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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 lobbyFebruary 1st, 2009
Nigeria has one of the most draconian anti-gay laws on the books. Right now, consenting gay sex is punishable by up to 14 year in prison with hard labor. Now, Nigerian lawmakers are upping the ante with a new anti-gay bill which would make same-sex marriage punishable by up to three years in prison. The bill also would imprison anyone who attends a gay wedding with up to five years behind bars.
The anti-same-sex marriage bill goes beyond mere same-sex marriage. It also gives police the right to raid any public or private gatherings of any group of people suspected of being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
And it goes beyond Nigerian citizens, posing a threat to non-Nigerians as well. Anyone who married anywhere and returned to Nigeria, as well as anyone who is married to a same-sex partner who travels to Nigeria — including foreign business people — can be jailed.
In other words, there are some 36,000 Californians who face up to three years imprisonment with hard labor if they should step foot in Nigeria.
Matt Barber, of the Liberty Counsel, is completely on board with that:
Barber believes Nigeria and any other country ought to be free to express its own culture without outside interference.
“We have the Defense of Marriage Act on the books [in the United States]; why aren’t they coming after the U.S.? Well, because what bullies do is they pick on someone that is weaker than they are,” he notes. “So the European Union is trying to make an example out of Nigeria because they are in a position of influence and power, yet they will not pick the same fight with the United States because they know it would be to no avail.”
Matt surely knows there is a huge difference in how American laws and Nigerian laws treat LGBT people. One merely provides governmental non-recognition of same-sex marriage while the other imposes harsh prison terms in a Central African prison for anyone, including non-citizens and visitors, who are married.
Why would Barber overlook this massive difference? Maybe he wishes that difference wasn’t really there. His vigorous defense of the Nigerian bill, one that could even jeopardize American visitors, suggests that he sees imprisoning LGBT Americans and others around the world as nothing short of progress. Or at the very least, entirely defensible.
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lurker
February 1st, 2009
3 years in prison for getting married, 5 years for attending a wedding? strange.
lurker
February 1st, 2009
“gives police the right to raid any public or private gatherings of any group of people suspected of being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.”
that sounds like a perfect political tool for the government . . . have the authority for police intrusion on anyone – including political enemies – and also as an added bonus, slander the suspects as being sexual deviants.
Swampfox
February 1st, 2009
I guess he is all for the Iranians to hang gays from cranes in order to protect the institution of marriage in Iran?
Benjamin
February 1st, 2009
Just let these creeps from Liberty Council continue their fascist and sickeningly unconstitutional rhetoric. Keep exposing it loudly to the public far and wide and the public will continue to be shocked and horrified by these so-called “Christians”. They’re going to continue to be more and more irrelevant as the months and years go forward. They are going to be looked on as another irrelevant fringe group one day. The younger generations will fill the ranks of leadership in this nation and then men like Matt Barber and especially James Dobson will be in wheel chairs in the nursing home or in the grave and they will one day soon be forgotten and buried while our nation and the rest of the world moves forward.
Lynn David
February 2nd, 2009
I think Bam-Bam took 100 too many shots to the head.
homer
February 2nd, 2009
Matt Barber, must suck to be such a pathetic “straight” man who obsesses about gay folks.
Dave
February 2nd, 2009
Jim,
Oddly, to me at least, you failed to quote the most outrageous thing Barber said:
And to think I was criticised at Townhall.com for calling Barber a cranky, anti-gay bigot.
Dave
February 2nd, 2009
Oh, and here are some questions about the United States and Nigeria:
1. Does Nigeria receive aid from the US? If so, how much?
2. How much trade exists between Nigeria and the US.
Regan DuCasse
February 2nd, 2009
Now we have the proof that Nigerian gays and lesbians have legitimate reason to seek asylum in the US.
If this country becomes the mecca or perhaps even Spain or Canada, becomes the mecca of oppressed and persecuted gays from other countries, they could possibly become a larger voting block.
In any case, we should welcome them because they are human beings in urgent danger.
No less than the Jews who were eventually a part of a death campaign.
Whose to say that such incarceration isn’t also a part of a greater plan of extermination?
Matt Barber is an asshole, and YES we should INTERVENE on behalf of those subject to HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES.
Didn’t that shmuck read about the Holocaust and how all that even started and who it’s Final Solution victims all were?
Regan DuCasse
February 2nd, 2009
I was just reading the Liberty Counsel website and the article that quotes Barber.
Where DO they get such clueless idiots?!
There are regions of Nigeria, the middle south and horn of africa guilty of terrible abuses of women because they begin their lives in marriage as CHILD BRIDES!
As young as 10 years old!
Very often married to men who are thirty to forty.
These girls end up with terrible problems from childbearing, even dying prematurely from complications of it.
Poverty, illiteracy and domestic violence are firmly feminized in that country, and it’s the fourth leading African country in HIV/AIDS infections.
Which is essentially a collateral problem borne of the others.
Yet, Nigeria’s government is of the belief that gay people are a problem, not the heterosexual men who RUN it!
Bitch slap to Barber and the asshat who wrote the article that Nigeria supports traditional marriage.
Yeah….THEIR traditional marriage, which treats females worse than the family dog in some villages.
Swampfox
February 2nd, 2009
Dave, Nigeria is an oil rich country that is still in horrible shape financially. I can only hope that the United States doesn’t help support this regime.
NancyP
February 2nd, 2009
This is a law that will be enforced selectively. No foreign visitor who gets along with (pays graft to) the power structure will be bothered. Troublesome journalists, foreign and domestic, and activists will be prosecuted and milked for money or jailed directly. Political opponents will be targeted with made-up accusations of gay sex. And so on…
Attmay
February 3rd, 2009
So Nigeria is ready to become the new Zimbabwe.
There should be brutal economic sanctions against countries like this. They need to be totally isolated from the world community.
Matt Barber should be in jail.
whatsup
August 23rd, 2012
You know what? After whats going on here in 2012 they should lock up gays for what they are doing to us. Our way of life is in dire straights. Freedom of religion is a big issue, gays want to make us shut up about what the Bible says, and they are in our schools teaching our children that gay is ok go ahead and try some….
It’s just plain evil what’s going on…. I know love is blind and you can’t see what I am talking about, but it’s “lust” that is blinding you, not love, and same sex love is certainly NOT NATURAL!! Gays cannot co-exist with straights…. it just won’t work!! It’s like changing the atmosphere to which straights breath, so gays can breath it… .we cannot breath the same air!!!
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