January 7th, 2010
The Associated Press story we pointed to this morning indicating that Uganda’s president is urging lawmakers to drop the death penalty provision from its otherwise still-draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill contains a horrible misquote by a Ugandan LGBT activist, one which completely obscures the fact that this proposed modification is almost negligible. The AP story suggests that all the Ugandan Parliament needs to do is drop the death penalty provision, and Uganda’s LGBT advocates will then fall in line and support the government.
This is a gross misrepresentation Let me explain. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill, as currently written, would:
As you can see, dropping the death penalty provision, while an important feature, is barely a concession given the scope of the bill. It’s debatable whether there’s much of a difference between the death penalty and spending a lifetime in Ugandan prisons. It still criminalizes knowing someone who is gay, it still criminalizes renting a room or flat to someone who is gay, it still criminalizes gay Ugandans living abroad, and it still criminalizes all acts of free speech or giving any sort of aide to gay people.
But the AP article implies that it is only the death penalty provision that Ugandan LGBT advocates object to:
Frank Mugisha, leader of Sex Minorities Uganda, said the gay-rights group will campaign for and support President Yoweri Museveni in the 2011 polls because of his opposition to the bill’s harsher provisions.
“If one scratches your back you also scratch his back,” Mugisha said. “Museveni’s action shows that he is a true democrat. As a head of state he is doing the right thing of protecting all interests of its citizens including those of the minorities.”
Frank Mugisha tells Warren Throckmorton that this is not at all what he said:
I called Frank Mugisha to ask if he was quoted correctly and he said no, he was not quoted correctly. He said he did not say, ‘if one scratches your back, you also scratch his back.\’ He also noted that Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUg) does not support specific political parties, saying
We are not political. As an organization, we don\’t support any party. Like all Ugandans, some of our members support one party, and others support another party.
Regarding President Museveni, Mugisha said he did not know what stance he had taken. His comment to the reporter was meant to be a hypothetical statement, saying
I said, ‘if the President protects gays, then he is being democratic.\’ We do not know yet what he is going to do.
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
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BobN
January 7th, 2010
The AP seems to have an inability to correctly report gay-related news.
Lynn David
January 7th, 2010
You could do a much better job on this story than the AP, UPS, Reuters, etc., Jim.
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