Uganda Anti-Gay Conference: Day Three — Gays Blamed For Rwandan Genocide & Pedophilia; More Exodus Ties To Holocaust Revisionism

Jim Burroway

March 8th, 2009

Extensive Updates (March 9): Those who read this post yesterday are urged to read it again today. We have more details about Lively’s comments at the conference, namely his claim which equate homosexuality with pedophilia, as well as conference leaders’ views on Ugandan law which currently provides for a life sentence on conviction of homosexual acts.  Those details have been added below.

According to anonymous blogger GayUganda — as we said, Ugandan gay bloggers need to remain anonymous for their own safety — American Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively provided the much-anticipated red meat on day three of the anti-gay conference taking place in Kampala.

On Saturday, Lively repeated his discredited historical revisionist theory in which he claims that the cornerstone of  Germany’s Nazi lies firmly in the gay movement, and that the gay movement today, if left unchecked, will result in a similarly murderous fascism wherever it goes. In Kampala, he went further by expanding his examples of what he calls homosexuals’ murderous impulse by blaming the 1994 Rwanda genocide on gay men.

Lively is one of three Americans speaking at that conference, along with Exodus International board member Don Schmierer, and a relative unknown Caleb Lee Brundidge, of Richard Cohen’s International Healing Foundation. Brudidge is also a member of Phoenix-based Extreme Prophetic ministries, where he goes around to area mortuaries trying to raise the dead. On the second day of the conference, leaders called for a new Ugandan law mandating ex-gay therapy for convicted gay men and women, in  addition to the current maximum life sentence upon conviction of of homosexuality.

Scott Lively’s Pink Swastika
To understand Lively’s demented assertions, it’s important to read his book, The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, In it, he contends that “the Nazi Party was entirely controlled by militaristic male homosexuals throughout its short history.” A brief outline of his book is presented on the LeadershipU web site. His book is also available for free online in its entirety, and it was also offered for sale at the Uganda conference, with Lively referring to it throughout his talk.

The essence of Lively’s thesis is this: The Nazi party’s idealized view of masculinity was a significant draw to “butch” homosexuals. He cites as his principle evidence the rumored homosexuality of Ernst Roehm, the leader of the early Nazi paramilitary group known as the Brownshirts. Lively claims the Brownshirts trace their origins to the Wandervogel youth movements, which he says was “dominated and controlled by the pederasts… and its leadership was rife with homosexuality.” Lively also claims that Adolph Hitler was probably gay and a homosexual prostitute while in Vienna (the unsubstantiated phrases like “probably homosexual,” “almost certainly homosexual”, “may well have been homosexual,” and “it is assumed” pop up with astonishing regularity in his book) — while elsewhere say Lively concludes that Hitler was “probably not” gay. But in either case, he concluded that Hitler “knowingly and intentionally surrounded himself with practicing homosexuals from his youth.”

Lively adds that “There is no question that homosexuality figures prominently in the history of the Holocaust,” saying that German gays were eager to target Jews for extinction because of Judaism’s traditional prohibition against homosexuality. He doesn’t explain why Christianity’s traditional prohibition against homosexuality — which held a far greater moral influence throughout Europe — was ignored.

As for the estimated 15,000 gay men who were sent to concentration camps under Germany’s notorious Paragraph 175, Lively contends that the Nazis almost never used the law against actual gay men (the law was silent on lesbians), claiming that most of those who were convicted weren’t gay, but political enemies. Or if they were gay, then it was because they were effeminate. He writes, “There is evidence to suggest that only the effeminate homosexuals were mistreated under the Nazi regime — and usually at the hands of masculine homosexuals.” In fact, Lively is very fascinated by what he considers “the enduring Butch/Femme conflict among German homosexuals.”

The very few historians who have bothered to take his book seriously have dismissed it out of hand. They point out that most of Lively’s source material comes from Nazi political opponents, and that it was a common practice in Germany’s political culture to charge that one’s political opponents were overrun by homosexuals. Before coming to power, Nazis themselves used this tactics against the Wiemar Republic as well as against their Bolshevik and Socialist opponents. And they weren’t alone. Social Democrats, Conservatives, Bolsheviks, Socialists, Liberals and Centrists all used the same charges against the Nazis, as well as against each other, often with little or no reality behind the charges.

Lively however used only one set of those charges — those against the Nazis — and ignored the political context to maintain that the Nazis were overrun with homosexuals, specifically “Butch” gay men. He only raises the specter of “baseless charges” when discussing the evidence that the Nazis themselves persecuted gays throughout their reign of terror.

Lively’s book also goes beyond Nazi Germany, claiming that Nazis’ murderous tendencies wasn’t an aberration of homosexuals’ power, but a natural consequence of it. “From the ashes of Nazi Germany,” he writes, “the homo-fascist Phoenix has arisen again — this time in the United States.” He claims that “eight of the top ten serial killers in the United States were homosexual, and that homosexuals were responsible for 68% of all mass murders.”

Macho Gay Men and the Rwandan Genocide
Lively has a way of throwing red meat to the crowd wherever he speaks. When he spoke in Novosibirsk, Russia in 2007, Lively excused the murder of Satendar Singh in Sacramento, a 19-year-old gay Fiji man who was murdered by Russian immigrants. The Russian audience broke into cheers and applause as Lively described Singh’s murder.

At his talk in Uganda, Lively added a new twist, blaming the 1994 Rwanda genocide on gay men.The anonymous blogger GayUganda attended the conference and listened in horror:

He [Lively] is a Conspiration Theorist. A person who forms a theory on causation, and then goes ahead to wrap all perception of his world around that theory. His theory explains all perceptions. Whether it is the gay agenda wrapped in the Nazi supremacy, or the macho gay men who caused the Rwanda Genocide. Anything that seems to question his theory is attacked, dismissed, irrelevant. And, if you dont believe him, you are of a reprobate mind, or you are a closet homosexual following the Homosexual agenda.

No. I am not joking. (I wish I was)

Gays and Pedophilia
The Rwandan Genocide wasn’t the only red meat that Lively threw out at the conference. A blogger with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) reports:

The gay movement has capitalized on teenagers with same-sex attraction, sending messages urging them to act on their impulses. Teenagers indulge in sex and then they get hooked.

Equating homosexuality with pedophilia, Lively argued that there is a whole network trying to keep young people in the movement, including “predatory homosexuals who are always out to satisfy their sexual desires.”

This is very much in line with the charges that local Ugandan anti-gay extremists have made during previous acts of anti-gay vigilantism, when private LGBT Ugandan citizens were identified in the media with calls for their arrest or worse. When people like Scott Lively make claims like this, it goes straight to the worst fears that uninformed people have about gay people, despite the fact that social-science research clearly demonstrates gays are no more likely to molest children than straights.

But this slander has been effective in Uganda, forming one principle foundation for much of the public anti-gay vigilantism that Uganda has witnessed over the past several years. Stephen Langa, of Kampala-based Family Life Network and organizer of the conference, was quoted as far back as 2004 as saying:

FLN has also found out that homosexuality and lesbianism are spreading like wild fire in schools,” Langa said.  “There is rape inside schools and sex among students themselves. We have also found incest and cases of teachers molesting children and a lot of abortions,” he added.  Much of the promiscuity is germinating from viewing pornography in the media and the Internet and blue movies.  “If nothing is done to address the present state of affairs, the present generation of parents will find themselves having to bury their children instead of their children burying them,” Langa stressed.

Conference leaders and Ugandan Law
Lively was asked about the current state of Ugandan law, which provides for a life sentence for homosexuality. Lively reportedly approved of the existing law, and endorsed adding a provision mandating forcing convicted gay men and women into ex-gay therapy. Conference speakers had called for such a law on the second day of the conference.

According to another report, Lively made the utterly unsupported claim that until “the gays took over the clinics” there were very effective treatments for homosexuality. In fact, there has never been any independent evidence based on long-term followup reviews to suggest that attempts to change sexual orientation have ever been “very effective,” or even anything more than minimally so.

Another report had this comment on the conference participants view of Ugandan law:

At the end of the day, all the international presenters at the seminar commended Ugandans for taking a strong stand against homosexuality through their constitution, which criminalizes homosexuality, as well as through efforts like conferences that encourage parents and concerned citizens to come up with strategies against homosexuality.

Adding more fuel to the fire, GayUganda had earlier noticed that this apparent press release was posted on The Earth Times:

Kampala Anti-gay activists in Uganda Saturday formed a pressure group to discourage homosexuality, following a two-day conference of religious leaders, teachers and social workers in the capital Kampala.

The group, to be called the Anti-Gay Task Force, is intended to “fight against the spread of homosexuality and lesbianism in the country,” spokesman for the group Stephen Langa told reporters. Same sex-relationships and marriages are illegal in Uganda, and human rights groups have criticized the government for harassing homosexuals.

The task-force said that it would one day “wipe out” gay practices in the African state.

Ugandan newspaper headlines in 2007. Click to enlarge.

Ugandan newspaper headlines in 2007. Click to enlarge.

The task force to “‘wipe out’ gay practices” was discussed again at the conference on Saturday, and conference organizers have called for a followup meeting in Kampala on March 15.

The threat to “‘wipe out’ gay practices” is not an idle threat in a nation that provides a life sentence for those convicted of homosexuality. Further, Uganda witnessed at least three separate campaigns of government sanctioned and media-led vigilantism between 2005 and 2007. The last spate of violence was sparked by a press conference of LGBT leaders calling on the nation to simply allow gays and lesbians to live in peace. The LGBT leaders at that press conference wore face masks out of fear of being identified.

This conference poses a very dangerous development in a country with such a volatile history in how it treats gays and lesbians.

Exodus Board member Don Schmierer, a speaker at the conference in Kampala

Exodus Board member Don Schmierer, one of three American speakers at the Kampala conference.

Exodus International’s Links To Scott Lively
This is the volatile environment that Exodus Board member Don Schmierer decided to join. Schmierer, who spoke during the first two days of the conference, is arguably most qualified person at the conference to speak on the ethics of forced conversions and criminalization of homosexuality. Media reports in Uganda and elsewhere have consistently identified him as being a member of Exodus’ board, and so when he speaks and acts, it is seen as being on behalf of Exodus International.

Schmierer’s participation at that conference, absent any other statement from Exodus’ board and leadership, appears to constitute at least an implicit endorsement of that policy, if not overt endorsement. It has been nine days since we contacted Exodus International President Alan Chambers to ask for a statement on Schmierer’s participation. We know Alan Chambers received our email because two days later he replied with a very brief and insubstantial off-the-record email. He has yet to offer any explanation for Schmierer’s actions or Exodus policy on the record.

Schmierer isn’t the only link between Exodus International and Scott Lively. In fact, there’s a literal one right there on Exodus’ web site. Exodus International maintains an extensive library of online articles. In the Exodus library, under the topic of “society”, the Exodus web page maintains a link to Scott Lively’s LeadershipU post based on “The Pink Swastika.” The link from Exodus contains this blurb:

Homosexuality and the Nazi Party
The pink triangle, symbol of the “gay rights” movement, is familiar to many Americans. As the badge used by the Nazis to designate homosexuals in the concentration camps, the pink triangle perfectly expresses the message of “gay rights.”

Exodus website featuring Scott Lively's article, "Homosexuality and the Nazi Party" (excerpt highlighted, click to enlarge)

With such a direct link to Lively’s article on the Exodus International web site, Exodus gives its endorsement to Lively’s discredited historical theories. That approval is strengthened with the Exodus board member’s participation alongside Lively in Uganda, as they call for forced conversions and blame the Rwandan massacre on gay men. This is particularly dangerous in an environment where gays and lesbians have been hunted, tortured, and forced into hiding during several spates of officially-sanctioned and media-led vigilantism — the very same dynamics, ironically, which led to the Rwandan genocide.

Click here to see BTB’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.

Ken Allen

March 8th, 2009

I would suggest that these clearly uninformed hate mongers are simply following their unconscious reaction formation. As described by the psychoanalysts, individuals with deep hatred for their own homosexuality are typical the most vocal and hateful promoters of anti-gay rhetoric. So, what you are reading about is psychopathology in all its dysfunctionality. Not that we want the likes of these individuals in our brotherhood, at least we know they are tortured souls.

John

March 8th, 2009

These men have done exactly what they accuse us of doing: embraced evil and called it good. They may think they are following God with their actions, but instead are fast becoming the very abomination they mistakenly believe we are.

L. Junius Brutus

March 8th, 2009

Lively: Gays are responsible for all the wars and genocides in the world.

No sensible person would believe this. Unfortunately, conservative Christians will believe anything they hear – if it’s in line with their numerous prejudices and hatreds. It looks like it’s our turn to be the main target of their hatred – after the “Christ-killers” and the “Children of Ham”.

Really, if you want to see how people who commit genocide act when they’re not in power, I don’t think we should look any further than Lively – a thoroughly despicable person.

John

March 8th, 2009

I guess if Lively ever goes to Armenia or Southeast Asia, he will blame the Armenia Genocide on gay Turks and the Cambodian genocide on gay Cambodians.

There is something very queer about this Lively obsession with “macho” or “butch” gay men. Very much in the LaBarbera vein, just much more creapy and way more violent.

John

March 8th, 2009

Oh, I forgot. This guy is in Uganda (a neighbor of Sudan) and he passed up the chance to blame the Darfur genocide on gay Sudanese. I guess he is too afraid the the Sudanese in Uganda to push that particular button.

Lynn David

March 8th, 2009

Exodus perhaps should have gotten rid of Schmierer before this incident. According to his LinkedIn profile Don Schmierer is a “Program Officer” at Fieldstead & Company.

According to their website, “Fieldstead is a private company that manages the assets of the Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. family. Among other things, one of the functions of Fieldstead & Company is to help manage the family’s various philanthropic programs as part of a Christian worldview.

Ahmanson was a lifelong associate of R. J. Rushdoony and served on the board of the Chalcedon Foundation as well as supporting it financially. Together Rushdoony and Ahmanson have given new impetus to the modern Christian Reconstructionist or Dominionist movement. Ahmanson has appeared to ameliorate his own ultra-right wing views when even some republicans returned his donations to their campaigns. Ahmanson is reported to have never been for the death penalty for homosexuals like Rushdoony but he’s probably not far from it. And Fieldstead is reported to have given just shy of $1 million to the “Yes on (H)8” campaign. See Wikipedia for the biblography on these assertions.

If not before it is rather obvious now that Exodus is completely at odds with letting gay peoples live with any sense of dignity whether that be in Africa or the United States. There is this man Schmeirer on their board, who represents those who would create laws like that of Uganda and worse here in America, Chambers has spoken at “Value Voters” gatherings against us, and they all speak lies about laws such as ENDA. It’s time to take the gloves off, we’re in a fight that we must win for our ourselves and those who follow us.

Scott

March 8th, 2009

“Ahmanson is reported to have never been for the death penalty for homosexuals like Rushdoony”

Let’s not stop with Rushdoony.

There was a GROUP of people pushing for the execution of all American gay people in the early 80’s, featuring some “godly” folks running the most well-known “christian” organizations today.

Of course it was led by the “Moral Majority” group, with dead glutton Jerry Falwell. James Dobson, Rushdoony, Phyllis Schlafly, lady Tony Perkins, and Beverly and Tim LaHaye.

If gay “leaders” want to do something worthwhile for once while debating one of these punks on TV, why not bring up their participation of failed forced executions next time. If they can bring up 80’s fiction books like “After The Ball”, it’s fair game to bring up their evildoings in the 1980’s too.

Gays are B.E.Y.O.N.D. S.T.U.P.I.D. to let this fact sit on the backburner.

Timothy Kincaid

March 9th, 2009

Lynn David

In total, Fieldstead & Co. gave $1,395,000 to support Proposition 8.

Benjamin

March 9th, 2009

Exodus is in a country where they can let all of their pent up hatred toward LGBT people and our lives out in the wide open. Let them continue to do this and then virtually everything they are doing and saying needs to be exposed in the wide open for the National and International Media to see. This will further erode their credibility much more than anything else they have done by far. Then they will really be looked on as crazed hateful lunatics by the U.S. and other free nations.

Timothy Kincaid

March 9th, 2009

Scott,

There was a GROUP of people pushing for the execution of all American gay people in the early 80’s, featuring some “godly” folks running the most well-known “christian” organizations today.

Of course it was led by the “Moral Majority” group, with dead glutton Jerry Falwell. James Dobson, Rushdoony, Phyllis Schlafly, lady Tony Perkins, and Beverly and Tim LaHaye.

Please provide evidence to back up this accusation. To the best of my knowledge, this is flatly false.

Scott

March 9th, 2009

Timothy,

I’ll get back with you on that one, but I can’t stay long at the moment.

Until then, bits and pieces of what I’m referring to can be seen/heard on this YouTube video (I wish I knew the original source, containing the entire Moral Majority rep discussing “executing homosexuals” – and I will search around for it):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfN7i3tOguI

Also, Alvin over @ Holy Bullies can fill you in as well.

Joel

March 10th, 2009

” He claims that “eight of the top ten serial killers in the United States were homosexual, and that homosexuals were responsible for 68% of all mass murders.””

… where does he get this source.
Ok so know we understand that to be gay means that one must have been initially disturbed/disordered.

Would also like to know if there’s any logical or factual arguments against this.

Scott

March 11th, 2009

Joel,

I can tell you right now, Scott Lively is lying about THAT one. I LOVE True Crime and forensics, and have read countless books over the years.

John Wayne Gacy molested a boy during his first marriage. After jail time, he remarried, and killed approx 33 young men and boys. Married, straight = heterosexual. To his death, Gacy asserted his heterosexuality.

Jeffrey Dahmer and his father, Lionel, believe “homosexuality is detestable”. However, Dahmer pursued homosexual encounters, and killed approx 17 men between 1978-1991. Dahmer became “born again” before he was killed in prison.

Wayne Bertram Williams was accused of killing 29 or more girls, boys and young adults between the late 70’s and early 80’s in Atlanta. His sexuality has never really been covered.

These 3 are probably the worst serial killers in American history. No homos here.

keri keenan-tasker

October 26th, 2009

WOW. I have a hard time believing that some people listen to that guy! how is it that most of the world is so stupid? I am going to call for a congressional investigation into the group known as “the family”, a religious group or senators who have acted as enablers in this situation, and I hope that everyone who reads this post will do so as well. Please write your congresspeople! it is inappropriate for people who have the seal of the united states as their professional standard to encourage this blatant discrimination and hatred.

DWAYNE KING

October 27th, 2009

WHAT A TRULY INSANE AND HATE FILLED WORLD WE LIVE IN!

IN “MAINSTREAM” CHRISTIANITY HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT A GREATER SIN THAN ANYTHING ELSE, -ADULTERY,FORNICATION ETC.

IT NEED NOT BE PUT IN A SPECIAL CATEGORY OF SIN!

LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR, DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU, THOU SHALL NOT JUDGE, WHOEVER AMONG YOU HERE IS WITHOUT SIN CAST THE FIRST STONE, ETC.

WHY DON’T PEOPLE FOCUS ON THEIR OWN “SHORTCOMINGS” AND DO SOMETHING TO BECOME BETTER MORE HUMANE COMPASSIONATE HUMAN BEINGS!

WE ALL WILL BE JUDGED SOMEDAY, WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND AS THE SAYING GOES!

ALL HAVE FALLEN SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD!

GOD BLESS!

Wet Blanket

March 5th, 2010

The current (older) generation in Uganda IS already burying their children instead of vice-versa, due to the AIDS pandemic. Is Stephen Langa blind? 12 year old heads of families, grandparents who should be resting bringing up their grand children, what is he doing to help these instead of persecuting people whose orientation is different to his own?

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