Ugandans March to Celebrate Anti-Gay Bill

A draconian anti-gay bill in Uganda gained international attention when the America Religious Right's anti-gay activism in Uganda came to light. The anti-gay bill was signed into law by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni earlier this year, to the horror of LGBTQ rights activists. Now, Museveni is using the anti-gay law to rally his supporters.

On March 31st, supporters of the anti-gay law took part in the "Uganda Pride" procession in Kampala, marching from Makerere University to Kololo Airstrip, according to UGO News. Marchers carried Ugandan flags and homophobic signs that read "Homosexuality + AIDS = 100%" and "Museveni, We the Children Thank You for Saving Our Future".

Among the marchers was Martin Ssempa, a prominent anti-gay activist featured in the Vanguard documentary Missionaries of Hate. The Daily Monitor reports that other high-profile political and religious leaders were in attendance, including Ugandan parliament speaker Rebecca Kadaga, Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, Pastor Simon Peter Emwau, and Mufti Ramadhan Mubajje. Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, head of Uganda's Anglican Church, spoke of LGBTQ issues in antagonistic terms. "The Lord has the power to help us Ugandans to overcome the battle against homosexuality," he said, according to Reuters.

President Yoweri Museveni spoke at the rally accompanying the march. After thanking MP David Bahati (the political leader who spearheaded the original bill), Museveni slammed "big countries" for allegedly ordering around Uganda. "When big countries started giving us orders, I don’t like orders, especially from outside and I don’t know why these people became preachers for others?” he told listeners, according to the Daily Monitor.

Reuters reports that the World Bank suspended a loan to Uganda and several European countries threatened to halt aid after Museveni signed the anti-gay bill into law, but Museveni dismissed these consequences. "When you hear these Europeans saying they are going to cut aid ... we don't need aid in the first place," Museveni said, according to Reuters. "A country like Uganda is one of the richest on earth."

Museveni asserted that the Bible condemns homosexuality and that ancient African cultures labeled gays as ekifiire ("walking dead"). He mocked same-sex sexual acts as "unhealthy" because they ignore the "specialized" design of human reproductive organs. “I came to learn that homosexuality was unhealthy and this is because they go to a wrong address. Sexual organs of a human being are highly specialized,” he told the audience, according to the Daily Monitor.

In effect, Museveni is presenting himself to the Ugandan people as a defender of national sovereignty. By suggesting that western calls for LGBTQ equality are an encroachment on Ugandan sovereignty, and that resisting international pressure is an act of autonomy, Museveni is packaging himself as a courageous leader.

Sadly, the opposite is true. Scoring cheap political points by scapegoating an oppressed population is anything but brave. By marginalizing LGBTQ Ugandans, Museveni is helping to oppress the very citizens he is obliged to protect. By focusing public attention on a boogeyman, he is deflecting attention away from real problems and cultivating homophobia than can only harm Uganda.

The homophobic rhetoric at "Uganda Pride" isn't so different from that of the American Religious Right: scapegoat a vulnerable group, lash out at said group as a distraction from other issues, and trumpet oneself as a defender of faith/family/nation. More and more Americans are seeing through this tawdry rhetoric, and we can only hope that Ugandans will too.

News Tidbits

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Anti-Gay March in Uganda as Human Rights Delegation Blasted by Ugandan MPs

March was a tense month for LGBTQ rights in Uganda. First, Gay Star News reports that on March 31st, an anti-gay march led by Christian leaders took place in Mukono, Uganda. Pastor Solomon Male and Rev. Thomas Musoke led a march of approximately 100 people near the burial site of David Kato, a Ugandan LGBTQ activist who was murdered in 2011. According to Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) director Pepe Julian Onziema, Male complained that the Ugandan government had made an insufficient effort to pass a draconian anti-gay bill currently under consideration. Male also reportedly named SMUG staff during his speech, showed the crowd a gay adult magazine to demonize LGBTQ people as dangers to children, and claimed that David Kato's grave had become a place for "foreigners" to perform a "pilgrimage to homosexuality".

According to Gay Star News, SMUG research manager Richard Lusimbo speculates that American evangelical leaders have been goading Male to promote homophobia in Uganda.

"I believe that Male is being pushed and funded by US evangelical groups to preach anti-gay hate -- he made allegations to incite fear and hatred, saying that homosexuals are recruiting children, scaring local parents ... creating a scary image of LGBT people as something alien imposed by the West."

Lusimbo blasted the leaders of the march for disrespecting the dead and causing Kato's mother anguish, calling their actions "unafrican".

Disturbing demonstrations such as this remind the world that homophobia is still very much alive in Uganda. The demonstration follows other recent controversies surrounding LGBTQ rights in Uganda, such as President Yoweri Museveni's controversial comments about gays and lesbians as he received a visit from a U.S. human rights delegation in March. The delegation was met with harsh and sometimes absurd rhetoric from Uganda's leaders. For example, according to the Observer, Ugandan first lady Janet Museveni told the delegation that the draconian anti-gay bill currently under consideration was not intended to persecute LGBTQ persons (!). MP Kabakumba Masiko Labwoni argued that the delegation "can't impose on us issues that are against our culture, and it is prohibited for you to come here and start promoting homosexuality." Ugandan MP Alice Alaso also lashed out at the delegation over their approach to homosexuality.

"We already have enough laws that meet international standards and some of them penalise same-sex marriage and when we go by the Bible which I glorify, sodomy is punishable. So, we don't want to go against African culture and at the same time act contrary to God's commandments because whites want it ... You [westerners] have imposed on us enough of your bad practices, right from guns, and we shall not allow homosexuality in Uganda because the Bible forbids it."

After the delegation's visit, MP David Bahati, the architect of Uganda's controversial anti-gay bill, defended the bill as a means of "stopping the promotion of homosexuality, stopping the funding of homosexuality, stopping the inducement of children into homosexuality and operationalising the prohibition of same-sex marriage [as] stipulated in the constitution."

At the Sunday march and the human rights delegation visit, the same, tired refrains are the same: homosexuality is a sin against God, an alleged western import, a danger to children, ad nauseum. To observers of the American Religious Right, the homophobic themes are all too familiar.

Lusimbo's speculation, if correct, suggests that the American Religious Right still has the ear of right-wing leaders in Uganda. American Religious Right figures such as Lou Engle and Scott Lively must take responsibility for their past endorsement of homophobia in Uganda. Moreover, all American Christian leaders must recognize the dangers of promoting homophobia at home and abroad.

Uganda's religious and political leaders must also reexamine their homophobia, recognizing that anti-gay sentiments are the real western imports into Africa. As political leaders and public servants, they are obligated to research the issues that their policies are intended to address. Open-minded research on their parts would show them that LGBTQ rights are human rights, that LGBTQ persons have existed in all eras and societies, and that gays and lesbians are not monsters. In the global struggle for LGBTQ equality, responsibility and knowledge are vital to overcoming bigotry.


For additional commentary, visit the following links.

Warren Throckmorton: Uganda Watch: David Bahati Vows to Press Ahead with His Anti-Gay Bill

O-blog-dee-o-blog-da: Ugandan anti-gay pastors hold hate rally next to gay hero David Kato's grave

Commentary Tidbits

Alternet: 7 Unhinged Right-Wing Responses to Connecticut Massacre

The Ramblings of Sheldon: Exposing the IFB: Micheal and Debi Pearl

Religion Dispatches: Everything Was Better When We Had God In Our Schools

Vice: I Spoke to the Author of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill
(Hat tip to Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

PBS News Hour Covers Ugandan Anti-Gay Bill

PBS News Hour recently covered Uganda's draconian anti-gay bill, and the role of American Religious Right figures such as Scott Lively in fomenting homophobia there. (Hat tip to Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters.)

Watch In Uganda, Gays Face Growing Social, Legal Hostility on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Sexual Minorities Uganda Sues Scott Lively

Scott Lively, founder of Abiding Truth Ministries and author of The Pink Swastika, is an American preacher with a long history of homophobic statements, as meticulously documented by Right Wing Watch and Box Turtle Bulletin. Lively is one of several U.S. Christian figures (i.e., Lou Engle) who have promoted anti-gay sentiments in Uganda, a situation discussed in a 2010 report by the Advocate. Human Rights Watch nominated Lively for its 2011 "Homophobia Hall of Shame" for his global activism against LGBT equality (more here). To boot, the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled Abiding Truth Ministries a hate group. This week, Lively's anti-gay activism just landed him in hot water.

On March 14th, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court against Scott Lively on behalf of Sexual Minorities Uganda. The suit alleges that Lively's anti-gay efforts in Uganda constitute persecution, making it the first known alien tort statute case related to persecution on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, according to the CCR. The New York Times reports that the lawsuit named four co-conspirators alongside Lively: Stephen Langa, the organizer of a 2009 anti-gay seminar in Uganda; Martin Ssempa, an anti-gay Ugandan preacher; David Bahati, the Ugandan MP behind a draconian anti-gay bill; and James Buturo, a proponent of the bill.

The New York Times reports that in 2009, Scott Lively, Caleb Lee Brundidge, and Don Schmierer of "ex-gay" group Exodus International participated in a conference on the "gay agenda" in Kampala, Uganda. The article reports that the three men presented talks on the alleged evils of the gay movement, the alleged sexual predations of gay men, and how to supposedly make homosexuals straight. (Lively posted a short report about the seminar here.) A month after the Kampala conference, Ugandan MP David Bahati introduced a draconian anti-gay bill in Uganda parliament, which drew fierce global criticism. According to Alan Colmes, Lively called Bahati's legislation "a step in the right direction". He also admitted that he helped start Uganda's so-called "pro-family" movement in an interview with Vanguard correspondent Mariana von Zeller.

Lively told World Net Daily that he was being targeted "for speaking the truth of the Bible in a foreign country." According to the article, Lively claimed that he urged Ugandan parliamentarians to focus on therapy rather than punishment for homosexuals, and that he opposed the death penalty provision in Bahati's bill. 

A pro-LGBT demonstration coincided with the suit against Lively. Truth Wins Out reports that on March 14th, pro-LGBT demonstrators performed a silent protest outside of Holy Grounds Coffee House in Springfield, Massachusetts, which Lively owns. John Becker of Truth Wins Out reports that some protesters carried signs with pictures of Ugandan hate crime victims, while others covered their faces to represent the silencing of LGBT people in Uganda.

This is intriguing news. Although the final outcome of Sexual Minorities Uganda v. Lively remains to be seen, it will still drawn attention to the activities of anti-gay U.S. preachers in Uganda. Whether it can be proven that Lively's international anti-gay activism constitutes persecution, this action nevertheless demands accountability for his words and actions.


To learn more about Lively and Abiding Truth Ministries, click here. For additional commentary, visit the following links.

Religion Dispatches: American Evangelist Who Sparked Anti-Gay Panic Sued By Ugandan Gay Rights Group

Box Turtle Bulletin: Lawsuit Filed Against Scott Lively For Instigating Anti-LGBT Persecution in Uganda

SPLC Hatewatch: Ugandan LGBT Group Sues Anti-Gay Activist Scott Lively

Making a Difference: OneFamilyOneVoice

For some time, the human rights community and progressive blogosphere have drawn attention to the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda. Crafted by Ugandan MP David Bahati and introduced to parliament in 2009, the bill proposes draconian penalties for same-sex sexual activity, "aiding and abetting homosexuality," and "promoting homosexuality." Furthermore, efforts by several American Religious Right figures to foment homophobia in Uganda provide an ominous backdrop to the situation. According to Reuters, Ugandan parliament struck down an attempt to reintroduce the bill last week, but some fear that the world has not seen the last of it. Fortunately, a new voice has emerged to condemn the anti-gay bill.

OneFamilyOneVoice is a new lobby group formed by Ugandan ex-patriots living in the U.S., according to the San Diego Gay and Lesbian News. According to the group's website, the mission of OneFamilyOneVoice is "to promote understanding about diversity in the human family and to raise awareness about needless crimes against humanity." The organization arose out of concern about the anti-gay bill and the perceived need for a clear voice from the Ugandan-American community.

OneFamilyOneVoice proposes three courses of action in response to the bill: (1) shed light on strategies to pass the anti-gay bill without the global community's knowledge, (2) work in cooperation with other groups to eliminate the bill and prevent the adoption of similar bills by other African countries, and (3) create a voice to empower and educate leaders about diversity. As the world watches Uganda, groups such as OneFamilyOneVoice will undoubtedly monitor the status of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill closely.

To learn more about OneFamilyOneVoice, click here.

News Tidbits

Pennlive: Gay-conversion therapy 'was constantly undermining my sense of self,' central Pa. man says

Orange County Register: Couple claims God wants us to beat our children

Christian Science Monitor: US judges rule for teacher who called creationism 'superstitious nonsense'

Daily Monitor: Ugandan Cabinet Drops Bahati’s Gay Bill

BBC News: Nigeria: Where religion is big business

The Advocate: Storm Aborts Pope's Antigay Speech

Pink News: Alliance Defense Fund may now intervene at ECHR as views sought on exemptions

American Independent: Parent group warns of ‘radical homosexual agenda’ in Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin schools

American Independent: Family Research Council decries government spending while affiliates take in millions

Texas Independent: Perry to co-chair gala for influential anti-abortion rights group

Florida Independent: Focus on the Family website praises Florida for accepting abstinence education dollars

Commentary Tidbits

Right Wing Watch: Rod Parsley Pulls Out A Bong And Dances Around In A Fat Suit

A Feather Adrift: What’s Rattling My Cage Today

CNN: Bible condemns a lot, so why focus on homosexuality?

LGBTQ Nation: ‘Deliverance from homosexuality:’ How an anti-gay ministry changed my life

Box Turtle Bulletin: “Kill The Gays” Bill Author Elevated In Ugandan “Family”

Ex-Gay Watch: Randy Thomas Leaves Exodus International

RH Reality Check: Conservative Christian Group Calls on Vitter To Resign (Yes, You Read That Right)

Media Matters: Asman Has Tyree On To Suggest That Opposition To Same Sex Marriage Is "Near And Dear To God's Heart"

Bahati and Lively Nominated for Homophobia Hall of Shame

On May 16th, Human Rights Watch announced that Ugandan MP David Bahati and American pastor Scott Lively were the top 2011 candidates for the Homophobia Hall of Shame. Given the role of both men in promoting homophobia in Uganda, this is unsurprising but welcome news.

To provide background, David Bahati authored a draconian anti-gay bill in Uganda which would mandate severe sanctions for same-sex sexual activity. In interviews with western journalists (including NPR and Rachel Maddow), Bahati has promoted the dangerous stereotype that gays and lesbians allegedly "recruit" minors into homosexuality.

As journalists, filmmakers, and bloggers have noted, several American evangelical leaders have either promoted homophobia in Uganda or maintained ties to homophobic Ugandan leaders, creating a heated cultural context for the anti-gay bill. Scott Lively, the author of The Pink Swastika who has a long history of homophobic rhetoric, was one of them. In 2009, Scott Lively, Caleb Lee Brundidge, and Don Schmierer (a board member of the "ex-gay" group Exodus International) spoke at an Ugandan conference on the "gay agenda", soon after which Bahati introduced his anti-gay bill. Lively claimed that the draconian bill was "a step in the right direction". In an interview with Vanguard correspondent Mariana von Zeller, Lively admitted that he helped start the so-called "pro-family" movement in Uganda, painting an ominous picture of LGBT people in the west.

Let's applaud Human Rights Watch for taking Bahati and Lively to task for promoting homophobia in Uganda, and for drawing attention to the global networks that promote anti-gay bigotry. Let's also applaud the advocates who promote equal rights and dignity for LGBT people worldwide.

News Tidbits

Pink Paper: Ugandan politician and US pastor up for Homophobia Hall of Fame

NineMSN: Australia: Gays, Christians clash at Adelaide rally

Edge Boston: Conservative Canadian Pol: Sexuality is a ’Choice’

Huffington Post: Glenn Beck Announces 'Restoring Courage' Rally in Jerusalem

American Independent: Focus on the Family trumpets anti-gay marriage push in New York

Demonstrators Protest National Prayer Breakfast and Mourn for David Kato

On Thursday, February 3rd, thousands of religious and political leaders from around the globe gathered in Washington D.C. for the annual National Prayer Breakfast. Sponsored by the Fellowship Foundation (also known as the Family) since 1953, the breakfast has featured high-powered keynote speakers such as Bono, Tony Blair, and Barack Obama.

The Family, a private Christian organization with ties to many conservative politicians, has come into the public spotlight after Jeff Sharlet published two books on the group, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power and C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy.

The Family reportedly has ties to Ugandan MP David Bahati, author of a draconian and controversial anti-gay bill currently under consideration in Uganda. Angry at the Family's reported support of Bahati and homophobia in Uganda, LGBT advocates demonstrated on the day of the National Prayer Breakfast. GetEqual organized the Breakfast Without Bigotry demonstration outside the Washington Hilton, drawing attention to the murder of Ugandan LGBT activist David Kato. According to the Washington Blade, demonstrators held signs that read “If Christians Kill Kato, They’ll Kill Me” and “David Kato: Brutally Loved to Death by Christian Missionaries.”

Similar LGBT prayer events and demonstrations took place in seventeen cities, according to the New York Times. The American Prayer Hour organized prayer gatherings across the U.S., calling for justice in Uganda and accountability from the Family for its alleged ties to the anti-gay bill there.

Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, a government watchdog organization, urged President Obama and congressional leaders not to attend the National Prayer Breakfast. Bishop Gene Robinson and Rev. John Vaugh of Auburn Theological Seminary also beseeched the president not to speak at the event. President Obama did speak at the prayer breakfast despite these pleas.

Below is a Metro Weekly video on the Breakfast Without Bigotry. (Click here if you're having trouble viewing the video.)




This amateur video shows Darryl Moch of InnerLight Ministries speaking at the demonstration. (Click here if you're having trouble viewing the video.)




To watch C-SPAN coverage of the National Prayer Breakfast, click here. For additional news and commentary, visit these links.

Washington Blade: LGBT Activists Protest National Prayer Breakfast

CNN: Gay Rights Advocates Question Obama's Prayer Breakfast Appearance

The Guardian: Is This Secretive Christian Group a Threat to U.S. Church/State Division?

Truth Wins Out: Religious Leaders Call on National Prayer Breakfast to Say Prayer in Honor of Slain Ugandan David Kato

Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Protests Loom Over National Prayer Breakfast

Politics Plus: Obama Was Wrong to Pray with Hatemongers

Rachel Maddow interviews Ugandan MP David Bahati

On the December 8th edition of The Rachel Maddow Show, Rachel Maddow interviewed David Bahati, the Ugandan MP who authored a proposed anti-gay bill. As progressive bloggers have documented, American fundamentalist leaders such as Lou Engle and Scott Lively have promoted anti-gay attitudes in Uganda, so the controversy surrounding the Ugandan bill also encompasses these figures.

In the full interview, Maddow confronted Bahati about a political group called "the Family", possible consequences of the bill, anti-gay rhetoric, and Ugandan newspapers that have outed gays. In my opinion, Maddow asked the hard questions, but Bahati came across as evasive. At many times in the interview, Bahati insisted that his proposed legislation is meant to protect children, and that he is not a hateful man. To watch the full 32 minute video, click here.

Commentary Tidbits

Main Street Plaza: What if Mormons ceased their anti-gay marriage political agenda?

The Gaytheist Agenda: Study Discovers What Should Be No-Brainer: LGBT Children with Accepting Parents Fare Better

The Liberal Agnostic Who Could: Conservative Faith and the Literate Female

RH Reality Check: Expect More "Action" From Live Action Come 2011

Amanda Hess: Meet LeRoy Carhart's anti-abortion protesters

Extremities: Innumerate Inerrancy

An Apostate's Chapel: Evangelistic Ethics

Truth Wins Out: MSNBC Interview: Uganda’s Kill-the-Gays Emperor Has No Clothes

Good as You: FRC to launch responsibility-shirking 'Start Debating, Stop Hating' campaign

Talk to Action: The Prophecy/Conspiracy Genre - Using End Times Prophecy to Mainstream New World Order Narratives, Part I and Part II

Right Wing Watch: Glenn Beck: Irresponsible And Indifferent To The Violent Consequences of His Dangerous Rhetoric

Right Wing Watch: IHOP: Preparing Thousands of Students For the End of the World

Right Wing Watch: Liberty Counsel: DADT Keeps "Moral Perverts" Out Of The Armed Services

Media Matters: On Fox & Friends, Perkins claims he's not "anti-gay" while promoting "research" that says "homosexual behavior is harmful"

Spewing Truth in the Face of Lifes: Reading: Wendell Potter's "Deadly Spin" and How it Relates to NOM

Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Religious Right Doesn't Want LGBT Children to Have Parental Support

(Hat tip to the DV8 for the last link.)