Box Turtle Bulletin

Is Uganda’s “Kill-the-Gays” Bill Author Coming to Washington or Not?

Frankly, my ability to take anyone at their word is very strained right now. Ugandan MP David Bahati, the guy who can’t wait to begin killing gay people or throwing them into a Ugandan prison for the rest of their lives (is there really a difference?), says he’s coming to Washington, D.C. to attend the National Prayer Breakfast on February 4. Bob Hunter and others connected with the secretive Evangelical group known as The Family have told Warren Throckmorton that Bahati’s not invited and he won’t be allowed in. That’s fine, I guess, if I could trust this information. We’ve heard directly from Bahati; why can’t we hear directly from Doug Coe, the head of the Family?

The Fellowship’s obsession with secrecy means that nobody with recognized authority within the Family has said anything about Bahati, let alone the Anti-Homosexuality Bill that is now before Uganda’s Parliament and which appears to have strong support among people associated with the Family. Bob Hunter, a Family member who has deep ties in Uganda, has appeared on NPR and Rachel Maddow to say that the Family doesn’t like the bill, but read the transcript again. Is he authorized to speak definitively on behalf of the Family?

MADDOW: Have you had to get permission to do this interview? Are you here with The Fellowship’s blessing?

HUNTER: No.

MADDOW: No?

HUNTER: No, I didn’t. I first went on National Public Radio, because I felt like I was scandalized on National Public Radio by name. And that’s why I started talking out.

Okay, so Hunter is speaking because he felt scandalized, not because he’s speaking on behalf of the Family. That is most certainly his prerogative. But he was so intent on defending himself that he forgot what he wanted to do on Maddow’s show. According to Jeff Sharlet:

He said he’d planned to talk about Senator Jim Inhofe, the fiercely anti-gay politician who is listed in Family documents as the “U.S. leader” responsible for working with Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni. Bob said he wants to see Inhofe take a bolder stand against this awful bill. But he got sidetracked.

Sidetracked is right. I’m glad he spoke against the bill. I’m also glad to hear him say that he knows others within the Fellowship who are against it. The last thing I want to do is throw cold water on that.

But I’m going to anyway. Because, you see, I know a lot of devout Catholics who worked to try to defeat anti-marriage amendments. Fortunately, they rarely do it by going on the offensive against Episcopalians who also want to defeat the amendments. But that aside, we all know that it’s what the leaders are doing that matters, and Catholic leaders have no qualms about letting everyone know where they stand. That’s why it’s impossible for anyone to claim that the Catholic Church opposes what they clearly support: anti-marriage amendments everywhere. There is no ambiguity about where the organization stands, whatever some members of it may believe personally.

But we have yet to hear from anyone in authority from the Family say anything about the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, and that leaves a truckload of ambiguity to deal with. Call me paranoid, but I think that this is exactly what they want. You see, the way things stand right now, Bahati can say whatever he wants — he can say he’s going to the National Prayer Breakfast even if he’s really not going. True or not, he can use that to build up his own political capital in Uganda with nary a contradictory whiff from the Family. Meanwhile, the Family’s silence means that Bahati isn’t embarrassed, nor are any other Family members like, say, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni. Bahati’s (and possibly Museveni’s) cherished dream goes forward, and the Family’s ties to Uganda’s political establishment remain intact. Everybody’s happy, except of course gay people in Uganda.

But on the other hand, maybe Bahati really is going to the National Prayer Breakfast. And maybe key members of the Fellowship — not Hunter, not people he knows, but others — support the kill-the-gays bills or its practically-equivalent effort, or at least are willing to look the other way. Meanwhile, those who are passing their assurances on the Warren Throckmorton may not be quite as in-the-know as they honestly think they are. How are we to know? And given the gravity of the situation, why should we go on their word while the Fellowship’s leaders maintain their useful silence? We shouldn’t, and more importantly we can’t afford to.

So, are Mr. Bahati or any other Ugandan political leaders going to Washington? I don’t know. Bahati says he is; Hunter says no. Does the Family support or oppose the Anti-Homosexuality Bill? Hunter says they oppose, but Sharlet says the group is divided and Hunter would appear to agree, especially if it’s true that Hunter went on Maddow to pressure Sen. Inhofe into taking a bolder stand (and failed). Only Doug Coe can answer all of this definitively, and pretty easily too. For the sake of all that is decent and humane, it’s time for Coe’s yes to be yes, and his no to be no. Silence is not an answer and time has almost run out.

So unless I hear it from Coe or another recognized senior leader who is officially authorized to speak on behalf of the Family, I’m sticking with the only first-person account I’ve seen so far. If trust is in short supply around here, it’s because the people who really matter have not lifted a finger to try to earn it.

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

Uganda’s Kill Gays Bill author not coming to US National Prayer Breakfast

David Bahati, the author of the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality bill which, if passed would dole out penalties of death or life imprisonment to Uganda’s gay population and prison sentences for their heterosexual friends, told the Sunday Monitor that he would be traveling to the United States in February to attend – and perhaps speak at – the National Prayer Breakfast.

Dr. Warren Throckmorton has followed up on that claim and reports it to be incorrect.

However, according to Bob Hunter and others with the Fellowship Foundation, Bahati was invited months ago to come to Washington DC only as a volunteer and not to attend the NPB event. According to these sources, Bahati declined the invitation prior to introducing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. According to Mr. Hunter, the Monitor article and Bahati\’s statements came as a complete surprise to the NPB officials here. However, in the event the article was accurate, the NPB officials and Congressional leaders were taking action to assure that Bahati did not come to any of the meetings.

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

Uganda’s “Kill-The-Gays” Bill Author Coming to National Prayer Breakfast

Washington Hilton, site of the National Prayer Breakfast on February 4, 2010.

That’s according to a feature story in Uganda’s largest independent newspaper, The Sunday Monitor:

In February, David Bahati, the mover of the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill is expected to attend a prayer breakfast in the American capital of DC.

Mr Bahati, according to reports, may speak at the event where President Barack Obama – a gays-tolerant liberal president, is also expected to attend. On Friday, Mr Bahati said he would attend. The event is organised by The Fellowship- a conservative Christian organisation, which has deep political connections and counts several high-ranking conservative politicians in its membership.

“I intend to attend the prayer breakfast,” said Mr Bahati – himself a part organiser of the Ugandan equivalent of the national prayer breakfast. This week, citing international pressure, President Yoweri Museveni advised his party\’s National Executive Committee, his cabinet and the NRM parliamentary caucus to “go slow” on the Bill.

MP David Bahati

MP David Bahati is the sponsor of the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill that is now before Uganda’s Parliament. He is also a member of the secretive American evangelical group known as the Family, which founded and organizes the National Prayer Breakfast held on the first Thursday in February, typically at the Washington Hilton on Connecticut Avenue N.W. The Monitor reports that the Family has invited Bahati to the prayer breakfast.

Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo, another  is also said to be planning on attending the National Prayer Breakfast as well.

I find it absolutely incredible that secretive Family would risk this kind of attention at their premiere event. Did the Family actually extend an invitation to Bahati, as he has told The Monitor? If they did, will they honor that invitation or will they publicly repudiate their connections with Bahati and Buturo as had been suggested?

Also, every U.S. President since Eisenhower has attended and spoken at the breakfast. Will President Obama agree to share the same room with these two would-be murderers?

I think it’s a good time to convene a special session of the rainbow welcoming committee.

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

UN Official Condemns Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill

If any part of Uganda’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill becomes law, that nation will be well on its way to becoming a pariah state for its gross violations of human rights. The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights has weighed in:

UN rights chief Navi Pillay on Friday urged the Ugandan government to scrap an anti-homosexuality bill which is to be put before parliament, saying that it was “blatantly discriminatory.”

“The bill clearly breaches international human rights standards, as it is blatantly discriminatory,” said Pillay in a statement.

…”It is extraordinary to find legislation like this being proposed more than 60 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights … made it clear this type of discrimination is unacceptable,” she added.

Calling on Uganda to “shelve (the) draconian draft bill,” Pillay warned that the bill could seriously hurt the country’s reputation.

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

On American Christians In Uganda: Silence As Consent

National Public Radio has a great piece this morning examining the role played by three American activists in the current anti-gay debacle playing out in Uganda. Here is probably the best observation I’ve seen to date on American evangelical responses to the Ugandan efforts to wipe LGBT people off the map:

Jim Naughton, a former canon in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C., says their message plays one way in the U.S., but differently in a place like Uganda. And they should have known.

“If you go to countries where there’s already a great deal of suspicion and maybe animosity towards homosexuals, and begin to tell people there, ‘Well, actually these people are child abusers, they’re coming for their children, that they’re the scourge that is being deposited on you by the secular West,’ you’re gonna get a backlash.” Naughton says it’s like “showing up in rooms filled with gasoline, and throwing lighted matches around and saying, ‘Well, I never intended fire.‘”

Many U.S. evangelicals, including (Scott) Lively, say they are “mortified” by the death penalty provision. Naughton doesn’t buy it.

“I think if they were mortified, they would have been mortified immediately,” he says. “Instead they were mortified — oh, two, three months into the campaign against this thing, when it was getting real traction.”

You can see Lively’s “fire” — actually he calls it his “nuclear bomb” — here.

There is, of course, one notable exception. Dr. Warren Throckmorton was publicly mortified as soon as he heard about plans for the anti-gay conference put on by Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, Exodus International board member Don Schmierer, and International Healing Foundation’s Caleb Lee Brundidge last March. He has since been a tireless critic of that conference and the ensuing Anti-Homosexuality Bill. He also gets his due on the NPR report, while questioning the silence of other prominent ministries with close ties to Uganda.

If (Saddleback pastor Rick) Warren was slow to condemn the bill, other Christian conservatives have yet to do so, says Warren Throckmorton, who teaches psychology at Grove City College and has been monitoring U.S. evangelical response. He says some of the Christian groups most publicly tied to Uganda have been the quietest. Joyce Meyer Ministries, Oral Roberts University, the College of Prayer in Atlanta — all have close ties and declined to express reservations about the death penalty.

“Silence is often interpreted as consent,” says Throckmorton, who is himself a conservative evangelical. “So I think those kinds of responses may lead those individuals in Uganda to think that perhaps what [they’re] doing really is according to the evangelical faith.”

The NPR report ends with a claim that Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni “called for the bill to be withdrawn.” While many have jumped to that conclusion, the fact is that Museveni was careful not to call for its withdrawal, and it is not clear that he will.

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

Ugandan Anti-Gay Rally Announced for February 17

Last December, we reported that Ugandan Pentecostal pastor Martin Ssempa had announced a nationwide anti-gay rally for January 19. A few days later, two more religious leaders joined that call for a rally to support for the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Now Reuters is reporting that Ssempa, who has close ties to several American evangelical groups as well as Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni, has announced a”million-man” march for February 17. It’s unclear whether this is a re-scheduling of the January 19 rally or an additional one.

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

Beware of a “Compromise” In Uganda

Uganda’s independent Monitor reports that the Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament Edward Ssekandi insists that, despite President Yoweri Museveni’s call for a “discussion” of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill due to international outrage and the prospect of forfeiting badly needed donor aid, the bill will go forward in Parliament:

Uganda's Speaker of Parliament, Edward Ssekandi

Mr Ssekandi said: “There is no way we can be intimidated by remarks from the President to stop the Bill. This Bill was officially tabled in Parliament and was subsequently committed to a committee for scrutiny. The President has a right to express his views like any other people who have petitioned me.”

He added: “This was a private members\’ Bill and if the Executive wants to bring their views they are free. The Constitution is clear, it doesn\’t allow people of the same sex to get married and what we are looking for in the Bill is (basically) the penalty and the process should continue.”

When Museveni announced to the Executive Council of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) that his Cabinet would sit down with fellow party member MP David Bahati to discuss the wide-ranging and draconian bill, many observers saw it as a signal that the bill would be withdrawn. But since then, we’ve noticed that while Uganda’s state-owned media gave Museveni’s remarks prominent play (the state-owned New Vision, the country’s largest daily newspaper, has mostly ignored the Anti-Homosexuality Bill until now), it has also been extremely cautious about reporting what the implications of his remarks might be. Meanwhile Bahati has remained defiant, insisting that he will proceed in pushing the so-called “kill-the-gays” bill through Parliament, and now it appears that the Parliament’s Speaker has Bahati’s back.

Museveni justified his announced intervention by telling the NRM gathering that the repercussions of the bill has gone beyond the borders of Uganda and has become a ign policy issue. But Voice of American yesterday reported that Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Henry Okello Oryem now denies that the government is backing away from the draconian legislation because of foreign policy implications:

Foreign Affairs Minister Henry Okello Oryem

The minister said the president’s remarks to party members was in response to a recent war of words in the media between senior government officials over the gay bill, with one minister stating the government’s position was that the bill was “not necessary.”

“What the president was trying to say was that when it comes to those kind of issues that are related to the current issues relating to homosexuality – will aid be cut, will it affect our relations with other countries, and so forth – nobody has the right to comment on those matters except him as the president, and then it will be integrated by the Foreign Affairs [ministry],” said Oryem.

President Yoweri Museveni

So what’s happening? It’s hard to know. Uganda is effectively a one-party state (Museveni’s NRM controls more than two-thirds of Parliament) and Museveni is about to begin his twenty-fifth year in power. In many ways, he rules as a strongman, closing radio stations and declaring opposition demonstrations “illegal” whenever it suits him. Uganda’s 1995 Constitution (PDF: 459KB/a whopping 192 pages!) calls for an “independent” Electoral Commission, but all seven members of the commission are appointed by the President. The constitution originally called for term limits on the President, but that was amended in 2005 to remove those limits and allow Museveni to run for a third term in 2006.

In fact, with the NRM dominating Parliament as it does, Museveni can change the constitution pretty much at will, and there are suspicions that he may do so again to gain a further advantage in the upcoming 2011 elections. The NRM, not surprisingly, has already named him as their candidate for a fourth term. Assuming he wins and completes that term, he will have held power for thirty-one years. Uganda has not had a peacful change of government since its independence in 1962. Museveni came to power after overthrowing his predecessor in a civil war in 1985. Museveni’s predecessor, Milton Obote, came to power following an invasion from Tanzania in 1979 which overthrew Idi Amin.  Despite the U.S. Congress having mandated that the State Department closely scrutinize the upcoming elections, few people expect a peaceful change in government next year.

None of these are the hallmarks of a transparent, functioning democracy. And yet, NRM appears to be a rather fractious party these days. In addition to competing statements on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill from various NRM ministers even after Museveni spoke on the subject, delegates at the NRM gathering openly challenged Museveni on his preferences for appointing fellow members of his Ankole tribe to key positions and steering the country’s resources to western Uganda, his home area.

Unlike his predecessors, Museveni  seems to tolerate a measure of dissent, but this tolerance only goes so far and it extends to those areas which are useful to him. While he has no qualms about banning demonstrations by opposition parties and deploying a huge show of force to prevent them from taking place, Museveni has been remarkably “tolerant” of announced massive anti-gay rallies. Pentecostal pastor Martin Ssempa, who has close ties to several American evangelical groups as well as to Museveni and the First Lady (who also happens to hold a seat in Parliament), has just announced a”million-man” march for February 17 in support of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

President Yoweri Museveni

So let’s not be fooled into thinking that Uganda is a free-wheeling and fully functioning democracy. It isn’t, and Museveni holds all of the cards where the future of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is concerned. And we must not forget this, because Museveni may point to those appearances of an open and functioning democracy as an excuse for refusing to prevail upon Bahati to withdraw the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, even though this is something which Museveni could very easily do without breaking a sweat.

The danger then, is that we may see a “compromise” in the works, which would be just as disastrous for human rights as having the bill become law unchanged. To see what I mean, consider what the bill does now. If passed, it would:

• Expand the definitions for homosexual acts, making conviction easier. Current law requires evidence of penetration. The new law would expand the definition of homosexual activity to”touch(ing) another person with the intention of committing the act of homosexuality.” Touching itself is defined as “touching—(a) with any part of the body; (b) with anything else; (c) through anything; and in particular includes touching amounting to penetration of any sexual organ. anus or mouth.”
• Affirm Uganda\’s lifetime imprisonment for those convicted of homosexuality.
• Define a new crime of “aggravated homosexuality” for those who engage in sex with someone under the age of 18, who are HIV-positive, who is a “repeat offender” (so broadly defined as to include anyone who has had a relationship with more than one person, or who had sex with the same person more than once), or who had sex with a disabled person (consensual or not). The penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” is death by hanging.
• Require anyone arrested on suspicion of homosexuality to undergo HIV testing to determine the individual\’s qualification for prosecution of “aggravated homosexuality.”
• Criminalize “attempted homosexuality” with imprisonment for seven years.
• Criminalize “promoting” homosexuality with fines and imprisonment for between five and seven years. This overly-broad provision would criminalize all speech and peaceful assembly for those who advocate on behalf of LGBT citizens in Uganda . It would also criminalize any attempt to repeal or modify the law in the future, as those moves could also be seen as “promoting” homosexuality.
• Criminalize “aiding and abetting homosexuality” with seven years imprisonment. This provision could be used against anyone extending counseling, medical care, or otherwise providing aide gay people.
• Criminalize the act of obtaining a same-sex marriage abroad with lifetime imprisonment.
• Add a clause which forces friends or family members to report LGBT persons to police within 24-hours of learning about that individual\’s homosexuality or face fines or imprisonment for up to three years.
• Penalize people who run “brothels” with five to seven years imprisonment for renting to LGBT people. However, it defines a brothel as “a house, room,set of rooms or place of any kind for the purposes of homosexuality” instead of the more normal definition of a place where commercial sex work takes place. Anyone’s bedroom would be a “brothel” under this definition, placing landlords and hotel owners in jeopardy for renting to LGBT people.
• Add an extra-territorial and extradition provisions, allowing Uganda to prosecute LGBT Ugandans living abroad.
• Void all international treaties, agreements and human rights obligations which conflict with this bill.

There can clearly be no “compromise.” Should even one provision of this bill survive, it would still represent a disastrous setback for human rights in Uganda. It could also, not surprisingly, become a powerful tool that Museveni could deploy against his political opponents with devastating effect.

In 1999, Museveni ordered a campaign of mass arrests under the current anti-gay law. “I have told the CID (Criminal Investigations Department) to look for homosexuals, lock them up and charge them,” he announced. Several people were jailed. Five men and women who had formed Right Companion, a fledgling LGBT group, were beaten and tortured by police and the women were sexually abused. Others fled the country in fear. The survival of any part of this proposed bill will result in anti-gay pogroms which will make 1999 look like child’s play.

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

US Trade Rep Strongly Urges Sanctions Over Anti-Gay Bill

Uganda’s largest independent newspaper Daily Monitor reports that U.S. Trade Representative Kirk Wyden has written a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday recommending that she review Uganda’s trade status with the US if the Anti-Homosexuality Bill becomes law.

According to Daily Monitor:

Daily Monitor has also seen a letter written by the US Trade Representative Ron Kirk Wyden to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on January 12, saying: “I strongly urge you to communicate immediately to the Ugandan government, and President Yoweri Museveni directly, that Uganda\’s beneficiary status under AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act) will be revoked should the proposed legislation be enacted.”

The letter adds: “Beneficiaries of Agoa must meet certain eligibility criteria, one of which is to not engage in “gross violations of internationally recognised human rights.”

Under Agoa, signed in 2000, Uganda like several other sub-Saharan African states, got leeway to export products, duty-free, to the US market.

On that same day, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), chair of the Senate finance Committee\’s subcommittee on International Trade, Customs and Global Competitiveness, issued a statement threatening Uganda with loss of preferential trade relations if that nation proceeds with passing the wide-ranging and draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

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

Video: Ugandan State-Owned TV Coverage of Public Reaction to Anti-Gay Bill

We’ve been noticing the prominent yet cautious and non-committal coverage by Uganda’s state-owned media of President Yoweri Museveni’s comment that his cabinet will “discuss” the Anti-Homosexuality Bill with sponsor MP David Bahati. While Uganda’s independent media interpreted those remarks as being a “nail in the coffin” and suggested the bill would be withdrawn, Uganda’s state-owned media has refrained from encouraging that speculation.

As further evidence that the bill may be headed to a “compromise” position rather than withdrawn entirely, we have this clip sent in by an anonymous BTB reader. It shows Uganda’s state-owned UBC television airing public reactions to the prospect that the bill might be withdrawn. If this is to be taken as a tea-leaf, it’s not an encouraging one.

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

Click here to read the transcript.

Video: Ugandan MP Remains Defiant on Anti-Gay Bill

Uganda’s independent NTV Television maintains a YouTube channel, but unfortunately not all NTV news reports get uploaded. An anonyous BTB reader in Uganda sent this clip from the January 13 broadcast of “NTV Tonight.” It includes reactions from MP David Bahati, sponsor of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, to President Yoweri Museveni’s remarks that his cabinet will “discuss” the bill with Bahati. Bahati responds:

“We welcome the comment of the president on this bill and the need to engage with cabinet to ensure that we have a fine piece of legislation that will protect our children, defend our traditional family as we know it, between a man and a woman.”

Interviewer: “Are you intimidated by the pressure that is mounting?”

Bahati: “As pressure intensifies, we are also intensifying prayer and we are happy that the religious leaders are engaged in this matter.”

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

Click here to read the transcript.

Ugandan Opposition Party Reiterates Stance Against Anti-Gay Bill

Uganda’s independent newspaper The Monitor reports that members of the opposition Uganda People’s Congress continue to voice their objections to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill:

Mama Miria Obote, the party president, told journalists yesterday during a press briefing at party headquarters in Kampala that the Bill should be withdrawn since there already laws that governs homosexuality.

“This Bill was tabled to disrupt our donors. This is unfortunate because half of our budget comes from these donors so we need their support. We cannot afford to put in place laws that will distract the flow of funds into the state because it is what we solely depend on,” she argued.

A party spokesman pins the blame for the bill not on MP David Bahati, who introduced the private member’s bill into Parliament, but squarely on President Yoweri Museveni:

Mr Yonasani Kanyomozi, the party\’s National Chairman, told Daily Monitor that the government was directly involved in formulating the Bill but disguised it as Mr David Bahati\’s, the MP who proposed it. “This is not Bahati\’s Bill; it is a government Bill which was put in place to distract the public from the government\’s corruption cases.”

Yesterday, former Ugandan ambassador Olara A. Otunnu, who served under Milton Obote’s government before it was overthrown in a civil war by Museveni, announced his opposition to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, calling it a violation of basic human rights. He is believed to be angling for the UPC’s nomination for the presidency for the 2011 elections. He survived what he calls an assassination attempt last month when his car was struck by a jeep belonging to the Presidential Guard Brigade.

Just before Christmas, the UPC’s Secretary General Chris Opaka spoke on television against the draconian anti-gay bill. He said, “The state has no business with what people do in their bedrooms. What two consenting adults do, the state has no business… absolutely! It is discriminatory.”

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

Voice Of America on Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill

The Voice of America’s hour-long Straight Talk Africa television program today was devoted to Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Today’s program featured Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power; Ugandan MP David Bahati, sponsor of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill; Matt Kavanagh of the Health Gap Coalition; and Olara A. Otunnu, Former Ambassador of Uganda to the U.N. (1980-1985).

Some background on Otunno is warrented. He was ambassador for the government of Milton Obote, who was overthrown by Uganda’s current President Yoweri Museveni in a civil war. Otunnu is a member of the Obote’s Ugandan People’s Congress, and he is actively courting the divided party’s nomination for the 2011 presidential elections.

The program is available this week for download.

David Bahati continues to assert that “homosexuality is learned and can be unlearned” (wonder where he got that idea?), and characterized gays as being predators who “recruit” children in schools (wonder where he got that idea?), and that is why, he says, the bill is essential. Bahati insisted that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni “has common ground” with Bahati on the need for the bill.

Bahati was asked if he was a member of The Family. He acknowledged having “friends” in Washington and having attended the National Prayer Breakfast which is organized by the Family. However, he denied that the Family had any input to the bill.

Matt Kavanagh pointed out that the provisions in the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill would criminalize efforts to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS in the LGBT community, since providing such aide could be seen as “aiding and abetting” homosexuality with prison sentences of five to seven years. “Driving people underground is a horrible public health policy. It means only that you are going to increase the spread of HIV.”

Jeff Sharlet talked about the tremendous influence people like Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who “adopted” Uganda and has a close personal relationship with President Museveni. He said that Museveni, and Bahati are members of the Family, but that the Family is now shedding its secretive image in order to “throw Mr. Bahati under the bus” in order to protect their relationship with Museveni, which the Family considers their more valuable asset.

Sharlet confirmed that Uganda’s Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo plans to attend the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. on February 4th. Buturo has been a heavy promoter of the draconian anti-gay bill throughout the year, having responded to the anti-gay conference put on in Kampala by three American anti-gay extremists with promises to “strengthen” Uganda’s law against homosexuality. Uganda’s laws against “crimes against nature” already provide for lifetime imprisonment. Buturo’s very office was created at the suggestion by the Family.

Ambassador Otunnu denounced the death penalty aspects of the bill and said that all Ugandans deserve equal human rights, but called for sensitivity to the “deeply held traditions and cultures of particular societies. …When a society  sees suddenly a practice that was not (known to be) so widespread, it begins to ask questions, it goes into shock, it begins to panic, and you see reaction which can be irrational.” He went on:

I am very sad that it has taken the issue of homosexuals for key western leaders and key western governments to discover the human rights disaster in Uganda. We’ve had genocide in Northern Uganda for fifteen years, no comments from any high officials in the West.  We had thirty people massacred in the streets of Kampala on the tenth of September the last. No high level comments. We have torture chambers in Kampala as we speak. WE have widespread corruption, fraud in elections. So I’m very disappointed that is has taken this issue to have any comment on human rights, and even then the comments are not about human rights in general in Uganda, but specific to the fate of homosexuals.

Much of the rest of the program was devoted preparations for the 2011 elections, which international observers fear will not be free and fair.

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

US Human Rights Commission To Hold Hearings on Ugandan Anti-Gay Bill

Chris Johnson at DCAgenda reports that US Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WS) will chair a meeting of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission next week to hear testimony on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill that is now before Uganda’s Parliament. The Commission is a congressional body charged with promoting public awareness and developing strategies for Congress in the area of human rights.

Yesterday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), chair of the Senate finance Committee\’s subcommittee on International Trade, Customs and Global Competitiveness, issued a statement threatening Uganda with loss of preferential trade relations if that nation proceeds with passing the wide-ranging and draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

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

Ugandan State-Owned TV’s Cautious Coverage of Museveni’s Remarks

Uganda’s state-owned UBC television this morning featured Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s comments made yesterday during an Executive Council meeting of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party meeting at State House, Entebbe about the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. In these videos, provided by an anonymous BTB reader in Uganda, we see a report on Museveni’s remarks.

As you can see, the report on state-owned TV, which is followed by remarks by Deputy Attorney General Fred Ruhindi, is extremely cautious and does not speculate on the implications of Museveni’s remarks. Early coverage by the state-owned newspaper New Vision gave Museveni’s remarks extraordinarily large and thorough coverage, but offered no analysis of the bill’s future either. However, New Vision printed another article quoting Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, Livingston Sewanyana, as backing Museveni’s remarks, saying that the bill infringes on human rights. This is, I believe, the first time this opinion has been reported in the state-owned paper.

Independent media has been less cautious. The earlier report by NTV speculated that Museveni’s remarks might be a “nail in the coffin” for the draconian anti-gay bill. Uganda’s independent Monitor newspaper, which is owned by the same media group as NTV, this morning said:

He also left Ndorwa West MP David Bahati holding the can, when he, for the first time publicly, disowned the legislator\’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, saying it does not represent the party or government position.

As for Bahati himself, he was reportedly on WBS television last night, still determined to push the bill through Parliament.

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

Click here to see a transcript of the UBC television reports

US Senator Threatens Uganda With Trade Sanctions

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who chairs the Senate finance Committee’s subcommittee on International Trade, Customs and Global Competitiveness, has released a statement  threatening Uganda with trade sanctions if that nation proceeds with passing the wide-ranging and draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Sen. Wyden warns:

As you know, Uganda is a beneficiary of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which was signed in to law in 2000. AGOA provides duty-free treatment to imports originating from beneficiary African countries. Beneficiaries of AGOA must meet certain eligibility criteria, one of which is to not engage in “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights,” and the jurisprudence in the area of international human rights supports respect of sexual orientation and gender identity as human rights. I strongly urge you to communicate immediately to the Ugandan government, and President Yoweri Museveni directly, that Uganda\’s beneficiary status under AGOA will be revoked should the proposed legislation be enacted.

Sen. Wyden promises to sponsor legislation to amend America’s trade preference programs “to make clear that failure to appropriately respect sexual orientation and gender identity as human rights shall preclude a country from benefitting from any U.S. trade preference scheme.”

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