US Backed Uganda Anti-Gay Bill

uklgig said:

Joseph is a 17‑year‑old gay young man from Uganda.

Joseph’s mother died when he was six years old. His father was abducted by Kony rebels shortly afterwards. Although a neighbour looked after him initially, they could not afford to keep him for any length of time and he was left on the streets of Kampala to fend for himself. Joseph’s body is covered in the scars he carries from the numerous times he was caught in a police round up of street children who were taken to the police station and mercilessly beaten. Eventually a kind and generous man took Joseph into his home and helped him to leave the country. Because Joseph looks older than he is, the false passport he used when he entered the UK at fourteen, said that he was eighteen.

When he was fifteen Joseph claimed asylum and was held in a detention centre for over a year while his solicitor tried to prove his age.

Joseph is a brave and resilient young man. Whilst in detention he assisted several other detainees to contact Medical Justice and UKLGIG. Joseph resisted several attempts at deportation by refusing to leave the escort van, refusing to leave the detention centre, climbing onto the roof of the detention centre, being disruptive and having the Captain refuse to take him on a flight.

On 1st August 2007, almost three years after he arrived in the UK, Joseph was deported to Uganda – having been injected in the neck with a strong sedative and being handcuffed for the entire flight.

http://www.uklgig.org.uk/stories.htm

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Mr. Tea said:

Absolutely fucking disgraceful. And people get so worked up over some MPs with their hand in the petty cash when stuff like this is going on.

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Mr. Tea said:

I'm very impressed that mistersloane can type that clearly with both a decadent and an anarchist homosexual in him at the same time. Top multitasking, sir!

Edit: sorry, this probably isn't the ideal thread for dad-joke flippancy.

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john eden said:

whilst they have their hand in the petty cash they aren't concerned about the lives of people in Uganda.

And actually, we are talking about people with significant influence here. They could make a difference but are feathering their own nests instead.

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mistersloane said:

And if the bill in Uganda does go through, do you think there will be sanctions? I kinda doubt it, in spite of all of it, homosexuality I think is still deep down viewed as some sort of lifestyle choice.

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baboon2004 said:

Even if there are sanctions, I guess they'll just be absorbed by the poor as usual...do you think Uganda actually expects sanctions though?

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The new Code, which had been under discussion for a decade, does not recognise customary marriage (and instead requires all marriages to be registered with the civic authorities), sets the minimum age of marriage at 18 years and expands inheritance rights for girls. Most important, it provides for equal rights and responsibilities of the spouses and ends the wife’s duty to obey her husband. Hence the dramatic message of the wedding dress.

Opponents have warned that the new provisions would lead to immorality, harm women’s interests, threaten ‘African values’ and result in a loss of cultural identity.

[...]

Globally, there are increasingly visible arguments for equality and justice in the Muslim family using both international human rights language as well as Muslim jurisprudence and Qur’anic interpretations, and demanding that laws be brought into line with social realities. One of the main tactics that the new code’s opponents have used is to dismiss those who seek greater equality for women in the family as ‘westernised’. Both personal actions like Fatoumata’s as well as successful national campaigns like that in Morocco and Turkey show that there is plenty of locally rooted support for family law reform."

[...]

Developments in Mali have been closely watched by rights activists in neighbouring countries. Isatou Touray who works with The Gambian Committee on Traditional Practices (GAMCOTRAP) says “In Mali, the mullahs were able to mobilise the grassroots because they engaged the people - particularly men - at community level, indoctrinating them with patriarchal interpretations of Islam and women's rights. The answer is to focus on the poor and powerless who need the right information to dismantle the shackles of discrimination and violence against women in the name of religion.”

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baboon2004 said:

I read those links that Sufi put up - the shameful fact is that the UK government doesn't give a shit either, when it suits them (as always). And I'm not even sure homophobia is a (overwhelming) factor in that - they're getting treated like all other asylum-seekers who fear for their lives. Appallingly.

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mistersloane said:

The decadent is neuraesthenic so doesn't move much, and the anarchist is on ketamine, so they don't move around much either.

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Mr. Tea said:

Are you channeling Bill Burroughs today, mistersloane?

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Mr. Tea said:

Edit: Scott, I think the phrase "failed asylum seekers" is accurate as long as you take it to mean asylum seekers who have been failed by the country where they sought sanctuary from whatever they were fleeing.

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scottdisco said:

you are of course right Tea, i just put that {sic} in w respect to anyone who might have called me on it otherwise; think i'm being too even-handed sometimes

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Excuse me Prime Minister, but we do have some lovely jelly in the pantry

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Could Rick Warren be the man to stop pending anti-gay legislation in Uganda?

That’s the hope of Rev. Kapya Kaoma, an Episcopalian Priest from Zambia, the author of a new report from Political Research Associates, which traces a wave of homophobia on the African continent to the efforts of conservative evangelical pastors in the US. In a conference call with members of the media today, Kaoma declared that, “The US culture wars are being exported to Africa. They’re having an impact not just in the US, but also amongst African Christians.”

The culture wars Kaoma refers to have been particularly intense within the Anglican communion, his (and, as it happens, my) church. After the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest, to bishop of New Hampshire, a number of bishops moved to “realign” their congregations outside of mainstream Anglican authority. Two new, more conservative Anglican groups have emerged, and some African congregations have aligned with these new groups.

Kaoma argues that, in the mainline US churches, most congregants and pastors are leaning towards progressive Christianity. The more conservative individuals – in the minority – are aligning with the fast-growing churches in Africa. “Conservatives have gone to Africa because they’re going where the numbers are, and because they’re being legitimated by associating themselves with Christians outside the US.”

These conservative pastors, Kaoma argues, “need to demean the leadership of US mainline churches,” and present their views as the legitimate alternative. It’s become common to present the US mainline churches as imperialistic, and to argue that these mainline churches as trying to export non-African values. “Once you appeal to the post-colonial ethos, people are bound to overreact. The entire gay issue has been put into the post-colonial narrative.” Because the issue of gay rights has been turned into a battle about a purported recolonization of the African continent, Kaoma argues, a struggle for gay rights isn’t seen as a human rights issue, but as an attempt to export “un-African” ideas to the African continent.

Uganda has been a particular battleground for this exported culture war. The wife of President Yoweri Museveni, herself an influential MP, is a born-again Christian, and has been instrumental in bringing abstinence-focused anti-AIDS funding to the country. (Helen Epstein’s “God and the Fight Against AIDS” in the New York Review of Books is an excellent introduction to the spread and politicization of evangelical Christianity in Uganda.) And Uganda, bordering on majority Muslim countries, has become a popular venue for evangelical outreach.

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While I strongly agree with Reverend Kaoma, and believe the proposed legislation is abominable, I thought he was putting too much weight on international activists and not enough responsibility on people in Uganda. I asked whether it was fair to offer his interpretation, given that the majority of Sub-Saharan African countries have laws against homosexual activities – was it possible that the law in Uganda was simply a manifestation of public will and mood?

Reverend Kaoma explained that a framing of homosexuality as an attack on the family has worked extremely well in bringing activist anger to the forefront. The combination of a neo-imperial narrative, an international conspiracy and classic “the gays are out to get your children” are collectively changing attitudes on the ground in countries like Uganda, he argues. He points out that, in most countries where homosexual behavior is banned by law, very few people are arrested and prosecuted for violating those laws. He also referenced King Mwanda, a ruler of the Buganda in the 1880s, who many historians believe was gay. “Even Pastor Ssempa himself accepts this part of Ugandan homosexual history,” says Kaoma. “Gays are part and parcel of African life. What’s strange now is using the Christian religion as a foundation for persecution around homosexuality.”

While Kaoma believes that Ugandans are more liberal about homosexuality than the current bill would lead one to believe, he acknowledges that the masses are not speaking out or supporting the bill. “There’s been a call to go door to door and tell people that ‘if you love your child, then fight homosexuality’. There is a petition going around Uganda in rural areas, saying that homosexuals are recruiting young children in the schools, using money from America. The petition says that if the Americans get just get two kids per school, Uganda as we know it is gone.”

Kaoma argues that the authoritarian nature of Ugandan politics is also making it easier to carry out this sort of crusade. In his native Zambia, the Vice President urged the arrest of gays, but there were no arrests. In Ghana and Kenya, church leaders have advocated cutting ties with the Anglican communion over gay issues, but many churches have refused to comply. But in less representative societies, these crusades – with the support of political authority – have a much higher chance of success.

There are brave Ugandans standing up for gay rights. Frank Mugisha, the leader of Sexual Minorities Uganda (which uses the wonderful acronym SMUG), has been a visible opponent of the legislation, despite the fact that he will likely need to leave the country or face arrest if the bill passes. The Dean of the prestigious Makerere University has publicly opposed the legislation. Such support entails serious risks – Kaoma tells us about meeting with SMUG at a hotel in Kampala – a woman attending the meeting, who is lesbian, stepped out of the hotel as was immediately arrested, beaten and had her money stolen by the police. “And there was nothing we could do,” says Kaoma.

Reverend Kaoma spoke about this story in a sad but calm fashion. But he got quite agitated when I asked him about the possibility that the Anglican church – hugely influential in Uganda – would condemn the legislation. “The Archbishop doesn’t want to be seen as interfering. After the bill passes and people are getting killed, then we’ll hear his voice? Our friends are being rounded up because people think the bill has already been passed.”

If the Archbishop of Canterbury and Rick Warren won’t step up, are there other paths to leverage the Ugandan goverment? Sure – there’s always money. Up to 40% of the Uganda government budget comes from aid dollars. Kaoma tells us that Sweden has declared that if Uganda passes this bill, Sweden will sever all ties. It’s unlikely that the US would take nearly such a dramatic step. But Kaoma leaves us with a challenge: “Don’t just condemn Uganda – accept responsibility for helping start this on American soil.”

That’s tricky, of course. Gay rights groups in the US condemning the legislation simply add fuel to the fire for those who argue that homosexuality is a western plot. And that’s why the voice of someone like Pastor Warren could be so powerful in affirming the human rights of GLBT people and condeming this dangerous legislation.

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KINSHASA, Dec 18 (Reuters) - The U.N. peacekeeping force in Congo has put its soldiers on high alert after reports that Ugandan rebels are threatening to carry out mass killings of the kind they conducted last Christmas, a spokesman said on Friday.
Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, who murdered over 800 civilians around Christmas and early January last year, have threatened a fresh wave of attacks despite a year of multi-national military operations against them, analysts warn...Although training camps were broken up and some fighters have been disarmed, the rebels, whose leadership is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, have continued to carry out attacks on civilians in Congo, Sudan and the CAR.
"The LRA might be planning fresh Christmas attacks as a response to recent claims by the Congolese and Ugandan governments that the rebels are finished," U.S.-based advocacy group Enough Project warned in a statement on Thursday.
Enough said residents in the villages of Bangadi and Niangara, as well as local and international relief organisations, reported having seen letters from the rebels threatening mass killings over Christmas.

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The Minister of Justice Tharcisse Karugarama has condemned and refuted reports that government intends to criminalize homosexual acts saying that sexual orientation is a private matter not a state business.

His reaction comes after international organizations, including rights groups and gay communities across the world raised an alarm in several reports accusing the government of trying to consider a law against homosexuality.

"The government I serve and speak for on certain issues cannot and will not in any way criminalize homosexuality; sexual orientation is a private matter and each individual has his or her own orientation - - this is not a State matter at all," said Karugarama.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL), and Rwanda's Horizon Community Association (HOCA), recently issued statements demanding that the Rwandan Parliament withdraws article 217 of the penal code regarding homosexuality.

The Minister accused the 'groups for either acting in total ignorance or intentionally presenting wrong facts for their own political motives.'

"They allege that the law was to be passed in Parliament on December 16, but sincerely there was nothing like that in the parliament that day."

He clearly stated that; "these people should distinguish between issues debated by private parties and concrete proposals from the government."

He hastened to add that the government has held a meeting with its development partners on this particular issue and told them their position 'which is that the government has no intentions whatsoever to criminalize homosexuality.'

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Malawi is a deeply conservative society but recently a group of campaigners came together to form a gay rights organisation, Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP)

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