Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyPosts Tagged As: Uganda
March 4th, 2010
Coffee is a huge cash crop in Uganda, but most of it is grown on very small farms of less than 2 acres. And yet it somehow manages to support some 5 million people in that impoverished nation. Almost all of Uganda’s coffee goes to Europe, but that is starting to change. One U.S. company is working to bring Ugandan coffee into the U.S. while maintaining environmentally sensitive and financially responsible policies for impoverished, small-farm coffee growers in Uganda. According to Heifer International’s web site:
This coffee is a Social Responsibility Initiative promoted by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) and Coffee Legends, to preserve the farmer’s livelihood through Beyond Fair Trade practices, to encourage sustainable use of the environment (an initiative of Heifer International) and to build Ugandan farmer equity brands by remitting back to farmer groups in Uganda a percentage of the retail price of the coffee to support community and social projects of their choice.
According to Heifer International’s Facebook page, the coffee is becoming available at Sam’s Clubs as a discount organic gourmet coffee. And while the goals appear to be laudable, Karoli Ssemogerere, writing from New York for Uganda’s independent Daily Monitor, notes that buying Uganda coffee will not be an easy sell for well-informed American consumers:
So as the Bahati Bill [or the Anti-Homosexuality Bill] publicity starts to fade — in Uganda many big things have a short shelf life — the American press continues to highlight the Bahati Bill as detailed last week. It comes at a time when Sam’s Club is carrying a major first for Uganda; Uganda Mountain Coffee- a blend of three of Uganda’s best coffee(s): Bugisu AA, Okoros, and Drugars grown by farmers in Mbale, Nebbi and Kasese.
In America, we have two forms of governance: The common public sector dominated by government and elected officials and the private sector dominated by markets, private enterprise and social groups. The latter rules for the most part.
The American public first receptive to the experiment — the coffee is carried in 75 stores in more than 20 states — starts to point out that the coffee is from Uganda where the government (never mind it is a private Bill) promise execution or life in prison for private sexual conduct.
American retailers have a host of legal exposure they contend with everyday for business decisions they make. One of the rules of thumb is to drop merchandise that riles consumers and increases its exposure. For the farmers, this will be a tragedy. In Nebbi, a small farmer coop made a 64 per cent premium over the general market price by shipping coffee to Wal Mart. How can this be arrested?
How indeed.
Click here to see BTB’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
March 4th, 2010
Last January, we reported that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, asking them 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 legislation he’s referring to, of course, is the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill that is, as far as we are able to determine, awaiting its second reading before Parliament.
The State Department has now responded to Sen. Wyden’s request. In a letter dated Feb 22, 2010 and released by Sen. Wyden’s office, Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Richard Verma responded that the department has “identified this issue as a priority in our bilateral relationship” with Uganda (PDF: 112KB/2 pages):
We have reached out at the highest levels; Secretary Clinton and Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Johnnie Carson have discussed our concerns directly with President Museveni. In addition, our embassy in Kampala has been in close and regular contact with key political, media and civil society actors on the ground in Uganda, registering strong opposition to the bill and warning the Ugandans of potential consequences if it passes. The ambassador reiterated our concerns with President Museveni as recently as January 25, and Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero just visited Uganda on January 29. She met and offered support and encouragement to civil society groups opposed to the legislation and underscored our views to senior Ugandan officials. We are following this bill very closely.
In Museveni’s remarks urging Parliament to “go slow” on considering the draconian legislation, he cited a long conversation with Secretary Clinton in declaring that the bill was not just a domestic issue but also had foreign policy considerations.
Assistant Secretary Verma characterized Uganda’s proposed bill “a serious affront to internationally accepted human rights standards.” And interestingly, the State Department’s concerns aren’t limited to Uganda:
The State Department is also evaluating attitudes and laws that marginalize and criminalize and penalize the LGBT community in Africa more broadly. We have asked all of our embassies in Africa to report on host country laws and pending legislation that criminalizes homosexuality. In addition, our Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor has established a task force on LGBT issues to strategize a United States Government response to LBGT issues worldwide.
March 3rd, 2010
From Ed Cropley, Reuter’s African Investment Correspondent:
Malawi and Zambia are set to win hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. infrastructure grants in the next two years due to steady improvements in the way they are run, U.S. aid officials said on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, an anti-gay law being tabled in Uganda is likely to hamper the east African country’s progress from ‘threshold’ partner with the U.S. government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) aid arm to fully-fledged grant-receiver.
… “How a government deals with its human rights situation is definitely an indicator that we think is important,” said Cassandra Butts, senior adviser to the MCC’s chief executive. “That will be something we will review and we will make a determination of our continued investment in Uganda,” she told reporters at an investment conference in South Africa.
The MCC has a budget of US$1.5 billion over the next five years, with only US$10 million earmarked for Uganda, which it sees as a “threshold” country partly due to its troublesome human rights record and rampant corruption. Neighboring Tanzania, in contrast, is a “compact” country with a five-year deal worth US$698 million.
However, Malawi will also be brought in is also seen as a “compact” country later this year, making it eligible for higher levels of development aid. That development comes despite an arrest of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga last December on charges of “gross indecency” following a traditional wedding ceremony. They are scheduled to be sentenced on March 22 following a show trial involving massive abuses. Meanwhile, Malawi authorities have arrested one LGBT advocate and are at last report conducting a witch hunt for LGBT citizens in that country.
Click here to see BTB’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
March 2nd, 2010
Here is NTV Uganda’s coverage from last night’s newscast:
As we reported yesterday a group representing religious leaders, AIDS service providers and health care workers presented a petition with more than 450,000 signatures to Uganda’s Parliament calling for the withdrawal or defeat of the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Led by Anglican Canon Gideon Byamugisha and retired bishop Christopher Senyonjyo, the group handed the petition over to Parliament Speaker Edward Ssekandi. Speaker Ssekandi said that it was “too late” to withdraw the Anti-Homosexuality Bill from Parliament, but said that Parliament would take the group’s concerns under advisement.
Cannon Byamugisha warned of the bill’s dangers:
This would obstruct religious leaders, doctors, counselors, and other service providers in their essential role, and will facilitate political and religious witch hunts and false accusations.
The Red Pepper's cover story of February 25, 2010. (Click to enlarge.)
Uganda has a long history of political and religious witch hunts, in which rival pastors accuse each other of sodomy in order to increase their own standing among their followers. The most recent accusation has been levied by the notorious tabloid Red Pepper, which recently accused American televangelist Benny Hinn of having an affair with a prominent Ugandan pastor. This is seen as retaliation from last June, when several Kampala pastors were denied entrance to Hinn’s “Fire Conference” revival in Kampala. Those pastors were denied entry after having falsely accused the pastor of the revival’s host church of sodomy.
Since the Ugandan pastor has been cleared of charges following a police investigation, the Red Pepper has declined to name him in these latest charges, although virtually everyone in Uganda who knows of the very popular Hinn (His program is carried twice-daily on Kampala-based Lighthouse TV) also knows the pastor whose name is hinted in the “story.”
An alert and helpful BTB reader has provided this scan of the kind of religious witch hunts which are a shamefully common practice between pentecostal pastors in Uganda. Given Uganda’s religious climate, it would seem that perhaps those who should fear the Anti-Homosexuality Bill the most would be pastors who become prominent enough to become a threat to the prestige or finances of other pastors.
The Red Pepper's story of February 25, 2010. (Click to enlarge)
Last spring, the Red Pepper launched a public vigilante campaign in an attempt to “out” LGBT people in Uganda. In December, the tabloid published what it claimed were “city tycoons who bankroll Ugandan homos.” Pastors Martin Ssempa and others are believed to be behind many of these campaigns.
Click here to see BTB’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
March 2nd, 2010
This year’s theme for the American Political Science Association’s 2010 African Summer Workshop is Global Perspectives on Politics and Gender, a theme which would necessarily touch on sexual identity and LGBT issues in politics. The APSA had begun planning for the 2010 Workshop in Kampala, Uganda last summer, before the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill was introduced in Parliament. Obviously, that poses a problem for the APSA, which has announced that they will be moving their 2010 Workshop to another location:
The political climate in Uganda now, along with the possibility that the legislation in some form will pass, and that it will include criminalization of thought as well as harsh penalties, precludes our going forward there with this Workshop. The long lead time to plan and reorient a Workshop session requires that we identify right now another venue where the Workshop topics can be addressed openly. We cannot commit today to send staff and scholars to work in Uganda safely on topics that include the study of sexual identity in politics, and we of course must not remove these topics from our agenda for the Workshops.
The new location for the African Summer Workshop hasn’t been settled yet, but APSA Executive Director Michael Brintnall suggests that Dar es Salaam, Tanzania may be a possibility.
[Hat tip: GayUganda]
Click here to see BTB’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
March 1st, 2010
The Ugandan pastor and kill-the-gays advocate is not only blogging, but he’s also Facebooking and commenting on BTB.
March 1st, 2010
Uganda's top scout: MP David Bahati is honored during an East African scouting conference in Kampala. (Click to enlarge)
On first blush, that’s doesn’t look like a headline that would strike fear in the hearts of those who support Uganda’s proposed “kill the gays” bill, but there is an important angle to it. Ugandan Member of Parliament David Bahati, sponsor of the notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill, also happens to be chairman of Uganda’s Scouts Board.
According to a press release from UK LGBT advocate Peter Tatchell, the Chief Executive of the Scout Association UK, Derek Twine, has condemned the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill as “discriminatory and contrary to the sanctity of life, [and] completely incompatible with our interpretation of the values of our worldwide Scouting Movement.” Twine continues:
We have already drawn our grave concerns on this to the attention of the Secretary General of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM), and we are subsequently aware that the issues are now subject both to WOSM\’s direct engagement with the Chief Scout of Uganda (Mrs Maggie Kigozi) and to ongoing global consideration by members of the World Scout Committee.”
Tatchell adds:
“Scouting is very big in Uganda and Mr Bahati derives great prestige from his position as Chairman of the Scout Association of Uganda. If we can get him removed from office it will be a significant personal blow to him. He’ll be weakened and his credibility undermined.
“OutRage! is urging the disaffiliation of the Ugandan scout organisation from the world scouting movement, as a way of adding further pressure on the Ugandan government to drop the Bill. Our request for disaffiliation was immediately forwarded by the Scout Association UK to the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM) in Geneva.
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
February 28th, 2010
Canon Gideon Byamugisha
The anonymous blogger GayUganda passes on a press release from a group of Ugandan human rights advocates and AIDS service providers led by Anglican priest Canon Gideon Byamugisha, announcing a meeting with Parliament speaker Edward Ssekandi Kiwanuka on Monday to present their opposition to the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. They also plan on presenting a petition to the Speaker and members of Parliament signed by more than half a million people around the world. After the meeting, there is to be a press conference.
People locally voicing opposition to the bill is absolutely vital, and much more important than outcry from abroad. This is a very important meeting. No one meeting will likely change things, but pastor Martin Ssempa and others have had an almost exclusive hold on the rhetoric behind the bill until now. The question now is whether Ugandan media will pick up on it.
In December, Canon Byamugisha blasted the proposed bill, calling it “state-legislated genocide against a specific community of Ugandans.” He also lambasted it as a cynical ploy by the ruling party for the upcoming elections. President Yoweri is seeking to extend his 24-year lock on power in 2011 despite his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party being rocked by a long series of financial corruption scandals.
Update: Uganda’s Daily Monitor has picked up the story with a photo:
L-R: Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo, Canon Rev. Gideon Byamugisha, Frank Mugisha (Sexual Minorities Uganda) and Maj. Rubaramira Ruranga (retired) presented the petition to parliament.
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
February 26th, 2010
Martin Ssempa showing gay porn (Photo via Warren Throckmorton)
We reported last week that Ugandan pentecostal pastor Martin Ssempa has been showing gay porn as part of his anti-gay campaign in support of that country’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. A columnist identified as “The Analyst” for Uganda’s independent Observer took that premise and ran with it with tongue firmly planted in cheek, claiming that gay porn is responsible for increasing attendance at his church.
This makes Makerere Community Church the only place in Uganda where watching pornography is “legal”. According to Uganda\’s laws, even mere possession of pornographic material is a crime. It would appear that Makerere Community Church has got a special license to show porn. Moreover, perhaps following Jesus Christ\’s example of welcoming children, even kids can watch porn at Makerere Community Church.
The, er, money shot is here:
“I can\’t wait to get home and try it out. The men in the movie really seemed to be enjoying themselves,” one member of the congregation told The Analyst.
We’ve seen megachurches reinvent themselves into coffee houses, rave clubs and concert halls, all in an attempt to incorporate elements of popular culture to make themselves appear hip and relevant. Why not porn? Even the worst of it beats the treacly karaoke singers that have become so popular over the past couple of decades.
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
February 25th, 2010
The headline in the online edition of Ugandan tabloid Red Pepper screams, “Pastors Name Benny Hinn Sodomy Bonkmate.” That headline appears to be in reaction to the news that American pentecostal prosperity evangelist and faith healer Benny Hinn is unable to heal his own marriage and is seeking a divorce.
Schadenfreudesters should be cautious however. The Red Pepper is notorious for publishing false accusations, especially when those accusations stoke the fires of homophobia. Last year, the tabloid conducted a virulently anti-gay campaign of public outings. The tabloild was also in the very thick of a wide-ranging “pastor wars,” in which several prominent pastors including pentecostal pastor Martin Ssempa, an ardent supporter of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, accused rival pastors of sodomy in order to try to boost their own standing. Sports figures have also gotten into the act.
In this latest flare-up, the Red Pepper published a banner headline accusing Benny Hinn of sodomizing a well-known pastor. The pastor, however, appears not to have been named in the Red Pepper piece, but that didn’t prevent Solomon Male and Simon Kyazze from naming their accused rival which appears to be Robert Kayanja. Pastor Benny Hinn held a large “Fire Conference” revivial at Kayanja’s Rubaga Miracle Centre last June. Kayanja was accused last May of homosexuality by several rival pastors, including Solomon Male and Martin Ssempa. Kayanja retaliated by barring Ssempa, Male and others from Hinn’s revival. BTB readers in Uganda tell us that Hinn is wildly popular there (his program is on Lighthouse TV every weekday evening at 9:00), which makes the snub all the more pointed.
Kayanja was cleared of all accusations by police, and they have charged Ssempa and Male for filing a false report. This may explain the Red Pepper’s reticence in naming the accused pastor in this round. But Ssempa is suspected of being behind the Red Pepper’s numerous anti-gay vigilante campaigns over the past several years. These latest allegations can be seen as just another battle in the ongoing war among Ugandan pastors for supremacy.
If the Anti-Homosexuality Bill should be come law, you can expect such campaigns to increase in frequency and consequence. One provision of the proposed law would significantly lower the bar for conviction. 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.”
The phrase “with any body part” leaves a loophole big enough to drive a truck through. Or a rival pastor.
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
February 24th, 2010
Frank Mugisha, chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUg), appears in this YouTube interview to talk about conditions in Uganda, the role of the three American anti-gay activists whose conference last March encouraged the creation of the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill, and a death in police custody of one gay man in Mbale.
Mugisha confirms that the American activists met with members of Parliament and claimed that international homosexuals were out to “recruit” Ugandan schoolchildren. For a taste of what those MP’s heard, we have this video taken from a talk by holocaust revisionist Scott Lively:
February 19th, 2010
Ugandan MP Otto Odonga
Kaj Hasselriis, writing for Canada’s Xtra, reports on a human rights forum held in Kampala this morning in which a Ugandan Member of Parliament declared that he would kill his own son if he were gay.
The forum, Human Rights and Sexual Orientation, witnessed this exchange between its keynote speaker and chair of neighboring Kenya’s Human Rights Commission Makai Mutua, and MP Otto Odonga, who argued in favor of the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill:
“I am baffled by the kind of hatred you spew against gay people,” Mutua said, “including your desire to be a hangman. Would you apply to be a hangman if the person to be hanged were your son?”
When Odonga nodded yes, Mutua said, “There is something deeply wrong with you.”
MP Christopher Kibanzanga also spoke out against LGBT people, and expressed bewilderment over the notion of bisexuals. “Who are bisexuals?”, he asked. “What do they do? Has it just been imported into Africa?”
Other MP’s were reportedly in the invitation-only audience of about eighty people, but they remained unidentified and refused to speak. Pro-LGBT advocates were also in attendance but, according to Xtra, they remained silent.
The task of defending Uganda’s LGBT citizens apparently fell to Mutua and a leader of an African women’s advocacy group. Mutua reportedly stole the show when he sharply rebuked those pushing for Uganda’s draconian anti-gay proposals, saying, “It’s important that we all try to expose ourselves to knowledge, to keep on growing. People who express extremist views are, in my view, always the ones who have read the least.”
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
February 18th, 2010
Opponents of same-sex marriage often claim that allowing marriage equality would be the first skid down the slippery slope to polygamy. Of course, there’s no evidence to support that assertion. In fact, quite the contrary. A Christian country that is considering the legal murder of gay people is going to the mat to protect marriage between one man and any number of wives:
The state (Uganda) on Thursday moved to protect the principal that a man can have more than one wife. The Attorney General\’s office has responded to a petition seeking to nullify the practice of polygamy by arguing that polgymay is protected by the Constitution under Article 37.
…But Attonery General Khiddu Makubuya stated in his response to the petition, that the law does not stop two consenting adults to choose the marriage of their choice. He said polygamy was protected under Article 37 of the Constitution which gives everyone the right “to belong, practice, enjoy, profess and promote any culture, tradition and religion of his or her own choice.”
Well, not just any culture, tradition and religion…
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
February 18th, 2010
World Net Daily posted this video a month ago, but it didn’t get much notice. Now it’s on YouTube, and everyone with an ounce of decency are horrified at Mitchell’s enthusiastic call to execute gay people. He calls their Anti-Homosexuality Bill “more American than Americans.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmWdExg4kicBelieve it. There really are people who want to kill you. Some are even willing to brag about it.
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
February 17th, 2010
Veteran UK LGBT activist Peter Tatchell has issued a correction to yesterday’s assertion that Ugandan MP David Bahati, author of the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill, “is demanding the execution of all scouts and scout leaders who commit repeated homosexual acts.” In an email sent to BTB, Peter’s statement reads:
On 16 February, I issued a news release about the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda and the Bill’s sponsorship by David Bahati MP, who is also Chairman of the Scout Board of Uganda.
I should have made it clear that Mr Bahati was not explicitly calling for the execution of gay scouts and scout leaders. His Bill proposes the execution of gay serial offenders, which could, of course, include gay scout members. But his Bill does not target gay scouts in particular and he has not specifically called for the execution of scouts who are gay. The threat to gay scouts in Uganda is implicit, not explicit.
Apologies for my lack of clarity. Below is a revised, corrected version of the news release, together with some new information about the Uganda Bill.
Peter Tatchell – London, UK
In his revised press release, Tatchell asks that UK readers write to their members of Parliament about the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
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