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 lobbyFebruary 25th, 2014
In this video, Morning @NTVhost Simon Kasyate dues his best to referee a debate between and Anti-Homosexuality Act support and virulently anti-gay pentecostal pastor Martin “Eat Da Poo-Poo” Ssempa, and virulently anti-gay pentecostal pastor but Anti-Homosexuality Act opponent Solomon Male, who calls it “a populist bill, it is opportunistic, it is based on nepotism, and it is based on lies.” Male’s still as anti-gay as ever though. One of his objection now seems centered on an incorrect reading of Uganda’s gener-neutral law against pedophilia which madates the death penalty for anyone convicted of child sexual abuse. Male contends that with the removal of the death penalty from the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, that homosexual child abusers (as though they are the only kind of homosexuals in existence) will now have a lesser penalty than heterosexual child abusers. In 2012, Solomon voiced his opposition to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, accusing security agencies of covering up for prominent people who were supposedly “luring” children in to homosexuality and calling it “a waste of precious time, financial and other resources that should have been applied more productively elsewhere.”
Ssempa counters that Uganda “has joined the group of superpower nations such as Russia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, in taking a strong stand against sodomy.” Ssempa has designs to take the bill to the parliament of the East African Community and then to the African Union.
Male is a former Ssempa ally. In October of 2012, Male and Ssempa were convicted by a Uganda court of conspiring to tarnish a rival pastor’s reputation by accusing him of homosexuality.
February 25th, 2014
MP David Bahati, who introduced the private member’s bill into Parliament, reacted to the signing:
This is a victory for the family of Uganda, the future of our children and certainly a triumph of our sovereignty as a country that got independence fifty years ago.
Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo (a defrocked Catholic priest) dismissed the potential international fallout from the bill:
Because I know any sensible person will take this positively and say, oh, this bill as asserted their position, they’ve asserted their mind, and let’s respect them as they are and we’ll continue relating.
The NTV report erroneously states that first-time offenders against the new Anti-Homosexuality Act “would face up to fourteen years in jail.” In fact, the final act as signed into law sets a penalty of lifetime imprisonment regardless if whether it is a first conviction or not.
February 25th, 2014
Named on the front page: LGBT activist Sam Ganafa, priest and gospel singer Fr. Anthony Musaala, popular singer Keko, and LGBT activist Victor Musaka.
Just one day after Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act, the tabloid Red Pepper has launched a massive vigilante campaign on the front page of its latest edition. Four photos appear on the front page, with additional photos on the inside pages along with names, addresses and other identifying information on 200 people that the paper says is gay.
Two of the four front-page photos are of well-known LGBT rights activists. Sam Ganafa, executive director of Spectrum Uganda Initiatives and board chair for the Sexual Minorities Uganda coalition, had been arrested with four others by police last November and spent two weeks in jail and charged with “unnatural offenses,” which carried a potential lifetime imprisonment even without the Anti-Homosexuality act being in place. The five were finally released on bail, awaiting trial. Transgender rights activist Victor Musaka who won an important High Court case in 2008 which stemmed from his arrest and personal body examination by police seeking to determine his so-called “real” gender. The High Court issued a landmark ruling stating that police had violated his right to privacy and that the principles of equality and non-discrimination are applicable to the LGBT community.
The other two photos are of popular cultural figures in Uganda, Fr. Anthony Musaala and a hip-hop performer who goes by the stage name of Keko. Fr. Anthony Musaala is a recording artist known as “the singing priest.” In 2009, in the anti-gay hysteria stirred up by the infamous conference conducted by Scott Lively and two other American Evangelicals, Musaala was named by the Ugandan organization that sponsored Lively’s talk, and later by a lacky by a lacky of rival pastor Martin Ssempa. Musaala is a well-known figure and the Catholic church is seen as a rival to Uganda’s evangelical churches. Musaala’s name appeared in another tabloid’s outing campaign in 2010 when Sunday Onion (no relation to the satirical U.S. publication with a similar name) published his name and photo. Musaala has never publicly discussed his sexuality.
Keko experienced Red Pepper’s retaliation last week when Keko took to social media saying, “If Sevo signs the anti-homosexuality bill, we are always going to be third world. Development is tolerance.”
Red Pepper’s outing campaign this time takes up three interior pages with more names and photos of LGBT Ugandans. Some of the names and photos are well-known: Sexual Minorities Uganda executive director Frank Mugisha, transgender rights activist Pepe Julian Onziema, and Freedom and Roam Uganda executive director Jacqueline Kasha. Onziema told the Associated Press that he knew of six arrests since Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act yesterday. Police have confirmed two.
But the overwhelming number of those named by Red Pepper are private citizens and not well-known activists or celebrities. The names listed are often those of ordinary salespeople, shopkeepers, and ordinary employees of larger firms. The evidence for their alleged homosexuality is not given, and many, in fact, may not be gay or transgender.
Red Pepper’s web site is currently off-line as of this writing.
In 2011, the tabloid Rolling Stone (no relation to the U.S. publication by the same name) published a list of names and photos of LGBT Ugandans under the headline “Hang Them!” One of the photos to appear on the front page was that of LGBT rights activist David Kato, who was a spokesperson for Sexual Minorities Uganda. Kato and others sued the tabloid and won a court order barring the tabloid from publishing any more names and photos as part of an outing campaign. The tabloid’s publisher, Giles Muhame and advertising manager Cliff Abenaitwe both attended Martin Ssempa’s Makerere Community Church. Just three weeks after that court victory, Kato was found bludgeoned to death in his home.
Red Pepper has has a long history of stoking anti-gay vigilante campaigns. In April 2009, just one month after Scott Lively’s conference in Kampala, Red Pepper published a list of names, photos, occupations and other identifying information — their “killer dossier,” as they put it — of more than fifty Ugandans accused of homosexuality. Red Pepper followed in December with another so-called “exposé” of “city tycoons who bankroll Ugandan homos.”
February 25th, 2014
TODAY’S AGENDA is brought to you by:
From GPU News, a publication of the Gay People’s Union, October 1971, page 4. Scans of GPU News are available at the University of Wisconsin Library’s Digital Collection.
While researching today’s history item below over the weekend, I discovered a stupendously rich LGBT history web site run by the Milwaukee LGBT History Project. One of the unusual aspects of the project is that it includes some rather detailed histories of businesses and organizations throughout Wisconsin. The Stud went by a number of names during its history as a bar in the shabby fleabag Royal Hotel, starting simply as the Royal Hotel Bar in the 1930s. Even back then, it was a popular meeting place for gay people. By the late 1960s, it became known variously as The Stud, The Stud Club, Club 546, then Michelle’s Club 546. Michelle’s closed in 1973 when the Royal Hotel was razed to make way for a new Blue Cross Insurance building. It’s closing marked the end of a remarkably long 40-year era in Milwaukee’s gay history.
Photo of the signing of AB70 into law by Governor Lee Dreyfus, February 1982. L-R: Leon Rouse, Governor Dreyfus, David Clarenbach (via the Milwaukee LGBT History Project)
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Wisconsin Becomes First State to Ban Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation: 1982. When Rep. David Clarenbach (D-Madison) introduced his gay rights bill into the Wisconsin Assembly, he did so from a glass closet. “It was a different era. … Even in the liberal stronghold of Madison, it would have done more than raise eyebrows. It would’ve hampered a person’s electability. Yet I think it’s safe to say that every member of the Legislature and every member of the Capitol press corps knew I was gay…. The general consensus was not to intrude into one’s personal life.”
Clarenbach worked with Milwaukee gay rights activist Leon Rouse and others to introduce yet another anti-discrimination bill covering sexual orientation, as part of an ongoing effort that had begun as far back as 1971, when Milwaukee legislator and civil rights activist Lloyd Barbee introduced the first bill to provide anti-discrimination protections for gay people. Rouse had put together a carefully crafted coalition beginning in 1977, spurred on by Anita Bryant’s anti-gay crusade in Florida that had spread across the nation. He organized the Committee for Fundamental Judeo-Christian Human Rights, comprised of clergy from a number of Christian and Jewish denominations. Committee members lobbied their superiors and traveled to Madison to testify in favor of the. Rouse even managed to convince Milwaukee’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Rembert Weakland to support the bill in a letter to legislators and in a column in Milwaukee’s weekly Catholic newspaper.
Meanwhile, Clarenback brought together a different coalition of labor unions and liberal activists, framing the question in the simplest of terms: is discrimination tolerable? He even managed to pull in Republican supporters, so that when the bill finally passed the Assembly, it did so with bipartisan support.
With the bill’s passage in the state house, the big question now was whether Republican Gov. Lee Dreyfuss would sign it. After intense lobbying by both sides, Dreyfuss finally decided to give the bill his stamp of approval, explaining: “It is a fundamental tenet of the Republican Party that government ought not intrude in the private lives of individuals where no state purpose is served, and there is nothing more private or intimate than who you live with and who you love.”
After deciding not to re-election the state Assembly in 1992, Clarenbach was succeeded by Tammy Baldwin, who ran as the first openly gay candidate for the state house in Wisconsin history. Clarenbach then went on to become the executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund from 1996 to 1997.
If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).
And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?
February 24th, 2014
You can see the live signing beginning at about the 53:00 minute mark. You can read President Yoweri Museveni’s prepared remarks here, although he made several significant departures from his prepared remarks from time to time. At one point, he asked his scientists to introduce themselves individually.
February 24th, 2014
The State Department released this statement from Secretary of State John Kerry:
This is a tragic day for Uganda and for all who care about the cause of human rights. Ultimately, the only answer is repeal of this law.
The United States is deeply disappointed in the enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda. For the four years since the bill was introduced, we have been crystal clear that it blatantly violates human rights obligations that Uganda’s Human Rights Commission itself has recognized are enshrined in Uganda’s Constitution
Today’s signing threatens a dangerous slide backward in Uganda’s commitment to protecting the human rights of its people and a serious threat to the LGBT community in Uganda.
We are also deeply concerned about the law’s potential to set back public health efforts in Uganda, including those to address HIV/AIDS, which must be conducted in a non-discriminatory manner in order to be effective.
As President Obama stated, this legislation is not just morally wrong, it complicates a valued relationship. Now that this law has been enacted, we are beginning an internal review of our relationship with the Government of Uganda to ensure that all dimensions of our engagement, including assistance programs, uphold our anti-discrimination policies and principles and reflect our values.
From Nigeria to Russia and Uganda, we are working globally to promote and protect the human rights of all persons. The United States will continue to stand against any efforts to marginalize, criminalize, and penalize vulnerable persons in any society.
The White House Press Secretary adds:
Instead of standing on the side of freedom, justice, and equal rights for its people, today, regrettably, Ugandan President Museveni took Uganda a step backward by signing into law legislation criminalizing homosexuality. As President Obama has said, this law is more than an affront and a danger to the gay community in Uganda, it reflects poorly on the country’s commitment to protecting the human rights of its people and will undermine public health, including efforts to fight HIV/AIDS. We will continue to urge the Ugandan government to repeal this abhorrent law and to advocate for the protection of the universal human rights of LGBT persons in Uganda and around the world.
February 24th, 2014
Media reports are understating the horror of Uganda’s Anti-Gay Law. For instance, from the Associated Press:
It sets life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as repeated gay sex between consenting adults and acts involving a minor, a disabled person or where one partner is infected with HIV.
In fact, it’s much worse than that. In fact, Uganda’s Anti-Gay Law can put you away for life just for opposing Uganda’s Anti-Gay Law.
The logic is pretty simple:
The penalties vary for a single related-offence violation, but if you’re convicted of a combination of these offences, or convicted of one offence multiple times, then you’re a serial offender, guilty of aggravated homosexuality, and subject to life imprisonment. So if you speak out against this law, and you keep speaking out against it, then you’re someone who “attempts to promote or in anyway abets homosexuality and related practices.” On your second or third conviction they can put you away for life.
This law is worse than the news accounts are making it out to be. It doesn’t just imprison gay people. It imposes a lifetime sentence on our allies, too. It doesn’t just make us into criminals and pariahs. It condemns anyone who might question this horrid law. It doesn’t just put Uganda in the dark ages. It’s built to keep the country there forever.
February 24th, 2014
The British Foreign Ministry has issued this statement in reaction to Uganda’s enacting the Anti-Homosexuality Bill:
On 24 February 2014 William Hague said:
I am deeply saddened and disappointed that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda has been signed into law. The UK strongly opposes all discrimination on any grounds. We question the Bill’s compatibility with Uganda’s constitution and international treaty obligations. There can be no doubt that this Bill will increase persecution and discrimination of Ugandans, as well as damage Uganda’s reputation internationally.
We ask the Government of Uganda to protect all its citizens and encourage tolerance, equality and respect. We will continue to press the Government of Uganda to defend human rights for all, without discrimination on any grounds.
In 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron warned Uganda that countries which persecute gay people will find their foreign aid budget cut.
February 24th, 2014
Daily Monitor just published it moments ago:
It seems the topic of homosexuals was provoked by the arrogant and careless Western groups that are fond of coming into our schools and recruiting young children into homosexuality and lesbianism, just as they carelessly handle other issues concerning Africa.
Initially, I did not pay much attention to it because I was busy with the immediate issues of defense, security, electricity, the roads, the railways, factories, modernization of agriculture, etc.
When, eventually, I concentrated my mind on it, I distilled three problems:
1. those who were promoting homo-sexuality and recruiting normal people into it;
2. as a consequence of No. 1 above, many of those recruited were doing so for mercenary
reasons – to get money – in effect homosexual prostitutes; these mercenary homosexual prostitutes had to be punished;3. Homosexuals exhibiting themselves; Africans are flabbergasted by exhibitionism of sexual acts – whether heterosexual or otherwise and for good reason. Why do you exhibit your sexual conduct? Are you short of opportunity for privacy – where you can kiss, fondle (kukirigiita, kwagaaga) etc.?
Are we interested in seeing your sexual acts – we the Public? I am not able to understand the logic of the Western Culture. However, we Africans always keep our opinions to ourselves and never seek to impose our point of view on the others. If only they could let us alone.
It was my view that the above three should be punished harshly in order to defend our society from disorientation. Therefore, on these three I was in total accord with the MPs and other Ugandans. I had, however, a problem with Category 4 or what I thought was category 4 – those “born” homosexual.
I thought there were such people – those who are either genetic or congenital homosexuals. The reason I thought so was because I could not understand why a man could fail to be attracted to the beauties of a woman and, instead, be attracted to a fellow man. It meant, according to me, that there was something wrong with that man – he was born a homosexual – abnormal.
I, therefore, thought that it would be wrong to punish somebody because of how he was created, disgusting though it may be to us. That is why I refused to sign the Bill. In order to get to the truth, we involved Uganda Scientists as well as consulting Scientists from outside Uganda.
My question to them was: “Are there people that are homosexual right from birth?”. After exhaustive studies, it has been found that homosexuality is in two categories: there are those who engage in homosexuality for mercenary reasons on account of the under – developed sectors of our economy that cause people to remain in poverty, the great opportunities that abound not withstanding; and then there are those that become homosexual by both nature (genetic) and nurture (up-bringing).
The studies that were done on identical twins in Sweden showed that 34% – 39% were homosexual on account of nature and 66% were homosexual on account of nurture.
Therefore, even in those studies, nurture was more significant than nature. Can somebody be homosexual purely by nature without nurture? The answer is: “No”. No study has shown that. Since nurture is the main cause of homosexuality, then society can do something about it to discourage the trends. That is why I have agreed to sign the Bill.
Since Western societies do not appreciate politeness, let me take this opportunity to warn our people publicly about the wrong practices indulged in and promoted by some of the outsiders.
One of them is “oral sex”. Our youth should reject this because God designed the human being most appropriately for pleasurable, sustainable and healthy sex. Some of the traditional styles are very pleasurable and healthy. The mouth is not engineered for that purpose except kissing. Besides, it is very unhealthy. People can even contract gonorrhea of the mouth and throat on account of so-called “oral sex”, not to mention worms, hepatitis E, etc.
The Ministry of Gender and Youth should de-campaign this buyayism imported from outside and sensitize the youth about the healthy life style that is abundant in our cultures.
We reject the notion that somebody can be homosexual by choice; that a man can choose to love a fellow man; that sexual orientation is a matter of choice. Since my original thesis that there may be people who are born homosexual has been disproved by science, then the homosexuals have lost the argument in Uganda.
They should rehabilitate themselves and society should assist them to do so.
February 24th, 2014
Frank Mugisha is the executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda:
Pepe Julian Onziema changed his Twitter name to IAMGoingNowhere:
Kasha Jacqueline heads Freedom and Roam Uganda:
February 24th, 2014
…President Yoweri Museveni was opening a school and already making political hay.
February 24th, 2014
The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 (PDF: 21KB/11 pages. Click to download)
Here is the full text of the Anti-Homosexuality Act that was signed into law earlier today:
THE ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY ACT, 2014.
_________ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS.
PART I—PRELIMINARY.
Section
1. Interpretation.
PART II—PROHIBITION OF HOMOSEXUALITY.
2. The offence of homosexuality.
3. Aggravated homosexuality.
4. Attempt to commit homosexuality.
5. Protection, assistance and payment of compensation to victims of homosexuality.
6. Confidentiality.PART III—RELATED OFFENCES AND PENALTIES.
7. Aiding and abetting homosexuality.
8. Conspiracy to engage in homosexuality.
9. Procuring homosexuality by threats, etc.
10. Detention with intent to commit homosexuality.
11. Brothels.
12. Same sex marriage.
13. Promotion of homosexuality.PART IV—MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.
14. Extradition.
15. Regulations.Schedule
Currency point.
THE ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY ACT, 2014.
An Act to prohibit any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex; prohibit the promotion or recognition of such relations and to provide for other related matters.
DATE OF ASSENT:
Date of Commencement:
BE IT ENACTED by Parliament as follows:
PART I—PRELIMINARY.
1. Interpretation.
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—
“authority” means having power and control over other people because of your knowledge and official position; and shall include a person who exercises religious, political, economic or social authority;
“child” means a person below the age of eighteen years;
“court” means a chief magistrates court;
“currency point” has the value assigned to it in the Schedule to this Act;
“disability” means a substantial limitation of daily life activities caused by physical, mental or sensory impairment and environment barriers resulting in limited participation;
“felony” means an offence which is declared by law to be a felony or if not declared to be a misdemeanor is punishable without proof of previous conviction, with death or with imprisonment for three years or more;
“HIV” means the Human Immunodeficiency Virus;
“homosexual” means a person who engages or attempts to engage in same gender sexual activity;
“homosexuality” means same gender or same sex sexual acts;
“Minister” means the Minister responsible for ethics and integrity;
“misdemeanor” means any offence which is not a felony;
“serial offender” means a person who has previous convictions of the offence of homosexuality or related offences;
“sexual act” includes—
(a) physical sexual activity that does not necessarily culminate in intercourse and may include the touching of another’s breast, vagina, penis or anus;
(b) stimulation or penetration of a vagina or mouth or anus or any part of the body of any person, however slight by a sexual organ;
(c) the unlawful use of any object or organ by a person on another person’s sexual organ or anus or mouth; “sexual organ” means a vagina, penis or any artificial sexual contraption;
“touching” includes 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.
“victim” includes a person who is involved in homosexual activities against his or her will.
PART II—HOMOSEXUALITY AND RELATED PRACTICES.
2. The offence of homosexuality.
(1) A person commits the offence of homosexuality if—
(a) he penetrates the anus or mouth of another person of the same sex with his penis or any other sexual contraption;
(b) he or she uses any object or sexual contraption to penetrate or stimulate sexual organ of a person of the same sex;
(c) he or she touches another person with the intention of committing the act of homosexuality.
(2) A person who commits an offence under this section shall be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for life.
3. Aggravated homosexuality.
(1) A person commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality where the—
(a) person against whom the offence is committed is below the age of eighteen years;
(b) offender is a person living with HIV;
(c) offender is a parent or guardian of the person against whom the offence is committed;
(d) offender is a person in authority over the person against whom the offence is committed;
(e) victim of the offence is a person with disability;
(f) offender is a serial offender; or
(g) offender applies, administers or causes to be used by any man or woman any drug, matter or thing with intent to stupefy or overpower him or her so as to enable any person to have unlawful carnal connection with any person of the same sex.
(2) A person who commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality shall be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for life.
(3) Where a person is charged with the offence under this section, that person shall undergo a medical examination to ascertain his or her HIV status.
4. Attempt to commit homosexuality.
(1) A person who attempts to commit the offence of homosexuality commits a felony and is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for seven years.
(2) A person who attempts to commit the offence of aggravated homosexuality commits an offense and is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for life.
5. Protection, assistance and payment of compensation to victims of homosexuality.
(1) A victim of homosexuality shall not be penalized for any crime committed as a direct result of his or her involvement in homosexuality.
(2) A victim of homosexuality shall be assisted to enable his or her views and concerns to be presented and considered at the appropriate stages of the criminal proceedings.
(3) Where a person is convicted of homosexuality or aggravated homosexuality under sections 2 and 3 of this Act, the court may, in addition to any sentence imposed on the offender, order that the victim of the offence be paid compensation by the offender for any physical, sexual or psychological harm caused to the victim by the offence.
(4) The amount of compensation shall be determined by the court and the court shall take into account the extent of harm suffered by the victim of the offence, the degree of force used by the offender and medical and other expenses incurred by the victim as a result of the offence.
6. Confidentiality.
(1) At any stage of the investigation or trial of an offence under this Act, law enforcement officer, prosecutor, judicial officer and medical practitioner, and any party to the case, shall recognize the right to privacy of the victim.
(2) For the purpose of subsection (1), in cases involving children and other cases where the court considers it appropriate, proceedings of the court shall be conducted in camera.
(3) Any editor, publisher, reporter or columnist in case of printed materials, announcer or producer in case of television and radio, producer or director of a film in case of the movie industry, or any person utilizing trimedia facilities or information technology who publishes or causes the publicity of the names and personal circumstances or any other information tending to establish the victim’s identity without authority of the victim or court, commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty currency points.
7. Aiding and abetting homosexuality.
A person who aids, abets, counsels or procures another to engage in acts of homosexuality commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for seven years.
8. Conspiracy to engage in homosexuality.
A person who conspires with another to induce another person of the same sex by any means of false pretence or other fraudulent means to permit any person of the same sex to have unlawful carnal knowledge of him or her commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for seven years.
9. Procuring homosexuality by threats.
(1) A person who—
(a) by threats or intimidation procures or attempts to procure any woman or man to have any unlawful carnal knowledge with any person of the same sex; or
(b) by false pretences or false representations procures any woman or man to have any unlawful carnal connection with any person of the same sex; commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for seven years
(2) A person shall not be convicted of an offence under this section upon the evidence of one witness only, unless that witness is corroborated in some material particular by evidence implicating the accused.
10. Detention with intent to commit homosexuality.
A person who detains another person with the intention to commit acts of homosexuality with him or her or with any other person commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for seven years.
11. Brothels.
(1) A person who keeps a house, room, set of rooms or place of any kind for purposes of homosexuality commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for seven years.
(2) A person being the owner or occupier of premises or having or acting or assisting in the management or control of the premises, induces or knowingly suffers any man or woman to resort to or be upon such premises for the purpose of being unlawfully and carnally known by any man or woman of the same sex whether such carnal knowledge is intended to be with any particular man or woman generally, commits a felony and is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for five years.
12. Same sex marriage.
(1) A person who purports to contract a marriage with another person of the same sex commits the offence of homosexuality and shall be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for life.
(2) A person or institution commits an offence if that person or institution conducts a marriage ceremony between persons of the same sex and shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a maximum of seven years for individuals or cancellation of licence for an institution.
13. Promotion of homosexuality.
(1) A person who—
(a) participates in production, procuring, marketing, broadcasting, disseminating, publishing of pornographic materials for purposes of promoting homosexuality;
(b) funds or sponsors homosexuality or other related activities;
(c) offers premises and other related fixed or movable assets for purposes of homosexuality or promoting homosexuality;
(d) uses electronic devices which include internet, films, mobile phones for purposes of homosexuality or promoting homosexuality; or
(e) who acts as an accomplice or attempts to promote or in any way abets homosexuality and related practices; commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine of five thousand currency points or imprisonment of a minimum of five years and a maximum of seven years or both fine and imprisonment.
(2) Where the offender is a corporate body or a business or an association or a non-governmental organization, on conviction its certificate of registration shall be cancelled and the director, proprietor or promoter shall be liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for seven years.
PART IV—MISCELLANEOUS.
14. Extradition.
A person charged with an offence under this Act shall be liable to extradition under the existing extradition laws.
15. Regulations.
The Minister may, by statutory instrument, make regulations generally for better carrying out the provisions of this Act.
CURRENCY POINT
One currency point is equivalent to twenty thousand shillings.
February 24th, 2014
As announced late last night, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law in a ceremony at State House in Entebbe earlier this morning. He signed the bill into law at about 1:50 p.m. East Africa Time (5:50 a.m. E.S.T). It is highly unusual for Museveni to sign a bill publicly, but
The president was in combative mood in a speech after the signing and while answering questions from journalists. He suggested that the law was made necessary by arrogant western groups promoting a behaviour that threatens Ugandans’ “way of life”.
…The president suggested he could not to understand how men could fail to be attracted to Uganda’s beautiful women and, instead, get attracted to fellow men.
The president also paraded the mostly Ugandan scientists who concluded that homosexuality wasn’t generic. The signing is expected to attract more attention and reaction from human rights defenders and the Western world, who have consistently been against the president’s assent since the bill was passed by Parliament in December 2013.
The bill will formally becomes law when it is published in the Uganda Gazette. That will also be the first time we will be able to get an official look at the bill’s final form. You can see the bill’s original form here. The bill originally included the death penalty for anyone convicted of “aggravated homosexuality,” which includes sex with minors, sex while HIV-positive (regardless of informed consent), incest, sex while being “a person of authority over the person”, sex with a disabled person (regardless of consent, or being a “serial offender”, of any other part of the bill. When Parliament passed the bill in December, the death penalty was dropped in favor of lifetime imprisonment.
Other provisions remaining in the bill include lifetime imprisonment for entering into a same-sex marriage, seven years for conducting one, five to seven years for advocacy by or on behalf of LGBT people, five years for providing housing to LGBT people, and seven years for providing services to LGBT people.
Last weekend, President Barack Obama said that signing the bill “will be a step backward for all Ugandans and reflect poorly on Uganda’s commitment to protecting the human rights of its people.” He also warned that “enacting this legislation will complicate our valued relationship with Uganda.” During today’s signing ceremony, Museveni dismissed that warning:
On the issue of losing aid by signing the bill, President Museveni, quoting the story of Esau in the bible said that Uganda will not give up their rights because of food like Esau did. He then took the chance to remind the gathering that Uganda does not need aid. “Uganda is very rich, we do not need the aid,” He said.
February 24th, 2014
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Museveni to Sign the Anti-Homosexuality Bill Monday Morning: Kampala, Uganda. According to a tweet sent out late last night by a Ugandan governmental spokesperson, President Yoweri Museveni was set to sign the Anti-Homosexuality Bill at 11:00 a.m. this morning, Uganda time (3:00 a.m. EST). This move comes exactly five years to the day after BTB first learned about that infamous anti-gay conference put on by Scott Lively and two other American Evangelicals in Kampala (see below).
TODAY’S AGENDA is brought to you by:
From Michael’s Thing, February 2, 1976, page 29.
I can’t find any information about this disco in the heart of Old San Juan. Near as I can tell, the address is (or, at least, recently has been) a high fashion boutique.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
10 YEARS AGO: President George Bush Backs Federal Marriage Amendment: 2004. With Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling that nothing short of marriage would provide full equality for same-sex couples as required in the state’s constitution (see May 17), and with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s order that the county clerk begin issuing marriage licenses to gay couples (see Feb 12), pressure had been building on President Goerge W. Bush, then running for a second term as President, to do something! And so, in lockstep with his conservative Christian base — and in keeping with his campaign strategist Karl Rove’s encouraging several important states (including, critically, Ohio) to place marriage bans on their ballots as part of a get-out-the-vote effort — Bush declared his support for the Federal Marriage Amendment, which, if enacted, would have permanently and nationally banished all same-sex marriages “or the legal incidents thereof.”
And in the typical black-is-white rhetoric that had become a hallmark of his administration, he blamed his decision on gay people. “After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence, and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization,” he said. “Their actions have created confusion on an issue that requires clarity.”
Declaring that “the voice of the people must be heard,” he urged Congress to “promptly pass… an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of a man and woman as husband and wife,” during televised remarks from the White House’s Roosevelt Room. After urging that the nation consign gay Americans to permanent second-class citizenship, he called on the nation to begin the debate “without bitterness or anger.”
Log Cabin Republicans, who enthusiastically supported Bush four years ago after a closed-door meeting with the then-Texas governor, felt betrayed by the statement. Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, said. “Log Cabin considers support for this amendment a declaration of war on gay and lesbian families and an attack on our sacred Constitution.” LCR political director Chris Barron (he would later go on to co-found GOProud), would later comment, “It is impossible to overstate the depth of anger and disappointment caused by the president’s support for an anti-family constitutional amendment. This amendment would not only ban gay marriage, it would also jeopardize civil unions and domestic partnerships.” LCR would go on to withhold its endorsement of Bush for the 2004 election cycle.
Later in September, the proposed amendment would fail in the House, 227 to 186, with 290 votes needed to cross the two-thirds requirement to send a Constitutional Amendment to the States for ratification. The Senate had, by then, already failed to break a filibuster against the proposal.
L-R: Don Schmierer, Scott Lively, Caleb Lee Brundidge
5 YEARS AGO: American Evangelicals Announce Anti-Gay Conference In Uganda: 2009. BTB became the first Western outlet to discover and report the shocking announcement that Exodus International board member Don Schmierer and a little-known staffer at Richard Cohen’s International Healing Foundation, Caleb Lee Brundidge, would join Holocaust revisionist and anti-gay extremist Scott Lively for a three day conference in Kampala. Lively was already known to regular BTB readers for his involvement with the international anti-gay extremist group Watchmen On the Walls (not to be confused with an unrelated Family Research Council initiative by the same name) and for his book, The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, in which he wrote that “the Nazi Party was entirely controlled by militaristic male homosexuals throughout its short history.” Knowing that Lively was bringing his brand of extremism to Uganda was very worrying. As I wrote at the time:
Lively’s brand of rhetoric is unusually vitriolic, even by some of the more ardent anti-gay standards. He regularly describes gays as being sick and“followers of the Father of Lies.” When the Watchmen On the Walls held a rally in Novosibirsk, Russia, Lively excused Satander Singh’s murder in Sacramento. Lively contends that “civilization and homosexuals” are engaged in a full-blown war, which is part of the Devil’s design to destroy civilizations.
The Kampala conference was organized by Steven Langa, director of Kampala-based Family Life Network. Lively had struck up a friendship with Langa during a tour of the African continent in 2002. Throughout the decade, Ugandan pastors adopted increasingly violent rhetoric against gay people, with one pastor, Martin Ssempa, leading hundreds of his followers in 2007 through the streets of Kampala demanding harsh punishments against gay people, and publishing the names and addresses of Ugandan gay rights advocates. Many were forced to go into hiding.
“Can anyone say AIDS?” Scott Lively calling AIDS a just punishment from God at an anti-gay conference in Kampala, Uganda, March 7, 2009.
With Lively’s incendiary rhetoric being thrown into the mix, I didn’t know what would happen but I feared the worst. My worst fears, however, were nothing compared to what actually followed: a long series of anti-gay meetings and rallies, vigilante campaigns, rising violence and blackmail which ultimately culminated in the introduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, otherwise known as the “Kill the Gays Bill,” in Uganda’s parliament in October, 2009. Lively, who had bragged that his 2009 conference was a “nuclear bomb against the gay agenda,” is being sued by Sexual Minorities Uganda in U.S. Federal Court under the Alien Tort Act. The lawsuit alleges that alleging that Lively engaged in a conspiracy to deny the LGBT community of their rights under International Law which caused harm to the LGBT community in Uganda.
Uganda’s parliament approved the Anti-Homosexualty Bill last December. The death penalty for so-called “aggravated homosexuality” has reportedly been removed and replaced with a life sentence (as though spending a lifetime in the notorious Luzira prison were any better). Other penalties reportedly include: lifetime imprisonment for entering into a same-sex marriage, seven years for conducting one, five to seven years for advocacy by or on behalf of LGBT people, five years for providing housing to LGBT people, and seven years for providing services to LGBT people. Late last night, Uganda’s governmental spokesperson Tweeted that Museveni would sign the bill today at 11:00 a.m., exactly five years to the day after we first learned about that conference that started it all.
Since February 24, 2009, BTB has followed every twist and turn of the events in Uganda. Our compilation, Slouching Toward Kampala: Uganda’s Deadly Embrace of Hate, is a timeline and index of the nearly 600 posts that we have written documenting the events in Uganda since then. You can also follow our Uganda tag for more recent events.
If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).
And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?
February 23rd, 2014
Moments ago, Uganda’s governmental spokesman Ofwono Opondo tweeted that President Yoweri Museveni will sign the Anti-Homosexuality Bill at 11:00 a.m. Monday Morning at State House in Entebbe (3:00 a.m. E.S.T). The Tweet went out at about 6:50 a.m. Monday morning local time in Uganda, or 10:50 Sunday night E.S.T. He then quickly followed that with two more tweets taunting President Obama:
Obama has labeled the Ant-Homosexuality Bill “odious” and warned that signing the bill “would complicate (our) valued relationship.”
As for the Arizona bill which has not been signed into law, not one person would be thrown in jail for as much as an hour if Gov. Jan Brewer made the insane decision to sign it. Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill however will impose a lifetime sentence in prison for conviction of homoseuxality, lifetime imprisonment for entering into a same-sex marriage, seven years for conducting one, five to seven years for advocacy by or on behalf of LGBT people, five years for providing housing to LGBT people, and seven years for providing services to LGBT people.
If Museveni follows through with signing the bill Monday morning, it will occur exactly five years to the very day after BTB first learned that Scott Lively and two other American ant-gay activists were about to conduct one of the most infamous and far-reaching anti-gay conferences in memory. Lively would later boast that his talk at that conference was a “nuclear bomb against the gay agenda.”
Featured Reports
In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.
When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.
In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.
On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
At last, the truth can now be told.
Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!
And don‘t miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.
Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.
Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.
Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.
The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.
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