Box Turtle Bulletin

Illinois Republican Party disavows Martin

From the Chicago Sun-Times

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Patrick Brady blasted Martin and the ad, saying, “The Illinois Republican Party disavows the statements made today by Mr. Andrew Martin in his statewide radio advertisements. His statements today are consistent with his history of bizarre behavior and often times hate-filled speech which has no place in the Illinois Republican Party. Mr. Martin will no longer be recognized as a legitimate Republican candidate by the Illinois Republican Party.”

I am particularly pleased that the Party used language recognizing that Martin’s speech was hate-filled.

So far the ad has been condemned by at least one other opponent. The primary election is February 2.

As of December 14,

Among Republicans, Kirk had the support of 41 percent of likely voters. No one else in the GOP primary topped 3 percent, but 46 percent of voters were still undecided.

Illinois campaign comprised of pure homophobia

There are currently a handful of candidates for the Republican nomination to the US Senate seat in Illinois vacated by Barack Obama and currently held by Roland Burris. Two are in the news today.

Congressman Mark Kirk is a moderate Republican who has voted favorably on issues before Congress which would impact the gay community. He has been supportive on ENDA and hate crimes legislation and voted against amending the US Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. He is involved in Republican groups that are seeking to make the party less about social issues and return its focus to fiscal conservatism and small government.

He also has been the subject of rumors relating to his sexual orientation.

Andy Martin, on the other hand, is a colorful character primarily known for creating and disseminating conspiracy theories (e.g. Obama is a closet Muslim), filing lawsuits, and for his flagrant Antisemitism. In short, he’s pretty much a complete loon.

But Martin has developed a strategy to get attention and, perhaps, hurt Kirk: repeat rumors in hopes of stirring up homophobia. He ran the following radio ad:

I’m Andy Martin, Republican candidate for United States Senator. I approved this message because Illinois Republicans deserve the truth about their candidates.

I have over forty years of experience and integrity fighting corruption, and fighting for the truth in politics.

I helped expose many of Barack Obama’s lies in 2008.

Today, I am fighting for the facts about Mark Kirk. Illinois Republican leader Jack Roeser says there is a, “solid rumor that Kirk is a homosexual.” Roeser suggests that Kirk is part of a Republican Party homosexual club. Lake County Illinois Republican leader Ray True says Kirk has surrounded himself with homosexuals.

Mark Kirk should tell Republican voters the truth.

I\’m Andy Martin a Republican you can trust for U.S. Senator.

Please vote for Andy Martin.

Paid for by Illinois Republicans for Andy Martin.

Now, I don’t know anything about Mark Kirk’s sexual orientation. But I also know that as an active Navy reservist, he’s not going to announce that he’s gay any time soon. And as he is not a enemy to our community, accusations of “hypocrisy” sound hollow.

As for Martin, he again proves my contention that haters are often inclusive. Martin is bigoted towards both Jews and gays (at least).

And his campaign is pure unvarnished bald-faced homophobia. Let’s hope it backfires.

Anti-gay Iowans LUV you

From the Des Moines Register

The Iowa Family Policy Center\’s action committee announced this morning a new campaign to oppose equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.

The legislative initiative is being called “Two Days For Marriage” and is in conjunction the Let Us Vote Iowa Campaign, also being called the “LUV” campaign. The goal of the group is to begin a process that would allow Iowans the opportunity to vote and end the marriage rights of same-sex couples.

Those wacky anti-gays. Only they could come up with an acronym that means the opposite of the word it most closely resembles.

Anti-Gay Bill Dominates Ugandan Christmas Messages

A typical Christmas message goes something like this: “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.” In Uganda, goodwill toward LGBT people is very hard to come by this Christmas season. The nation’s television airwaves were saturated with Christmas messages from various pastors and denominations, and they all had one thing in common: urging for the passage of the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

This is what Christmas day looked like for one BTB reader in Uganda.

The speaker of Parliament, Edward Sekandi, had one good observation on the proposal to criminalize those who fail to report LGBT people to police within twenty-four hours:

For instance, how do you imprison a father? Do you think a father should go and tell the police that this my son is doing this and the other?

But he also denounced donor countries for their warnings against the bill. “No… I think, I think even a poor man must, you know, respect himself,” he said.

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

Click here to read a transcript of the Christmas broadcasts.

Illinois Republican Bases Campaign on Opponent’s Sexuality Rumors

Illinois Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Andy Martin

Martin is running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate for the state of Illinois, and he thinks he has found a winning campaign issue against his opponent:

Transcript from the Political Ad
I’m Andy Martin, Republican candidate for United States Senator. I approved this message because Illinois Republicans deserve the truth about their candidates.

I have over forty years of experience and integrity fighting corruption, and fighting for the truth in politics.

I helped expose many of Barack Obama’s lies in 2008.

Today, I am fighting for the facts about Mark Kirk. Illinois Republican leader Jack Roeser says there is a, “solid rumor that Kirk is a homosexual.” Roeser suggests that Kirk is part of a Republican Party homosexual club. Lake County Illinois Republican leader Ray True says Kirk has surrounded himself with homosexuals.

Mark Kirk should tell Republican voters the truth.

I\’m Andy Martin a Republican you can trust for U.S. Senator.

Please vote for Andy Martin.

Paid for by Illinois Republicans for Andy Martin.

Martin has also issued a blistering press release which contain many more allegations against Roeser. Chicago radio WBBM reports:

In a written statement, Kirk campaign manager Eric Elk says, “The ad is not true and is demeaning to the political process. The people of Illinois deserve better.”

Martin says his ad is not about whether or not the rumors are true, but the fact that they are being discussed on the Internet. Andy Martin says Kirk must address the rumors.

Martin has run for several elected offices and lost. In 2004, he accused then Senatorial-candidate Barack Obama of being a “secret Muslim” and once appeared on Fox News’ Hannity’s America to charge the Obama had once trained to overthrow the government. He later appeared in CNN to publicly drop the Muslim allegation, and instead claimed that Obama’s father was actually a communist.

Putting the Kill Gays bill in perspective

Joachim Buwembo, writing in the East African, claims to have no opinions about homosexuality. He’s never given it enough thought to have an opinion. However, he is very capable of clarifying what the Kill Gays bill says about the priorities of the Uganda government.

Of course a penalty, whether light or maximum, presupposes a crime.

The gravity of the prescribed penalty also indicates the seriousness of the offence in relation to other offences.

So according to the framers of the Bill, a girl who prefers a girl is more dangerous to the society than officials who robbed millions of dollars meant to treat aids, malaria and tuberculosis patients in 2004. Only four of the over 100 suspects were sent to jail with light sentences.

And we are yet to see a conviction of any of the few men who stole most of the $200 million meant for the 2007 Kampala Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting, turning ‘Chogm\’ into a vulgar world in Uganda.

Amidst all the nonsensical hype about “foreign homosexuals paying children to be gay”, his dispassionate voice stands out.

If parliament discusses whether people should be killed, we need to be convinced that indeed these people are worse than the killers who rob medical funds and send thousands to early graves.

But I doubt that the supporters of the bill are much interested in reason or perspective.

Rauch: 2009 transitional year for marriage

Jonathan Rauch has written an article in which he discusses the ways in which the landscape in which the gay marriage depate is conducted has shifted. He sees 2009 as the ‘beginning of the middle’ of the war over marriage equality.

His thoughtful piece sees four changes that occurred during the year:

• The preemptive strikes on both sides have failed.
• Legislators are taking over from judges.
• Same-sex marriage has been mainstreamed.
• There’s a backlash against the backlash.

Read his insightful commentary here.

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Ssempa and Bahati Discuss Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill

Our anonymous reader in Uganda has sent us some more fascinating video from state-run UBC television. In these series of clips, taken from the program Matters of Policy broadcast on December 23, 2009, Pentecostal pastor Martin Ssempa and member of Parliament David Bahati discuss the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill that is now before Parliament.

In the first part, Ssempa announces a nationwide rally for January 19, 2010 in support of the bill. Bahati says the bill is necessary to fight a “creepng evil in our society,” alleging that wealthy gays are recruiting children in schools. This is a recurring theme in Uganda’s stereotypes about gay people, a stereotype that was vigorously reinforced by the March 5-7 conference put on by three American anti-gay activists.

In the second part of the video, Martin Ssempa rails against Barack Obama and other foreign leaders for denouncing the Anti-gay bill. He also completely misrepresents the “aggravated homosexuality” clause of the proposed bill, which provides the death penalty for LGBT people under certain circumstances. Ssempa claims that those circumstances are limited to rape or child sexual abuse. In fact, the proposed bill (the full text of which we’ve posted online) defines “aggravated homosxuality” this way:

3. Aggravated homosexuality.
(1) A person commits the offense of aggravated homosexuality where the

(a) person against whom the offence is committed is below the age of 18 years;

(b) offender is a person living with HIV;

(c) offender is a parent or guardian of the person against whom the offence is committed;

(d) offender is a person in authority over the person against whom the offence is committed;

(e) victim of the offence is a person with disability;

(f) offender is a serial offender, or

(g) offender applies, administers or causes to be used by any man or woman any drug, matter or thing with intent to stupefy overpower him or her so as to there by  enable any person to have unlawful carnal connection with any person of the same sex,

(2) A person who commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality shall be liable on conviction to suffer death.

(3) Where a person is charged with the offence under this section, that person shall undergo a medical examination to ascertain his or her HIV status.

In other words, the bill also includes anyone who is HIV-positive (and mandates testing of anyone suspected of homosexuality to determine their eligibility for the death sentence) or anyone who is a “serial offender” — which could include anyone who has had more than one partner in his or her lifetime. Ssempa (and Bahati) are clearly lying when they claim that “aggravated homosexuality” is limited to rape or molestation. The text of Bahati’s own bill proves the lie.

In the third part, Bahati insists that the bill will not be dropped. He says that it is now before the Parliamentary Committee of Legal Affairs and also the Presidential Affairs Committee. He believes the bill will pass when Parliament returns from recess in February. He and Ssempa also claim to have been under death threats since the bill was introduced. In a recent story by the independent Daily Monitor, Bahati claims that a cousin is missing and blames the controversy over the anti-gay bill, but he doesn’t repeat that claim here. (That story has now gone missing from the Monitor’s web site.)

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

Click here to read a transcript of the Ssempa and Bahati interview.

Fox’s foolish reporting of non-news

I am not among those who dismiss Fox News as nothing but partisan propaganda. In today’s news practice of activism masquerading as information, I find that they provide a balance to other news sources and between them all I get a better sense of what is true.

But sometimes the editorial slant of the entire network becomes laughable. Take, for example, this story, entitled “Gay Marriage Opponents Push to Let Voters Decide“.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Opponents of Iowa’s gay marriage law are promising to push hard during the 2010 legislative session for a vote on a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex unions.

In equally exciting (and likely) news, opponents of the sun rising in the East are promising to push hard to reverse the Earth’s rotation. Ugh.

What this breathless press-release pretending to be a news story fails to mention is that there is just about zero likelihood that their pressing – hard or otherwise – will result in a constitutional amendment any time soon.

Democrats hold a majority in both houses by sizable margins: 56-44 in the House and 32-18 in the Senate. While there are no doubt some in the Democratic delegation that would never affirmatively vote for equality – and might even vote in opposition if given the chance – no such votes will arise. Both House Speaker Pat Murphy and Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal have stated that they will not be entertaining such a debate.

Republicans will rally and protest and campaign on this issue. But unless they have other vastly more compelling arguments, this is unlikely to shift power in the legislature. A poll in September found that the state is about evenly divided on the idea of a constitutional amendment, but that 63% say that other issues are more important to them. A huge 92% say that same-sex marriage hasn’t impacted their life at all.

Even supposing that the 2010 election could be argued to be a referendum of the people calling for discrimination, a constitutional amendment requires that two back to back legislatures vote affirmatively before presenting the issue to the voters (oh, wise Iowa). The soonest that voters could face a proposition to change their constitution would be November 2014.

I don’t think it is unreasonable to believe that after five years of marriage equality, Iowans would be immune to warnings of impending doom – which is really all the anti-gay side has to offer.

Focus On the Family Denounces Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill

Focus On the Family is famous for adamantly opposing virtually every LGBT-friendly initiative — from domestic partner and survivors benefits, hate crimes legislation or employment non-discrimination measures. They also steadfastly supported Colorado’s Amendment 2 of 1996 (which would have disenfranchised LGBT people from the legislative process) and they opposed the repeal of anti-sodomy laws in the U.S.

But there’s one piece of anti-gay legislation that Focus On the Family doesn’t support:

“The purpose of laws is to make societies safer, and there is legitimate concern that the legislation being debated in Uganda will incite violence against homosexuals,” Jim Daly, president and CEO of Focus on the Family, said last week of the Ugandan bill.”

The Colorado Springs Gazette softpedals the role of American right-wing evangelicals in supporting Uganda’s homophobic culture:

Ralph Blair, president of Evangelicals Concerned in New York, believes the bill was influenced more by African culture and politics than Christian rhetoric against homosexuality. African nations, including Uganda, have had anti-gay laws on the books for decades, he said.

Moreover, it\’s unfair to single out American evangelical leaders and organizations for not condemning the bill when many world leaders, including President Barack Obama, and human rights groups have also been silent on it.

This is blatantly false and extremely poor reporting on the Gazette’s part. President Barack Obama did speak out against the bill long before Focus belatedly jumped on the bandwagon. The President’s statement was not reported by Uganda’s news media, but it outraged Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa.  The White House statement accompanied similar condemnations from Canada, Britain, Sweden, the European Union, and Australia. I guess the Gazette needs to somehow keep its hometown industry feeling happy and protected from, you know, actual reporting.

But back to Daly, Gazette reporter Mark Barna has more of Daly’s statement on the Gazette’s religion blog:

“As a Christian organization, Focus on the Family Action (the political arm of the family group) encourages pro-family policies. As such, we respect the desire of the Ugandan people to shield their nation from the promotion of homosexuality as a lifestyle morally equivalent to one-man, one-woman marriage. But it is not morally acceptable to enact the death penalty for homosexuals, as some versions of the bill are reported to require.”

“My reaction is to denounce this. It sets a horrible precedent and has a potential for developing hatred.”

It’s good that Focus has now spoken out against Uganda’s anti-gay bill, although I wonder what their position would be if the death penalty were dropped. At least Saddleback pastor Rick Warren is now on record as opposing all criminalization of homosexuality.

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

Yeshiva University discusses homosexuality

Yeshiva University, the prestigious New York school for joint Torah and secular education, hosted a discussion about homosexuality on Tuesday. It proved to be quite a popular subject. (Jerusalem Post)

Organized by the YU Tolerance Club and Wurzweiler School of Social Work, the event attracted hundreds of students, graduates and faculty members. Indeed, dozens were turned away and fire officials were on hand at one point when security guards said the building had reached capacity.

Much of Judaism and the Jewish people in the United States are accepting of gay men and women and are often outspoken in favor of civil equalities. But these voices come predominantly from Reform and (more recently) Conservative Jewish communities.

However, this event revealed that some within the Orthodox community are willing to ponder whether and to what extent gay Jews fit into G-d’s order. This presentation was a beginning, not an attempt to address halakha, but rather an exercise in listening.

The speakers did not seek to challenge values, but rather challenged assumptions, stereotypes, and false impressions about reorientation. (Jewish Star)

Most of the panelists recounted suffering from depression after realizing they were gay; each underwent some form of therapy to “cure” him of homosexuality; each dated women; and each stressed that his orientation was not caused by childhood sexual abuse.

“For the record, I\’ve never been sexually molested,” said Kopstick. “I had a very positive childhood.”

It must be emphasized that this was not a pride event, an effort to challenge halakha or redefine frum, but rather to breakdown barriers of “them” and “us”. And, from that non-threatening approach, was able to appeal to some(beliefnet)

The event, which drew almost 1,000 people [other media estimated 700] modeled a kind of compassionate listening and human decency which neither trumped nor trivialized the deeply conflicting views about gayness held by people in the audience. Instead, it proved that we all have the ability to listen and feel beyond the borders of any particular doctrinal conclusion, and that when we do so, we never jeopardize our commitments to those doctrines, we simply connect more deeply and more lovingly to those around us. And that, can never be a bad thing.

The presentation of this event should not be viewed as a shift in thinking among the Orthodox establishment. Indeed, the President of the University, Richard M. Joel, issued a statement which was condemnatory even of the listening process. (The Commentator)

Sadly, as we have discovered, public gatherings addressing these issues, even when well-intentioned, could send he wrong message and obscure the Torah\’s requirement of halakhic behavior and due modesty.

(You need not worry, Mr. Joel, we did not get the wrong message. We are completely aware that you oppose any measure of fairness, equality, or decency towards gay men and women within your community. We will not accidentally confuse you for an open-minded man.)

But while those who share Mr. Joel’s worldview may not be easily swayed by the testimony of Jews who grew up gay in the Orthodox world, I think that we can draw encouragement from the popularity of the event and from the response of the crowd.

The crowd largely supported the panelists, with many bursts of applause interrupting the speakers, and numerous audience members writing messages of support on the index cards given out to the audience for the purpose of submitting anonymous questions.

Unofficial transcript here

(my apologies to our Jewish readers if I have misstated or oversimplified in my commentary)

Georgian LGBT group raided

There is a report from the Inclusive Foundation, an LGBT organization in the nation of Georgia (located on the eastern edge of the Black Sea bordering Russia, Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan) of harassment by the police force:

On December 15 2009 the office of the Inclusive Foundation, a well known Georgian LGBT organisation, was raided by the police. They did not wear police uniforms, did not provide a search warrant, did not inform about their identity or agency they represented and did not explain the purpose of their intrusion. Members of the LGBT community were present in the office during the raid for a regular meeting of the “Women\’s Club”. The men confiscated cell phones of all those present in the office, did not allow them to contact their families, and made degrading and humiliating remarks, such as ‘perverts\’, ‘sick persons\’, Satanists. They threatened to take photos of the women and disseminate them to reveal their sexual orientation. They also threatened ‘to kill\’ and ‘tear to pieces\’ one of the leaders of the organisation, Eka Agdgomelashvili, if she did not stop demanding the search warrant and identification documents of the police.

Georgia is one of the world’s oldest Christian nations and, being on the border between Christendom and the Muslim World, strongly identifies with the faith and is greatly influenced by the Georgian Orthodox Church. Although homosexuality was officially decriminalized in 2000, the society and the church are strongly homophobic and the gay community is likely to find little sympathy.

In 2007, a rally for diversity in Tbilisi, the capital, was mistakenly reported to be a gay pride event and the pressure from the church, the newspapers, and the public caused the even to be cancelled.

ILGA-Europe (an intenational gay and lesbian association) is monitoring the situation and European gay news sources are following up.

Catholic Doublespeak In Uganda – Did The Bishop Tacitly Support Anti-Gay Bill During Christmas Mass?

On Wednesday, Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga of the archdiocese of Uganda appeared on national television to denounce the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Today’s issue of the independent Daily Monitor has a round-up of Christmas sermons which reveals that the archbishop may support some aspects of the bill:

Bishop of Kampala Archdiocese Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, who led celebrations at Rubaga Cathedral, told hundreds of Christians that homosexuality is immoral and forbidden.

“The Catholic bishops of Uganda applaud the government\’s effort to protect families and the church teachings remain clear. Homosexuality acts are immoral and evil and are against the divine laws of nature,” he said.

He added: “The church condemns homosexuality because we were created in God\’s image and we must remain that.” The archbishop attacked donors whom he accused of forcing their harsh positions onto Ugandans desperate for aid. “We shall not allow acts of homosexuality to be promoted in the country and we shall not accept the donors\’ positions,” he said.

He, however, said MP David Bahati\’s Bill that seeks to criminalise homosexuality is unnecessary since there are already laws that outlaw the practice.

The clause in the Bill that calls for the death penalty in cases of “aggravated homosexuality” is uncalled for, Dr Lwanga said, adding that it does not allow for rehabilitation.

Combined with his Wednesday statement, it’s hard to know exactly what the Archbishop supports. He says that the Bahati bill isn’t needed because “there are already laws that outlaw the practice,” which is a very positive statement. If there is any hope for this bill being dropped, it will be for that reason alone and not out of a sudden awakening to the fact that criminalizing LGBT people goes against all principals of human rights.

But if the death penalty were dropped, as many of the bill’s supporters have hinted, would it then past muster with the Archbishop despite all the other draconian penalties that the bill would provide for gay people and straight people as well?

That ambiguity however doesn’t extend to his Anglican counterparts:

At St. Paul Cathedral, Namirembe, Bishop Wilberforce Kityo Luwalira urged the faithful to oppose all external forces seeking to promote homosexuality in the country, adding that it is against the order of nature. “We know what we want as Ugandans and we shall not be intimidated to accept homosexuality because it is against the order of nature,” he said, drawing a standing ovation from the congregation that included Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi.

Rev. John Bosco Sendagala, of Christ the King Church, Kampala, said everyone should fight homosexuality. The same call was made by the Bishop of Ankole Diocese, the Rt. Rev Dr. George Tibesigwa.

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

Merry Christmas 2009

All of us at Box Turtle Bulletin wish you a very merry Christmas.

Full Text of Catholic Archbihop’s Condemnation of “Kill Gays” Bill

BTB brought you exclusive video of the Catholic Archbishop of Uganda’s denunciation of the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill in his annual Christmas message from Rubaga Cathedral. Thanks to BTB reader Lynn David, we now have the full text of that message below.

Click here to see the Archbishop’s denunciation of the bill.