The Uganda Anti-Gay Bill's U.S. Roots
05.11.11
Michelle Goldberg
Even if the death penalty is removed from Uganda's Anti-Homosexual Bill, its passage would codify the country's extraordinary persecution of gays—and American evangelicals will bear responsibility, says Michelle Goldberg.
In 2009, a month after ethnic riots rocked the Ugandan capital of Kampala, an evangelical lawmaker named David Bahati introduced his Anti-Homosexuality Bill into parliament. The measure was draconian, prescribing the death penalty for some gay people, mandating prison sentences of at least five years for the “promotion of homosexuality,” and requiring Ugandans to report “offenders” to the authorities. After an international outcry, President Yoweri Museveni distanced himself from the bill, and it seemed likely to disappear.
Then, this month, it came roaring back, and it could pass by the end of the week. Although some media outlets are reporting that Bahati has dropped the death-penalty clause, no revised bill has surfaced yet. “As far as we know, as of today, parliament was still discussing the same version,” Maria Burnett, a Uganda-based senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said on Wednesday. “While the author of the bill has said he was willing to make amendments, I’ve never seen an actual document with those amendments made.”
Even if capital punishment is removed from the bill, its passage would herald extraordinary state persecution of a demonized and beleaguered minority. Already, some Ugandan newspapers have taken to publishing lists of alleged gays and lesbians with blaring headlines like “Hang Them!” and “Homo Terror!” The bill is the culmination of an anti-gay campaign that’s been waged in Uganda for more than a decade. Because some American evangelicals have played a major role in that campaign, they’re at least partly responsible for what is happening now.
The timing of the bill’s resuscitation is noteworthy. Uganda is convulsed by nationwide protests that have been met by a brutal police crackdown. Since conspiracy theories about subversive homosexuals have metastasized in the country in recent years, targeting gay people could be a way to divert public anger. “This bill was [put on the agenda] a month after very bloody riots that happened in September 2009, where at least 40 people were killed by government forces,” says Burnett. “There was a lot of criticism of the government at that time. It’s a bit ironic—not much happened with the bill for last year and a half, and now the bill is reintroduced three days before the end of parliament and more killings by government forces in April.”
More:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/05/11/uganda-anti-homosexual-bill-inspired-by-american-evangelicals.html
The president) said he wants the law back in the house but now says if two consenting adults go into their room and decide to be stupid, let them be," he said.
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