The legislature of Uganda is poised to pass what the main stream media is calling an “anti-homosexuality bill” (text here [PDF]). I don’t think the words “anti-homosexuality” even begin to describe this bill. This bill is quite possibly the most vile, putrid distillation of hate to be transcribed as law in recent human history.
Here are some of the basics I’ve been able to glean from a cursory reading of the bill:
- Having any sort of sexual encounter with a member of the same sex would be punished by lifelong imprisonment.
- Knowing someone who is gay and not turning them in will be punished with 7 years imprisonment.
- Providing a safe house or safe harbor to an LGBT person will be punished with 7 years imprisonment.
- HIV and AIDS prevention organizations would be banned.
- Tweeting a link to a pro-gay website (like this blog) would be punished with 7 years in prison (as it would constitute “promotion of homosexuality”).
- Officiating a commitment ceremony for a same-sex couple will be punished with life in prison.
- A Ugandan man working on a green card in the U.S. and living with his boyfriend can be prosecuted and extradited to face live in prison.
Many offenses listed are punishable by death. At the outset, these portions of the law look more “reasonable”, until one realizes how they will inevitably be twisted:
- An 18 year old boy in a relationship with a 16 year old boy could be executed.
- A female supervisor having a relationship with a woman who works for her can be executed.
- Having any sort of sexual contact with someone of the same sex while infected with HIV will be punishable by death (even if both persons are HIV-positive, or using protection, on prophylactics, etc).
What is even more sickening to me, is that this codex of hatred likely owes its existence to hostility exported from right here in the U.S.A. The US-based extremist group “College of Prayer” and other noted evangelicals like Rick Warren have spent the last few years exporting pseudo-science, anti-gay “third wave” propaganda and Christian supremacist ideology to Uganda.
As I read – on a frighteningly frequent basis – accounts of Dominionist Christian interference in government, two alarming things have come to my attention:
- The leaders of this movement are extremely well-funded and positioned.
- The “core issues” these Dominionists care about almost inevitably involve the infringement of the basic human rights of other people groups.
They often attempt to hide these facts behind lies, obfuscation and cries of “religious oppression”, but the fact that their leaders refuse to condemn an infringement on basic human rights and decency as immense as this one gives the lie to their true goals. In time, I truly believe that the word “Evangelical” will hold the same weight and terrifying connotations in other parts of the world that the word “Taliban” holds here in the U.S.
As a former Christian, I am disconsolate that the religion of love and peace that I learned as a child has been so skewed and twisted. What happened to the Beatitudes? What happened to “God is Love”? Where is the Golden Rule, and the concept of “do unto the least of these”? It is as if every redeeming quality of the Christian Faith has been lost in the burning desire to beat the twisted dogmas of these wannabe Hitlers into every living person.
Somewhere along the way, I stopped feeling guilt for leaving the faith – stopped worrying about being wrong about my logic. Now, for the first time in my life, I find myself fearing “god’s children” and abhorring what they’re “teaching”.
If you’d like to find more information on the U.S. Government’s response to this bill, click here for the Council for Global Equality website.
To read the HRC Back Story post on the bill, and their protest at the Ugandan Embassy, click here.
For less political, but possibly equally important coverage of the issue, check out Perez Hilton’s post.
To send a letter to Congress asking for their help in stopping this assault on human rights, click here.
Additionally, see the comments on this post for follow-up information.
