayers, pay for the Pope’s visit.  Go sign if you like that idea.

(h/t John Aravosis)

Eighteen months ago, British antigay activist Stephen Green was planning to open an “ex-gay” school to perform fake miracles against LGBT people — for a profit, of course.

Now, however, Green prefers a more direct solution for homosexuals:

Execute them.

(According to PinkNews, Green also believes husbands have a Biblical allowance to rape their wives.)

The prime ministers of Britain and Canada last week protested, in the strongest terms, Uganda’s plan to execute its sexually active LGBT and HIV-positive citizens — and to imprison their families, doctors, clergy if they fail to turn in patients and loved ones to the police.

The two nations’ top leaders implied that Uganda might lose foreign aid and membership in the Commonwealth if it proceeds.

Compare these condemnations to the official statement of the highest-ranking U.S. executive-branch official, Eric Goosby. He is the head of the U.S. State Department’s foreign-aid program for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, known as PEPFAR.

As Truth Wins Out pointed out on Friday, Goosby said:

My role is to be supportive and helpful to the patients who need these services. It is not to tell a country how to put forward their legislation. But I will engage them in conversation around my concern and knowledge of what this is going to do to that population, and our ability to stop the movement of the virus into the general population.

Update: Goosby’s statement is much softer and more generous to Uganda than a U.S. embassy officer’s prior statement:

“If adopted, a bill further criminalizing homosexuality would constitute a significant step backwards for the protection of human rights in Uganda,” the embassy’s public affairs officer Joann Lockard said in an email. “We urge states to take all necessary measures to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests, or detention.”

Americans must take urgent action to let the State Department know that it IS their job to prevent the misuse of taxpayers’ HIV/AIDS dollars to slaughter gay people, enrich evangelicals, and deny Africans access to condoms.

Please write letters to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanding a hold on Uganda’s PEPFAR funding until strict human-rights, privacy, and free-speech controls can be imposed upon all PEPFAR aid. PEPFAR aid must not be given to sectarian religious interests, especially those with violent and inhumane intentions.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
(202) 647-4000

Please THANK Rep. Tammy Baldwin for her support and urge her office to continue fighting against The Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 by e-mailing Amber Shipley:

Amber.Shipley @ mail.house.gov

Please THANK Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen for her support via phone call or letter and urge her to continue using her position in the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs to hold Uganda accountable.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
2470 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515-0918
(202) 225-3931

The United Reformed Church of the United Kingdom said Wednesday that it is “appalled” at the “draconian measures” in Uganda’s proposed antigay death penalty. The legislation calls for the execution of gay, sexually active persons who are HIV-positive or whose partner is underage or disabled. The legislation also broadens the existing life-imprisonment sentence for consensual intimacy among gay couples; adds new punishments for pastors, friends, and family members who fail to report a gay person to the police; and criminalizes comprehensive sex education and health care which might be perceived as tolerating homosexual behavior.

PinkNews.co.uk points out that the church has asked Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, who grew up in Uganda, to condemn the legislation. As yet, neither has responded.

Four nations have taken preliminary action against the brewing human-rights disaster in Uganda.

As previously reported, passage is expected in January of a law requiring execution of Ugandan HIV-positive homosexuals and long prison sentences for pastors and family members who refuse to turn in someone they know to be gay. The law would also ban all speech that discusses homosexuality in a neutral or tolerant fashion, thus inhibiting health care and sound science, and it would effectively prohibit human-rights advocacy and legal defense of LGBT persons.

The penalty for homosexual orientation in Uganda is life imprisonment.

In Britain, according to PinkNews.co.uk, a spokeswoman from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said:

We are concerned by the introduction of a private member’s bill on anti-homosexuality in Uganda.

Adoption of the bill could do serious damage to efforts to tackle HIV and its criminalisation of organisations that support homosexuality could, in theory, encompass most donor agencies and international NGOs.

The UK, alongside our EU partners, has raised our concerns about the draft bill and LGBT rights more broadly with the government of Uganda, including with the prime minister and several other ministers, the Ugandan Human Rights Commission, and senior officials from the Ugandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

We will continue to track the passage of the bill and to lobby against its introduction.

France’s foreign ministry released a statement:

France expresses deep concern regarding the bill currently before the Ugandan parliament.

France reiterates its commitment to the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

In the United States, four members of Congress wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warning that the legislation had severe implications for the freedom and safety of gay people and for freedom of speech and public health in Uganda.

However, In Australia, the national senate declined to condemn the death-penalty and family-imprisonment legislation. According to the Sydney Star Observer, Joe Ludwig of the Labor Party told senators it was inappropriate for the Senate to hear such a resolution.

The Government’s view is that complex matters of international relations should not be considered in the Senate by means of formal motions. It is counterproductive for motions of this kind to single out one country,” he said, before restating the Government’s opposition to laws criminalising GLBT people.

As recently as last month … the Australian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva noted the importance of eliminating discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Star Observer notes that the death-penalty legislation “is supported by the Ugandan Muslim Supreme Council, as well as the Orthodox, Pentecostal, Seventh Day Adventist and Anglican churches in Uganda.”

Now would be an appropriate time for the Episcopal Church USA to appeal to the Anglican Communion for an emphatic condemnation of antigay violence, execution, and censorship in Uganda.

The Whole Gay Truth reports:

…A former Lutheran pastor who underwent therapy and hypnosis in an attempt to become heterosexual is to speak at a psychotherapy conference in London in May.

Pink News is reporting that Maris Sants is to appear at the joint Pink Therapy and UK Council for Psychotherapy conference, “Working with Gender and Sexual Minorities”.

The Pink News article says the conference, scheduled for May 15th and 16th, will look at how homophobia in health care and mental health services continues to impact on lesbian, gay and transgender people and other sexual minorities.

One in six British psychiatrists has tried to “cure” a gay patient, and some continue to mistreat their patients — even though ex-gay theories about sexual orientation have been disproven by mainstream research, and even though former ex-gays say that ex-gay “therapy” only worsens sexual temptation, depression, and unhealthy behavior.

According to The Independent:

A study of more than 1,400 psychiatrists and therapists in BMC Psychiatry found that 222 (17 per cent) said they had treated at least one client to alter their homosexual feelings at some point. The researchers expected the cases to be concentrated in the past, but the 400 to 500 cases recorded were distributed evenly across the decades. ‘It is happening up to the present moment,’ [Professor Michael King, of the University College Medical School] said. It might only be the ‘tip of the iceberg’.

Hat tip: Towle Road