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UGANDAN FASCISM!As Ugandan MPs debate anti-gay legislation and world Christian leaders weigh in, the gay community
in Kampala awaits a bill it says will only formalise the persecution it feels every day. "I have been arrested by police
a number of times, often on flimsy charges just because of my homosexual lifestyle," said David Kato, who lives as an openly
gay man in Kampala. "The prospect of living under this law is scary. Certainly all my life and plans will be ruined because once it's passed
I will immediately have to flee the country," Kato said. "Obviously if I don't I will be arrested and imprisoned." While Uganda has become
a favourite of western governments for its reforms and economic growth since 1986, rights groups have criticised President
Yoweri Museveni for cracking down on opposition, media and civil society. The president has been quoted in local media saying homosexuality
is a Western import, joining continental religious leaders who believe it is un-African. The draft Anti-Homosexuality Bill
is part of a growing campaign against gays in Uganda, rights groups say. Critics say the aim is to divert attention from corruption
and other political issues ahead of the 2011 national vote. But the bill's author, ruling party member David Bahati,
says the legislation promotes family values. "Homosexuality is not part of the human rights we believe in," he said. The act will criminalise anyone "who acts as an accomplice or attempts to promote or in any way abets
homosexuality", and a person in authority who "aids, abets, councils or procures another to engage in acts of homosexuality".Persecuting victims? Political observers
expect the private members' bill, which prescribes the death penalty for "serial offenders" and those who commit "aggravated
homosexuality", to pass with little opposition and some minor changes. Activists say the bill will heap misery on a community already
suffering in an intolerant culture. "The government needs to focus on changing people's attitude rather than concentrate their efforts
on persecuting people who are already shunned and mistreated by society," said Ugandan gay rights activist Val Kalende. "Wherever I have turned
for a job, people have shunned me because of my public gay rights advocacy image. I got estranged from my family," Kalende
said. "Uganda's biggest problem is ignorance which is breeding intolerance and prejudice in society," she said. "We must
be allowed... to expose those harassing us." Some activists see the move as another sign of the growing impact of US evangelicals and anti-gay
campaigners in Uganda. ~
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DC APPROVES GAY MARRIAGE!!
Washington, DC — Pride: The District of Columbia's city council today approved a marriage equality
bill by a vote of 11-2. This is a preliminary vote, the final tally to take place in mid-December.
Following
an expected signature from Washington DC's mayor, Adrian M. Fenty (D), the bill must be approved by Congress before taking
effect.
Congressman Mike Quigley (D-IL) issued this comment:
"The struggle for equality has won a great victory
in the shadow of our Capitol today. After a setback in Maine last month, the D.C. City Council has renewed this
nation's commitment to civil rights for every American—no matter who they love. The significance of this vote carries
historical implications."
The District will join Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont in legalizing
gay marriage when the resolution becomes law.
End of the Story for Gay-Oriented Bookshop Lambda Rising to close within weeks; owner proud of impact.
"I'll miss it, and I know a lot
of people will miss it, but I'm also cognizant that we did a lot of things," said Maccubbin, 66. "Nothing lasts forever." Rising's founder, said that he has
accomplished all he had intended when he opened the gay-oriented bookstore in 1974 and that "it's time to move on." The shop's closing is the gay community's
second significant loss in Washington in recent weeks. Last month, the Washington Blade, the 40-year-old weekly newspaper,
closed after its parent company went bankrupt. When Lambda Rising opened, no other retail business in Dupont Circle catered to gay people. Maccubbin
said his goal was "to prove that there was a market for bookstores in the country to begin stocking gay and lesbian books.
That part of the mission has been accomplished." Lambda Rising also became a de facto community center, a place that was welcoming when mainstream
establishments shunned the gay community, where gays and lesbians started up relationships, came out of the closet, or went
shopping for jewelry, greeting cards, art and even condoms. In 1975, the shop sponsored the first Gay Pride Day, a block party
that evolved into what is now known as Capital Pride, an annual citywide celebration
that draws tens of thousands of revelers from across the region. "I have lived in Dupont Circle for more than a quarter-century, and I've
never known a Washington without Lambda Rising," said Rick Rosendall, vice president of political affairs for the Gay and
Lesbian Activists Alliance. "It will certainly be jarring without it."
US Right-Wing Charities Silent On Uganda
Bill
Groups with ties to John McCain, Billy & Franklin
Graham support key sponsors of harshly anti-gay measure
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
“We use the words US conservatives in our report,”
said Kapya Kaoma, an Anglican priest and author of “Globalizing the Culture Wars: US Conservatives, African Churches,
and Homophobia,” a study by Political Research Associates.
The Massachusetts think tank originally set out to
document the influence of African conservatives in the US, but uncovered instead the extensive reach of American right-wingers
on that continent.
“This was wider than we originally thought,” Kaoma said at a December 10 press event
in Manhattan sponsored by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the global rights group. “Their intention is to convey their conservative
ideology... That is what they are doing in Africa wherever they go.”
The report found that US conservatives are
using peers in Africa to attack progressive churches in the US. African churches, for example, have joined other conservative
churches, including some in the US, in the Anglican Communion to oppose electing openly gay and lesbian bishops in the Episcopal
Church, the American branch of the Anglican Communion.
The “anti-homosexuality bill,” if enacted, would
punish gay men and lesbians with the death penalty or life in prison in some cases. The bill would require doctors, priests,
and others to report homosexuals to police. The Ugandan government has said it may remove some of the harsher provisions.
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