Box Turtle Bulletin

LGBT Group: Archbishop of Canterbury Quietly Condemns Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill

The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) has issued a press release indicating that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has condemned Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. According to the press release:

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s press secretary has told LGCM that Archbishop Rowan Williams is “very clear that the private Member’s Bill being discussed in Uganda as drafted is entirely unacceptable from a pastoral, moral and legal point of view.” The press office went on to tell LGCM that the proposed Bill was “a cause of deep concern, fear and, to many, outrage.”

LGCM has spoken recently on its concern that the Archbishop had not spoken out against this Bill, the Archbishops office assured LGCM that “the Archbishop has been working intensively behind the scenes (over the past weeks) to ensure that there is clarity on how the proposed bill is contrary to Anglican teaching.”

LGCM now calls on the Archbishop to “instruct all Anglican clergy in Uganda to speak out against this Bill and to take whatever action is needed to safeguard the lives of lesbian, gay and bisexual people.” I would also add that it would be helpful if the Archbishop would issue a condemnation directly to the public from his own hand, and not have his dissaproval passed along through his press secretary to another group with the task of making the third-hand information public.

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

EU Condemns Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill

At a meeting in Strasbourg, France, the European Parliament passed a resolution strongly condemning Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The E.U. resolution calls on Uganda “not to approve the bill and to review their laws to decriminalize homosexuality.” The resolution also calls on the European Commission and Council to reconsider EU aid to Uganda if the anti-gay bill passes. The EU currently provides Uganda $275 million annually in developmental aid, which is more than the $250 million provided by the U.S. The EU’s contribution amounts to just under 17% of Uganda’s total foreign aid receipts.

The full text of the resolution is available online.

The EU has been following these developments since the beginning. Last March, European Parliament\’s Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights condemned the March 5th meeting between several Ugandan parliamentarians and Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, Exodus International board member Don Schmierer, International Healing Foundation’s Caleb Lee Brundidge and Family Life Network’s Stephen Langa during their anti-gay conference held in Kampala.

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

BBC: “Should Homosexuals Face Execution?”

Screen capture of the BBC web site, via Pink News (click to enlarge)

It’s hard to imagine any reputable news outlet posing such a question, but that’s what the BBC asked in an online “Have Your Say” forum late yesterday. And to make matters worse, BBC’s editors have defended the decision.

But in response to the furor the the question sparked on Twitter, the internet, and among the forums own respondents, BBC’s editors have since changed the question. It now reads “Should Uganda debate gay execution?” The forum is now closed for comments, but from the outrage expressed by many respondents, it appears that virtually all of them were responding to the original question, “Should homosexuals face execution?”

Most of the comments appear to be a resounding “no!” But there are a few along the lines of this one, from “NF” of Alberta, Canada:

Can I move to Uganda? At least one country in the world is taking moral values seriously (as well as the health of their citizens). It may sound extreme, but that shock value will allow more people to think about their actions beforehand.

And another one from Freetown (no country given):

Bravo to the Ugandians for this wise decision, a bright step in eliminating this menace from your society. We hope other African nations will also follow your bold step.

Next question: Should Kosovars be rounded up an shot?

Uganda’s Slow U-Turn? Leading Minister Supported “Kill Gays” Bill; Now Vows Silence

It’s very difficult to read the tea leaves from halfway around the world, but it seems that if one looks closely, one can detect signs that leading Ugandan officials are looking for a way out of the controversey surrounding the Anti-Homosexuality Bill that is now before Parliament. Today’s Daily Monitor, Uganda’s largest independent newspaper, has an article that reviews worldwide condemnation of Uganda’s attempt to legislate LGBT people out of existence. Significantly, it leads off with these paragraphs:

International opposition against Ndorwa West MP David Bahati\’s proposed anti-gay law continued to grow steadily, drawing support from such unlikely quarters as the White House.

The growing list now includes US President Barack Obama, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Anglican leader Rowan Williams, some US senators, and several newspapers.

This marks the first time the White House’s condemnation of Uganda’s proposed legislation has been reported in Uganda’s major media. The Monitor is Uganda’s second largest newspaper, behid the government owned New Vision. This particlular article mentioning the White House statement is especially important because President Barack Obama is revered throughout East Africa, which is where his father is from.

The article also summarizes statements from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Senators Russ Feingold and John Kerry, and the prime ministers of Canada and Britain. Sweden has threatened to reduce its aid to Uganda, and the United Nations and World Health Organization announced that they would cancel plans to relocate a major HIV/AIDS research center to Entebbe.  The Monitor now indicates that critical leaders in Uganda’s government are starting to get the message:

Buturo\’s U-turn
The pressure from these and other sources was being felt in Kampala, with Ethics Minister Nsaba Buturo now saying he would remain silent about the proposed law until it has been passed or defeated.

The Monitor also reports, “By yesterday, however, the official stance was that the government had not yet reached a position on the proposed law.”

Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo has been an outspoken supporter of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Last month, he held a press conference at the Uganda Media Centre castigating donor nations and others who have denounced the bill and pledged that the bill would go foward. A little more than a week later Buturo bragged, “It is with joy we see that everyone is interested in what Uganda is doing, and it is an opportunity for Uganda to provide leadership where it matters most.” This is the latest evidence that the Ugandan government may be reconsidering its support for the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Last week, we noticed that the Uganda Media Centre, which acts as a “centralized location where all official government correspondence and information can be easily accessed, published a column questioning Parliament’s decision to take up the bill with so many other more important pressing matters. That was followed a few days later with an op-ed written by a senior advisor to President Museveni that appeared in the government-owned New Vision, which is Uganda’s largest paper. That op-ed said flatly, “Parliament should not pass this bill.”

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

“The Family” Opposes Uganda’s “Kill Gays” Bill

Jeff Sharlet, of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, wrote a guest post on Warren Throckmorton’s web site which updates his November appearance on NPR’s Fresh Air where he revealed ties between the secretive Evangelical movement known as “The Family” and Uganda’s politicians behind the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. In this latest guest post, Sharlet says that The Family opposes the bill and key members are working behind the scenes to stop it from becoming law.

In Sharlet’s book, he identified Bob Hunter as a key organizer for The Family in Uganda during the 1980’s becoming friends with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and helping him establish the Ugandan Prayer Breakfast. Sharlet was finally able to get in contact with Hunter and spent an afternoon detailing the events in Uganda. Sharlet writes:

We agreed that the first step was a statement making clear Bob\’s opposition to the bill. Moreover, Bob adds “I know of no one involved in Uganda with the Fellowship here in America, including the most conservative among them, that supports such things as killing homosexuals or draconian reporting requirements, much less has gone over to Uganda to push such positions.”

That\’s very, very good news. The Fellowship prefers to avoid the limelight; Bob has forsaken that to make clear his position and that of his American associates: The Fellowship, AKA the Family, opposes the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill. [Emphases in the original.]

In his book, Sharlet pointed out that while the Family has a strongly conservative bent, they do not exclude liberals or moderates from their ranks. Hunter had previously served in the Ford and Carter administrations, and had a strong background in consumer advocacy. Sharlet continues:

Over the course of the afternoon he [Hunter] shared with me his experience working with the Fellowship in Burundi, Rwanda, and South Africa. While I may take issue with the Fellowship\’s behind-the-scenes approach, there\’s no denying that in each of these cases Bob and his associates were working toward extremely admirable ends, and that in the case of Burundi Bob\’s efforts helped make the difference that brought a truce to that country\’s warring factions. Bob did what he did with the best of intentions, and, in several instances, achieved the best of outcomes.

While Sharlet exonerates Hunter’s role in the development of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, and further says that no American Family member has played a direct role in it’s promotion, he notes the religious revival that has taken place in Uganda since the 1980’s and the prominent role Americans, including Family members, have played in shaping the rhetorical nature of that revival including its anti-gay aspects. And he believes that those Family members have a special responsibility, which many of them are not living up to:

I\’d add that through the Fellowship, a number of anti-gay American politicians have involved themselves with Ugandan affairs, most notably Senator James Inhofe, who has spoken of having “adopted” Uganda and who has been a guest at multiple Ugandan National Prayer Breakfasts. I don\’t believe James Inhofe told David Bahati to push this legislation. I believe Inhofe when he says – under pressure – that he\’s opposed to it. But the fact is, these powerful politicians, representatives of the most powerful nation on the world and its foreign aid generosity, are clear and candid in their opposition to homosexuality. That\’s their right. But I believe they should therefore be even more clear and candid in their opposition to its criminalization. Theirs is a personal, religious position.  They should extra precautions to make clear that these positions are in absolutely no way linked to the relationships between the United States and foreign aid recipients. Not only have they not done that, they resisted even condemning the bill.

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

“Hey Gay Pervert”: A Gay Ugandan’s Conversation With A Legislator

MP Benson Obua-Ogwal

Yesterday we posted exclusive clips from the print edition of Uganda’s largest independent newspaper The Monitor, which provided several examples of how ordinary Ugandans talk about gay people. Today GayUganda posted a series of emails from an exchange he had with MP Benson Obua-Ogwal, who has been identified as a co-sponsor who helped draft the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Act. These emails give us a good sense of how some Ugandan politicians talk to gay people:

Hey Gay Pervert,

How about this one coming from all religious leaders across board right here at home?:

www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/Church_
leaders_back_govt_on_anti-gay_Bill_95758.shtml

We love gays, but hate homosexuality which has no place here.

Forget about the Bill being withdrawn, for it will be passed in due time.

Benson.

There’s much more at GayUganda’s website.

MP Obua-Ogwal has been identified as a core member of the American-based College of Prayer International, which established a Ugandan campus under the leadership of Julius Oyet. Obua-Ogwa and MP David Bahati, the proposed bill’s sponsor, were two of eight MP\’s appointed to serve on the College of Prayer’s “servant leadership team.”

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

Hillary Clinton Denounces Uganda’s “Kill Gays” Bill

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has become perhaps the administration’s most outspoken and consistent critic of attempts to criminalize homosexuality. Yesterday in a speech at Georgetown University, Secretary Clinton singled out Uganda for its latest efforts to legislate LGBT people out of existence.

Calling for accountability doesn\’t start or stop at naming offenders. Our goal is to encourage—even demand—that governments must also take responsibility by putting human rights into law and embedding them in government institutions; by building strong, independent courts and competent and disciplined police and law enforcement. And once rights are established, governments should be expected to resist the temptation to restrict freedom of expression when criticism arises, and be vigilant in preventing law from becoming an instrument of oppression, as bills like the one under consideration in Uganda to criminalize homosexuality would do.

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

David Bahati Is A Boy Scout — And Other Examples of Ugandans Talking About Gay People

A BTB reader from Uganda sent some fascinating clips from the independent Daily Monitor, saying “people are actually talking and thinking, so… that’s another positive development.” I hope he’s right. The items he sent give us some indication of the kind of talking and thinking that is taking place as a result of the controversy surrounding the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Act.

Interview with former Health Minister Mike Mukula in the Dec 14 Daily Monitor (Click to enlarge)

The first item shows the negativity surrounding the discussion, with an article in yesterday’s Daily Monitor being a great example of how gay people in Uganda are blamed for just about everything including the political misfortunes of some top leaders. The Monitor runs a special feature called “Funny You Should Ask…” and yesterday Edwin Nuwagaba interviewed Mike Mukula, a former state Minister for Health. So who’s to blame for Mukula being identified as one of the most corrupt people in Uganda? Not political opponents, and of course not himself because he’s obviously a very innocent and virtuous politician. It’s gay people:

Don’t you feel ashamed after being named in the book of Shame and Fame as one of the most corrupt people in Uganda?
I don’t, because first of all that report is backed by Action Aid and it has support of the gay community. It should have been scientific that the people who have been convicted should have been the ones to be named and shamed. What happens if one is cleared by the Supreme Court? Do they go to Google and clear his image? I am a strong anti corruption crusader and tI think corruption should be fought.

So do you want to say that the gay people are against you?
Uganda is now under attack by the gay community globally, so people need to understand that prominent people in government will be taken on. This is a storm in a tea cup. It has got political origins. Corruption is a national and global matter it should never be used to demonize individuals.

But for balance, The Sunday Monitor also carried a column by Robert Kalumba, asking “Is the Church hypocritical when it comes to homosexuality?” That article recounts the various sex scandals in the Catholic Church, as well as Ted Haggard’s fall from grace along with a long line of American and Ugandan pastors that have been accused of sexual misconduct or have been forced to resign from their churches due to sex scandals. Kalumba has detected a glaring double standard:

So, according to the Bible, like homosexuality, divorce among other “vices” is forbidden. So why has the famous televangelist Pastor Juanita Bynum divorced her husband Bishop Weeks, who actually is planning to get married for the third time? Why isn\’t the church throwing Mark\’s verse to all church divorcees that fill their pews on Sundays? Why don\’t they encourage women whose dead husbands have left no male heirs to engage in sex orgies with their brothers-in-law?

Some will argue that those biblical texts are taken out of context but the same can be said about verses that seem to denounce homosexuality.

Uganda's top scout: MP David Bahati is honored during an East African scouting conference in Kampala. (Click to enlarge)

Our reader says that the print version of this column had a cartoon of two men kissing, a rarity for Ugandan media.

In other news, Ugandan member of Parliament David Bahati, in addition to being the author of a bill imposing the penalty of death by hanging on LGBT people and criminalizing anyone who knows or associates with them, is also the chairman of the Uganda Scouts Board. There’s photo in yesterday’s Daily Monitor of Bahati receiving a scouting kerchief during a East African Scouting conference held in Kampala last Friday. We know that the Boy Scouts of America bans gays from the organization, and will drum out anyone who comes out. Given Bahati’s proposal for LGBT people, I wonder if Uganda’s scouts can earn a merit badge in tying nooses.

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

American Evangelical Connections: The Disciple Nations Alliance and Uganda’s “Kill Gays” Bill

Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton and Gay City Newshave separately named the Disciple Nations Alliance as a possible connection to Uganda’s “Kill Gays” Bill through Stephen Langa, whose Family Life Network organized the March 5-7 anti-gay conference that kick started the latest anti-gay pogrom in Uganda. Langa followed that meeting with further meetings, including some with members of Parliament, to promote “strengthening” Uganda’s already draconian anti-homosexuality law, which currently provides for lifetime imprisonment for those convicted of homosexuality. That has ultimately led to the introduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Act before Uganda’s Parliament, which includes the death penalty and other measures seeking to legislate LGBT people out of existence.

Langa, it turns out, is a member of Phoenix-based Disciple Nations Alliance. According to the DNA’s web site, he heads the Uganda affiliate called Transformation Nations Alliance (TNA). The first DNA Vision conference in Uganda was held in 2000 at Stephen Langa’s Watoto Church (then known as Kampala Pentecostal Church). The second conference in 2001 was held at the same church. The DNA’s report continues:

Stephen Langa is a member of the Africa Working Group of Samaritan Strategy Africa, the network whose objective is to spread DNA training across the continent of Africa. In addition to serving as an Elder at Watoto Church, he also provides leadership to the Family Life Network, a pro-family advocacy organization. He also serves as Director of the Uganda Youth Forum, a youth ministry organization founded by the First Lady of Uganda in 2001.

The mission of Transformation Nations Alliance is to engage and disciple all sectors of society, through a biblical worldview centred, holistic approach to ministry, leading to the restoration of God\’s original plan for creation. Towards this end, TNA has trained and mentored a team of certified Ugandan trainers who regularly facilitate Vision Conferences throughout the nation. Hundreds of Ugandan church leaders have been impacted. In addition, these trainers have been called upon to train the local staff of several large mission and development organizations, including World Vision and Compassion International.

The history of Disciple Nations Alliance is provided on their web site:

The Disciple Nations Alliance began in 1997 as a joint initiative of Food for the Hungry International www.FH.org and the Harvest Foundation www.harvestfoundation.org to envision and equip local churches worldwide to fulfill their strategic role in the transformation of communities and nations. The Disciple Nations Alliance began by promoting a “school of thought” centered on the power of Biblical Truth for cultural transformation, the strategic role of the church in society, and the importance of wholistic, incarnational ministry.

This school of thought was initially spread through five-day “Vision Conferences”which featured the teaching of DNA co-founders and master trainers, Darrow Miller and Bob Moffitt. The first Vision Conference was held in Lima, Peru in 1997. Since then, hundreds of Vision Conferences have occurred in more than 50 nations and thousands of church leaders have been impacted.

DNA and Langa have worked together in the past to influence Ugandan law to the detriment of Uganda’s gay community. In 2006 DNA co-founder Darrow Miller worked with Langa to ensure that the Equal Opportunities Bill, which was then being debated in Uganda’s Parliament, would not include equal opportunities for LGBT people. The question now is what role has DNA played in Langa’s efforts to impose the death penalty for that nation’s gay community?

[Hat tip: Warren Throckmorton and Gay City News]

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

UN Official: Uganda May Lose AIDS Research Center If “Kill Gays” Bill Passes

From Pink News:

Uganda may lose the chance to host a major AIDS research institution if its parliament passes a bill against homosexuality, a United Nations official has said. Catherine Hankins, the chief scientific advisor for UNAIDS, suggested that her organisation and the World Health Organisation (WHO) could take a decision on the location of the institution depending on whether the bill passes.

The African AIDS Vaccine Programme (AAVP) is slated to be relocated from Geneva, Switzerland, to Entebbe. But if the bill passes, UNAIDS and WHO will revisit that decision.

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

Sens. Feingold, Coburn, Grassley Denounce Uganda’s “Kill Gays” Bill

The past week has seen a number of Senators and Congressional Representative issue statements on the Anti-Homosexuality Act that is before Parliament in Uganda. First, let’s go to Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), to show us how such a statement ought to be done:

I share the outrage of many political, religious and civic leaders in Uganda and around the world about the “anti-homosexuality bill” before the Ugandan Parliament.  If enacted, this inhumane bill would sanction new levels of violence against people in Uganda based solely on their gender or sexual orientation.  Its passage would hurt the close working relationship between our two countries, especially in the fight against HIV/AIDS.  Over the last month, I have conveyed these concerns to the State Department and directly to President Museveni, and I urge Uganda\’s leaders to reject this bill.

So notice what he did: 1) He put his statement on his Senate web site for everyone to see, 2), he relayed his concerns to the State Department, 3) he contacted Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni directly about his concerns, and 4) his statement is free from any political baggage. It’s simply a straightforward statement of right and wrong. And as far as I can tell, he did it without having to succumb to major media pressure, which makes his statement all the more believable.

Now contrast that with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), who has been identified as being a member of the secretive Evangelical group known as “The Family.” He released his statement through an email sent out by aGOProud, the LGBT Republican group that formed after former members of the Log Cabin Republicans thought it became too liberal. Coburn’s statement wasn’t put on his Senate web page, he didn’t contact the state department or Ugandan officials, and he  cloaked his statement in some very odd political wrappings:

“Over the past two decades, political, religious, and community leaders in Uganda have united to promote a rare, winning strategy against HIV that addresses the unique and common risks of every segment of society. Sadly, some who oppose Uganda\’s common sense ABC strategy are using an absurd proposal to execute gays to undermine this coalition and winning strategy. Officials in Uganda should come to their senses and take whatever steps are necessary to withdraw this proposal that will do nothing but harm a winning strategy that is saving lives.”

Strange, isn’t it? Who does he suggest is “opposing Uganda’s common sense ABC strategy”? Might it be Tom Coburn himself — the man who wants to undermine ABC so that only AB remains by dropping condoms from the Abstinence/Be Faithful/Use Condoms trilogy? It seems that Cobern’s concern is not toward people who would be directly affected by Uganda’s attempt to legislate LGBT people out of existence, but the embarrassment it brings to those who want to meddle in Uganda’s AIDS strategy by imposing abstinence only education.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) who has also been identified as being a member of The Family, had initially refused to comment when asked on , using the excuse that he isn’t in the Ugandan parliament and was unfamiliar with the law. But on Friday (Dec 11), he decided to tell us he’s against it.

Based on what I\’ve been able to learn about the legislation and from the stand point that I\’m a born again Christian, I can tell you that I don\’t agree with this un-Christian and unjust  proposal, and I hope the Ugandan officials dismiss it,” he said.

After hemming and hawing, Grassley ended up doing considerably better than Coburn. At least he didn’t try to entangle his statement with strange partisan attacks. Plus, he issued his statement through the Iowa Independent, and not some special interest group’s email to members where it might not get noticed so easily. Now if only he could get it to Museveni’s eyes and ears…

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

Archbishop of Canterbury Mumbles Something About Uganda

Britain’s Daily Telegraph published a fawning interview Saturday with the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, in which the topic of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act happened to come up ever so briefly:

“Overall, the proposed legislation is of shocking severity and I can\’t see how it could be supported by any Anglican who is committed to what the Communion has said in recent decades,” says Dr Williams. “Apart from invoking the death penalty, it makes pastoral care impossible – it seeks to turn pastors into informers.” He adds that the Anglican Church in Uganda opposes the death penalty but, tellingly, he notes that its archbishop, Henry Orombi, who boycotted the Lambeth Conference last year, “has not taken a position on this bill”.

Apart from invoking the death penalty, it’s hard to say that the Archbishop of Canterbury took much of a position either. In contrast, Saddleback Pastor Rick Warren is looking positively bold when he said, “I oppose the criminalization of homosexuality. The freedom to make moral choices is endowed by God.” Fortunately, reporter George Pitcher quickly changed the subject before things became too uncomfortable for the good Archbishop.

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

Uganda “Kill Gays” Bill Sponsor Refuses To Budge

Uganda MP David Bahati, prime sponsor of the Anti-Homosexuality Act

As far as Ugandan Member of Parliament David Bahati is concerned, the death penalty provision will remain. He told the U.K.’s Guardian that he has no intention of modifying the Anti-Homosexuality Act that he introduced into Parliament as a private member’s bill:

He denied reports that international pressure might result in parts of the bill being toned down. “We are not going to yield to any international pressure – we cannot allow people to play with the future of our children and put aid into the game. We are not in the trade of values. We need mutual respect.”

Part of that international pressure includes a very high-profile statement by Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren, who said that Christian leaders have a moral responsibility to oppose Uganda\’s draconian proposal. He also said, “I oppose the criminalization of homosexuality. The freedom to make moral choices is endowed by God.” That didn’t sit well with Bahati:

Bahati said yesterday that he regretted Warren’s retreat. “It’s unfortunate that a man of God who has inspired many people across the world can give in to pressure and disappoint them.” Around 85% of Ugandans are Christian – 40% Catholics, 35% Anglican. Muslims make up 12% of the population.

Curiously, as he did with the BBC interview, Bahati tried to deflect the bill’s draconian measures by downplaying the fact that it’s an anti-gay bill — despite the name of the bill being “Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2009.” Repeating the line he told the BBC this week, Bahat told the Guardian.

“The section of the death penalty relates to defilement by an adult who is homosexual and this is consistent with the law on defilement which was passed in 2007. The whole intention is to prevent the recruitment of under-age children, which is going on in single-sex schools. We must stop the recruitment and secure the future of our children.”

As we pointed out when Bahati told the BBC the same thing, this is simply a bold-faced lie. The Anti-Homosexuality Act, which we have posted online, applies the death penalty to anyone convicted of “aggravated homosexuality,” The definition of “aggravated homosexuality” includes having sex with someone under the age of eighteen. But it also includes:

• anyone who is gay and a “repeat offender” (which could include either someone who has had more than one sexual partner, or who has had sexual relations more than once with the same partner),
• and anyone who is gay and HIV-positive. In fact, the proposed legislation mandates HIV testing for anyone accused of being gay in order to determine whether that individual qualifies for the death penalty.

Bahati’s insistence that the bill will not be watered down comes amid reports that the death penalty provision might be removed. Also in the past week, two op-eds have appeared in government-controlled media calling for the proposed legislation be dropped altogether. One op-ed, in the government owned New Vision newspaper, was written by a senior adviser to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has not spoken publicly about the bill.  If the bill goes forward, it is expected to be debated within the next two weeks and possibly become law by February.

Bahati and Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo, who has also been a vocal supporter of the bill, plan to attend the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. in February. It is customary for the President of the United States to speak at the Prayer Breakfast. The Prayer Breakfast is sponsored by the secretive Evangelical group known as The Family, of which Bahati and Buturo are members.

If the bill becomes law and the two show up in February, the “welcoming committee” outside the venue might provide an embarrassment to everyone associated with The Family. Airfare to D.C. tends to be rather low in February. Just sayin’.

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

White House Condemns Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Kerry Eleveld at The Advocate reports that the White House has issued a statement condemning Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill:

“The President strongly opposes efforts, such as the draft law pending in Uganda, that would criminalize homosexuality and move against the tide of history,” read the statement that came late Friday in response to an inquiry from The Advocate.

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

Donor Nations Formally Protest Uganda’s “Kill Gays” Bill

The Monitor, Uganda’s main independent newspaper, reports:

Donors have formally protested the anti-Homosexuality Bill, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The diplomatic protest technically known as a “demarche” was issued in the last few weeks and follows on the heels of a worldwide campaign by gay rights campaigners and human rights groups.

“We can confirm that we have received a demarche from the Delegation of the European Union which has also been signed by the Norwegian and American Embassies,” said Mr Henry Okello Oryem yesterday morning.

Sweden has already announced that they will cut aid to Uganda if the Anti-Homosexuality Act passes. The Monitor reports that “The issue has turned into a public relations nightmare for the government.”

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