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Uganda’s Daily Monitor: All Ugandans Should Fear Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Jim Burroway

October 18th, 2009

While the three American anti-gay activist and Exodus International are either too cowardly or callous to speak out against the latest proposed Anti-Homosexuality bill before Uganda’s Parliament, the opposition newspaper The Daily Monitor today raises its voice on behalf of the defenseless. Everyone in Uganda well knows the abject terror of the nighttime knock on the door, and The Monitor reminds all of us of the legacy behind Uganda’s latest drive to add the death penalty for homosexuality:

Do you know the fear which arrives with the knock on the door in the middle of the night? If you were an outspoken opponent of any government from 1962 until today you felt it even if it never happened to you. Do you know the terror of women who lived through the civil war in Luweero or LRA atrocities in the north? They went out every day knowing they faced rape and murder, suffering because they were women.

If you are a gay man or woman living in Uganda today, then you carry the same burden of persecution for your identity. You risk death or torture or public humiliation at the hands of a community blinded by hate and religious dogma. Your plight is about to worsen, since another bill making you illegal will soon pass into law.

Gay people are not the only ones who should fear the new bill criminalising homosexuality. Measures which make who you are a crime are easy to manipulate. It’s easy to persecute gay people in Uganda because they are a very small group which has no political or mainstream social support.

If you think those two groups deserve what they get, then recall the days not so long ago when you felt unfairly targeted for what you are. The last 47 years were not kind to many of us. So it is astonishing that we seem to have learned nothing about the importance of diversity to stability and development.

Uganda’s latest bid to terrorize that country’s LGBT citizens is being facilitated by the conspiracy of silence from Exodus board member Don Schmierer, Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, and the International Healing Founation’s Caleb Brundidge. It was their three-day anti-gay conference in Kampala last March which started this mess. But with Uganda’s bloody history during the Idi Amin era, the current reign of terror by with the Lord’s Resistance Army, and the government’s ongoing repressive policies pitting one ethnic group against another (policies which led to widespread riots on Kampala last month), these three Americans are feeding at the trough of a long and troubling legacy. After nine months, their silence can mean only one thing: assent. Bloody assent. Very soon, the bloodstains will no longer wash off.


BTB’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda:
Nov 14: Anglican’s Communion’s Tangled Ties To Uganda’s Anti-Gay Extremists
Nov 11: Nigerian calls on Anglican Communion to oppose Ugandan “Kill Gays” bill
Nov 9: Uganda’s Most Wanted
Nov 9: Uganda’s “Kill Gays” bill is “Providing Leadership to the World”
Nov 9: More American Evangelical Ties To Uganda’s Anti-Gay Politicians
Nov 7: The “Biblical” Worldwide Anglican Communion
Nov 6: Australian Senate Refuses to Oppose Uganda’s “Kill Gays” Bill
Nov 6: Uganda Women’s Group: “Kill the Gays”
Nov 2: Throckmorton Appeals to Ugandan Christians
Nov 2: US Reps Condemn Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Nov 2: Uganda Parliament Committee, Religious Leaders Weigh Death Penalty for LGBT People
Oct 28: Uganda Religious Leaders All Calling for Anti-Gay Bill… But Maybe Not Death
Oct 28: A Call for Christian Action in Uganda — A Time to Show the Love
Oct 23: Uganda Civil Rights Coalition Denounces Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Oct 22: Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill Put Off Until 2010
Oct 18: Take Action: Tell Uganda To Respect Human Rights And Dismiss the Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Oct 17: Uganda’s Daily Monitor: All Ugandans Should Fear Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Oct 16: Does Exodus Support Criminalizing Homosexuality?
Oct 15: Human Rights Watch, Sexual Minorities Uganda Condemn Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Oct 15: Here It Is: The Text of Uganda’s Proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Oct 14: Uganda Parliament Takes Up Anti-Gay Bill Adding Death Sentence and Bans on Free Speech”
Sep 15: Draft Anti-Gay Bill Circulating In Uganda
Jul 26: Uganda Parliament To Take Up Bill Banning LGBT Free Speech
Jul 6: Sports Figure Latest Victim Of Ugandan Anti-Gay Offensive
Jul 3: Uganda May Ban All LGBT Advocacy
Jun 1: Nazi Comparisons
May 14: Uganda’s Anti-Gay Campaign Snares LGBT People and Rival Pastors, Tabloid Promises More “Outings”
May 4: Uganda Gays Arrested, Blackmail Attempts Reported
Apr 24: Uganda Anti-Gay Activists March, “Storm Parliament”
Apr 20: Alan Chambers Addresses Developments In Uganda
Apr 19: Uganda’s Anti-Gay Vigilante Campaign Is Now In Full Swing
Apr 17: Uganda Government Attacks Human Rights Groups for “Promoting Homosexuality”
Apr 10: Uganda Columnist: “Happy Easter …Irrespective of Sexual Orientation”
Apr 6: Uganda Press Crank Up “Predator” Rhetoric
Apr 3: Uganda to Ban LGBT Advocacy?
Apr 2: Exodus Maintains Month-Long Silence Amid Ugandan Gov’t Calls For LGBT Arrests
Apr 2: Press Release from Ugandan LGBT Advocacy Group
Mar 31: Forced Outings Continue As Uganda LGBT Advocates Allege Oundo Is In It For The Money
Mar 31: Uganda Activist Cites Disbarred “Therapist” As Authority on Homosexuality
Mar 30: Uganda Situation Continues To Deteriorate; Exodus Washes Their Hands
Mar 27: Videos Surface of Ugandan Activist Stirring Anti-Gay Fervor; Fears of Violence Grows
Mar 26: Ugandan Gov’t Poised to Take “Stern Action” Against Gays
Mar 26: The “Ex-Gay” Star of the Uganda Anti-Gay Campaign
Mar 25: More on Uganda Anti-Gay Vigilante Incitement
Mar 25: Another Anti-Gay Vigilante Campaign May Have Begun In Uganda
Mar 23: Schmierer’s & Lively’s Uganda Talks Continue to Reverberate
Mar 17: Lively Defends Forced Therapy Proposal
Mar 16: Commentary: When Good Men Do Nothing
Mar 13: Sanctimony Alert
Mar 13: Scott Lively and Alan Chambers Respond to Questions About Uganda Conference
Mar 13: Exodus Applauds Schmierer’s Part in Uganda Conference
Mar 12: South African LGBT Advocates Condemn Exodus
Mar 12: Ex-Exodus Minister Condemns Uganda Conference
Mar 12: Ugandan Conference Leaders Call For Another Meeting While Pushing Pedophilia Theme; Exodus Continues Silence
Mar 11: Open Letter To the Exodus International Board of Directors
Mar 10: Scott Lively: The Gay Agenda Is “To Turn The Whole World Gay”
Mar 9: Exodus Removes Link To Scott Lively From Its Web Site
Mar 9: EU Group Condemns Ugandan Conference
Mar 8: Uganda Anti-Gay Conference: Day Three — Gays Blamed For Rwandan Genocide & Pedophilia; More Exodus Ties To Holocaust Revisionism
Mar 6: Uganda Anti-Gay Conference: Day Two
Mar 6: Exodus’ Silence About Uganda: Day Five
Mar 6: Exodus Board Member Participates In Uganda Conference Calling For Forcing Gays Into Conversion Therapy
Mar 5: Anti-Gay Conference Kicks Off In Kampala
Mar 5: Warren Throckmorton Speaks Out Against Uganda Conference
Mar 5: International LGBT Group Expresses Concern About Uganda Conference
Mar 2: Anonymous Ugandan Blogger Wants Answers From American Anti-Gay Activists
Feb 24: Exodus Board Member Joins Nazi Revisionist At Uganda Conference

Comments

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KZ
October 18th, 2009 | LINK

Scott Lively’s had blood on his hands for a long time. God only knows how many thugs his “Pink Swastika” and Watchmen on the Walls group have inspired to beat and kill LGBTs.

GreenEyedLilo
October 18th, 2009 | LINK

Oh, wow. The entire Daily Monitor staff is brave in ways that put most of us Americans to shame. Thank you.

Rebecca
October 18th, 2009 | LINK

Good on them.

werdna
October 19th, 2009 | LINK

Very good news that this sort of criticism is actually being articulated in Uganda.

For those who want to help, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission has issued an action alert:

http://www.iglhrc.org/cgi-bin/iowa/article/takeaction/globalactionalerts/989.html

johnozed
October 19th, 2009 | LINK

Stay strong Daily Mirror!

johnozed
October 19th, 2009 | LINK

Stay strong Daily Monitor (please delete previous entry)

SharonB
October 19th, 2009 | LINK

My guess is that political opponents and rival church leaders will turn on each other with these new anti-gay laws in less than a month. False (?) accusations of gay activity will abound. Too big a cudgel to not swing in a loving kristian way at your enemies. They have already done this with the first round of of the pogrom. Serves them right; reaping what they sow & etc.

It is a dreadful shame that so many innocent GLBT people will get swept up in this great evil.

About the purveyors when they get hoist on their own petard? I shed nary a tear.

selecta A
November 11th, 2009 | LINK

If we encourage the homosexuality,how shall we produce?.It is a sin for both Christians and Muslims so let gays find their own world.

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