The UK gay humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT) – owner of this blog – says it’s appalled to learn that Uganda’s new parliament is expected to debate the notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
The Anti-Homosexuality Bill was first introduced as a private member’s bill by MP David Bahati in October 2009. Bahati is an evangelical Christian and a member of the Fellowship Foundation, also known as the Family, a US-based Christian and political organisation which arranges the annual prestigious National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.
If enacted, the bill would greatly broaden the criminalisation of homosexuality by introducing the death penalty for people who have previous convictions, are HIV-positive, or engage in same-sex acts with people under 18 years of age. The bill also includes provisions for Ugandans who engage in same-sex sexual relations outside of Uganda, asserting that they may be extradited for punishment back to Uganda, and includes penalties for individuals, companies, media organisations, or non-governmental organisations that support LGBT rights.
The PTT’s secretary, George Broadhead, said: “We are appalled that after such a long time this heinous piece of legislation may still become law. Much of the homophobic bigotry which is rife in Uganda and other African countries emanates from religious sources, including US evangelical Christians.
“It certainly emanates from the Anglican Church of Uganda which states on its website [PDF]: ‘The Church of Uganda appreciates the spirit of the Bill’s objective of protecting the family, especially in light of a growing propaganda to influence younger people to accept homosexuality as a legitimate way of expressing human sexuality. We particularly appreciate the objectives of the Bill which seek to: provide for marriage in Uganda as contracted only between a man and woman; prohibit and penalize homosexual behaviour and related practices in Uganda as they constitute a threat to the traditional family; prohibit ratification of any international treaties, conventions, protocols, agreements and declarations which are contrary or inconsistent with the provisions of the Act; prohibit the licensing of organizations which promote homosexuality.’
“Unfortunately,” Broadhead continues, “the vast majority of the population are Christian and clearly greatly influenced by these malign Bible-based policies.”
2 comments:
Never mind more polite but futile letters to MPs and the Ugandan Embassy, time to hit the problem at the source. We should be absolutely hounding the churches in the UK over this, and accepting no weak excuses this time. We have a Ugandan born Archbishop of York, who was allowed to wriggle off the hook the last time this came up. We have numerous evangelical charities begging for funds to do 'community' and 'education' work in Uganda, who should be relentlessly questioned about both the policies in their schools and 'community projects' (one shudders to think what goes on, considering the neanderthal views on race, gender and sexuality held in the sponsoring churches) and also possible links to The Family. Look to your local newspapers, because these sick parasites are forever feeding them stories about their 'charitable work', and are never asked to explain what they actually do, and what effect it has. Time for all that to stop. From this point on I have decided that every time any church or charity mentions Uganda or other homophobic countries in the local paper I write to demand they either give cast iron guarantees they are not part of the problem or surrender their charitable status. I hope others will do the same. At a local level there is much we could achieve instead of feeling this is a 'far away' problem we can only wring our hands over.
The bastards just don't give up, do they? All those millions of evolution, what a waste, if this is what we manage to come up with.
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