A "refined" anti-gay bill will be submitted to the Ugandan parliament but will not seek the death penalty or life imprisonment for gays, according to Bloomberg:
The draft bill, which is under consideration by a parliamentary committee, will drop the two punishments to attract the support of religious leaders who are opposed to these penalties, [Minister of Ethics and Integrity James Nsaba Buturo] said today in a phone interview from the capital, Kampala. Ugandan lawmaker David Bahati presented a private member’s bill on Oct. 14 which sought the death penalty and life imprisonment for gay people in the country. The Ugandan government supports the bill because homosexuality and lesbianism are “repugnant to the Ugandan culture,” Buturo said. Still, it favors a more refined set of punishments, he said. In addition to formulating punishments for the gay people, the bill will also promote counseling to help “attract errant people to acceptable sexual orientation,” said Buturo.
Buturo publicly warned all gays to leave the nation in 2007.
In March, Rod 2.0 reported American "ex-gay" and "anti-gay" evangelists suggested the rabidly anti-gay government in Kampala should mandate "conversion therapy" for suspected gay men. Wouldn't be surprised if the "refined set of punishments" included hormone therapy or even castration.
Some Background ...
Uganda Law Would Execute Gays, Will Obama Cut AIDS Funds?
Uganda's Museveni: European Gays "Recruiting" in Africa
Uganda: Death Penalty for "Aggravated Homosexuality"
Anti-Gay Activists March on Parliament
Uganda Anti-Gay Conference Day Two
UG Anti-Gay Conference
Rare Court Victory for Uganda Gays
Uganda Launches Major Anti-Gay Offensive
Uganda' Muslim Cleric: Exile Gays
Uganda Ethics Minister Advises Gays to Leave
Like life imprisonment is better. Gee, would I rather be decapitated, or starved slowly? Either way, the result is the same. Hm, some of the folks on that continent make me ashamed.-QH
Posted by: QH | 09 December 2009 at 19:08
Is this suppose to be a "Better" resolution? It should NOT be a crime to be who you are. I feel locking someone up for being gay, is the same as locking someone up because these hair color is red. Being Gay is NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT a choice! I will NEVER believe that Gay people willingly "Choose" to be Gay! The Gays have been vilified and treated HORRIBLY! Why would someone wake up one day and say "Hey I think I want to live my life this way". That is NOT how it works. God made Homosexuals just like everyone else!! This is DISGUSTING, that this is happening anywhere on this Earth. I truly hope my genealogy is not rooted in Uganda, I hope my ancestors are from one to the more progressive (if any) African Nations. I really can't imagine the type of Hatred you have to have in your heart, to treat someone this way.
Posted by: Isis | 09 December 2009 at 20:22
Pardon my language, but the politicians in Uganda are some ignorant dumb as$ f@cks.
How dumb can people be to support a law that persecute individuals based on sexual orientation in 2009?
They should be living in the 19th century. Man, people make me sick. They always feel a need to oppress, condemn and kill others.
It guess we see how bad poverty and illiteracy is in Africa.
Posted by: Mel Smith | 09 December 2009 at 20:39
A perfect example of "oppression' and 'persecution'...people without power and what little rights they have being forcibly taken away from them by a government that wants to terrorize them. Textbook example in my opinion.
Posted by: Faison | 10 December 2009 at 00:03
Taking the death penalty and life imprisonment off the table is not much better! People still should not be imprisoned or persecuted because of their sexual orientation. It cnnot be changed. And I say this my family is from Kampala but now in London and they believe some of this! Thankfully I am free and did not grow up in that awful country!
Posted by: Ali | 10 December 2009 at 00:13
How to eliminate anti-gay legislation in Uganda (or in any other nation):
Succesfully enact and enforce a law that makes financial corruption a capital crime.
Instantly, all the homophobic politicians are dead.
Wherever there is a move to deny gay people their rights, there is ALWAYS corruption: both financial and moral.
Always.
Posted by: Jim | 10 December 2009 at 00:34
Please also consider folks like Rick Warren and the rest of these evangelicals that promote this Ex-gay therapy crap. They knew about this Kill the gays/Gay genocide bill and did not say anything...cause they SUPPORT it. They want this to happen! In fact, it is their ultimate goal.
U.S. conservative evangelicals love to go to Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria and associate themselves with rabid radical Christian homophobes, to generate even more fear and hatred.
I don't care if I'm called crazy, but these U.S. evangelicals are using Uganda as a Guinea pig experiment, to create very harsh laws to "eliminate homosexuals" (Of course they'll start with the Black African gays of course.) A Final Solution so to speak, and to expand these laws here in the states.
In order to justify eliminating, you need to press on with the dehumanizing the gays propaganda. Gay marriage =the end of the so-called traditional family. Gays = pedophillia Gays= the end of humanity etc. By simply instilling fear, this country can go backwards so fast, you would not know what happen and we'll be rounded up to concentration camps. Think I'm jumping the gun?... Look at what happened to the Japanese-Americans who were sent to internment camps. Evangelicals are acquiring a great deal of power and political influence.
Back in the 1930's Germans had no idea what Hitler had up his sleeve and he started himself as a charismatic populist leader.
Just check out this you tube clip from Rick Warren http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fzwljL2LTQ
It's time for LGBT particularly Black LGBT to be not only on the defense, but on the offense!
Posted by: Cynthia | 10 December 2009 at 00:50
@Cynthia: You are absolutely correct in your reading of history. A few addenda: Hitler was the last democratically elected leader of Germany before WWII. He promised a restoration of Germanic hegemony in exchange for absolute power. 60 million Germans knew what he stood for and who he was, and they allowed him to carry out the Final Solution without protest or reservation. Professor Daniel Jonah Goldhagen wrote a thoroughly frightening book entitled Hitler's Willing Executioners which drives home the point that Hitler and the Nazis could not have implemented their atrocities without the participation of ordinary Germans, dictatorship notwithstanding. This is EXACTLY what is going on in Uganda and some other African nations today. Draconian measures against gays wouldn't even be possible without the help of the vast numbers of people necessary to carry them out.
I do agree that the recent extreme developments in Africa and other places (Like Jamaica, W.I.) are an ominous sign that a second Holocaust is in the making. People say "it can't happen here [in the United States], we are more civilized than that." Germany between the wars was the most advanced, well-educated society on Earth. They didn't think anything horrible was going to happen when they elected Hitler in 1933, either...
World War II and the current backlash against our LGBT community are warnings from history. We ignore them at our grave peril.
Posted by: Nathan James | 10 December 2009 at 08:18
@Cynthia
You're absolutely right.
And only crickets from the black churches here in the States.
Posted by: Chitown Kev | 10 December 2009 at 13:38
very good comment
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Web Royalty
Posted by: Nick Matyas | 05 January 2010 at 04:39