Meeting of Ugandans perpetuates U.S. Evangelical homophobic lies about homosexuality with calls for Passage of Kill the Gays Bill
By Melanie Nathan, November 10, 2012.
This past week Uganda’s prominent homophobes and proponents of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, otherwise dubbed the ‘Kill The Gays Bill‘ clustered in conference to push for passage the dubious legislation which has been languishing in the Ugandan Parliamentary system for several years, drawing international criticism.
The meeting was attended by religious leaders including proven liar, criminal and discredited Martin Ssempa, the Mufti was represented by the Imaam from Old Kampala, Alex Mitala from the National Born Again fellowship, Kiganda from Kingdom FM who also leads the Kampala Pentecostal Churches in Uganda, Joseph Serwadda from Born Again Faith Federation who also heads Impact FM and Victory Church. Also present was the notoriously single Simon Lokodo, Minister of Ethics and Integrity, who is currently involved in litigation where members of Uganda’s LGBTI community question his right to close down recent LGBT workshops, and MP David Bahati, the author of the Bill. Accompanying Uganda’s Speaker of Parliament Kadaga, who recently issued a statement calling for passage of the bill,was approximately one third of parliamentary members.
It seems that Uganda’s anti-gay element, which comprises a strong majority, and which has been influenced by extreme public rhetoric which started at the birth of the Bill and was exacerbated by the article of Uganda’s Tabloid editor Giles Muhame , in his 2012 article outing 100 gays and lesbians and calling for their hanging, is now ramping up on the distortion and lies, in their quest for passage.
Statement by Coalition of Religious leaders, Civil Society Organizations, Parents, Children & Citizens of Uganda:
[Delivered at Public Meeting with Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alitwala Rebecca Kadaga at the CHOGM Gardens next to the Parliament of Uganda on November 9, 2012]
The Rt. Hon Speaker of Parliament, Members of Parliament
Religious Leaders Civil Society Leaders Parents
Students
Ladles & Gentlemen
All protocol observed
Rt. Hon. Speaker, we thank you for making the time in your busy schedule to come and meet us as a coalition of religious leaders, civil society leaders, parents, and students who are here representing the citizens of Uganda.
Many of our people who came to welcome you at the airport last week were not able to see you and were not able to properly welcome you back in our warm Ugandan sty/e. For that matter, we now wish to welcome you properly back to Uganda after doing such a wonderful job of standing for our values and culture in Canada. We thank you for accepting our request for this meeting.
We also wish to now thank you officially as Ugandans for the brave and firm way that you defended the sovereignty of our nation. You did not allow yourself to be bullied or .intimidated by Canada and other powerful Western nations that are fond of arm-twisting developing nations to force them to adopt Western culture some of which is perversion such as homosexuality.
We thank you as a nation and honor you for following the example of the President in making a historic stand in the face of such arrogance as was being displayed at the IPU meeting.
Indeed this brave stand you made as one of the delegates turned out to be the GIANT STAND that represented the position of all the right thinking nations of the world. We have heard of how delegates from African, Arab, Asian and South
America gave you a standing ovation after your prolific defense of our culture and morals. We say BRAVO to you Hon. Speaker. We as Ugandans are proud of you and you have made us proud.
Rt. Hon. Speaker, we are gathered here this morning very troubled by what we consider as a serious threat to our children, marriages, families, culture, convictions and our very way of life.
Rt. Hon Speaker, allow me to refresh your memory.
In the early months of 2009, information came to light that our children were being molested and recruited into gay activities (homosexuality and lesbianism). This was being carried out by well-organized and well trained homosexual groups operating in our schools and institutions of higher learning with funding and backing from some Western governments and international organizations.
The whole nation was outraged and on April 23, 2009 a petition was delivered to Parliament with signatures from all over the nation asking Parliament to urgently take measures to safeguard our children and nation from the onslaught of this destructive vice of homosexuality.
Rt. Hon Speaker, the petition was received by none other than yourself when you were the Deputy Speaker. Subsequently, on October 14, 2009, Hon. David Bahati the MP for Ndorwa West tabled the Anti-Homosexuality Bill [AHB] in Parliament.
The AHB raised unprecedented international reactions and response mainly coming from international gay activists, international organizations and Western nations that have come under the influence of the gay agenda. While the spirit of the AHB was mainly to provide protection to the innocent children of Uganda, the gay activists using the powerful Western media which they control, deliberately distorted the facts about the bill and misled the world into thinking that the AHB was a “hunt gays and kill gays” bill. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Uganda as a nation was then put under pressure to block the AHB. To this end, government officials, MPs and the President were pressurized using every possible means and in every possible international forum to drop the AHB. The international gay machinery and Western governments then poured millions of United States Dollars in Uganda to support the gay agenda in Uganda.
Some of the things that this money was used for include: training and building the capacity of Ugandan gay activist groups, recruiting and training lawyers to defend homosexuals in court, directly offering money to people in key positions to oppose the AHB and threatening them with denial of visas and other threats if they don’t agree. They also sponsored programs in the media that are sympathetic to the gay agenda, offering money and favors to lure weak, needy and poor Ugandan youth into homosexuality/lesbianism. They further embarked on strategic activities in our institutions of higher learning where students are directly and deliberately indoctrinated with gay-biased information in the lecture rooms right from first year. It is deplorable and indeed sad to note that students who refuse to accept the gay philosophy are deliberately failed.
In the early months of last year, some sections of the international gay activist groups began celebrating their success in managing to ”kill” the AHB. However, the bill has managed to stay alive and has successfully crossed from the 8th Parliament to the 9th Parliament.
Rt. Hon Speaker, we are grieved as Ugandans to watch this drama of events happen before our very eyes as the vice of homosexuality takes its toll on our children and nation. Parents mourn quietly as their sons and daughters are molested in schools by homosexuals and they have nowhere to turn for help.
Young boys are constantly sexually abused with impunity by powerful personalities and their cries fall on deaf ears as their abusers threaten them and boast of being ”untouchable” in our very nation, where according to the law books homosexuality is still a crime. As though that is not enough, there is rampant availability of pornography. Also numerous movies and soap operas that are broadcast in the nation contain homosexual content. This is all a deliberate strategy by the gay agenda to desensitize our children and reprogram their minds and attitudes to accept homosexuality as a viable and equal alternative to heterosexuality.
Rt. Hon. Speaker, we cannot sit back while such destructive phenomenon is taking place in our nation. We therefore as responsible citizens feel duty bound to bring this matter to your attention as the leader of Parliament so that you our law makers can do something to quickly address this deteriorating situation in our nation.
We therefore stand united as Ugandans on this matter of homosexuality regardless of our tribes, ethnicities, political affiliations, social and religious backgrounds and wish to state as follows:-
i. That we support the stand that His Excellency the President, you Rt.Hon. Speaker and the government have taken on homosexuality stating that it is a vice and as such is not an acceptable behavior in our nation.
ii. That we will stand behind the government and all our leaders and encourage them to stand firmly and defend our position as a nation on homosexuality in all fora, whether local or international. We as Ugandans are ready to pay the price of maintaining our values, cultural and societal norms whatever the cost might be. We categorically say that we will not sell our national birthright in exchange for a few dollars to softening on the vice of homosexuality.
iii. We encourage all leaders at all levels to emulate your good example Rt.
Hon Speaker and that of the President to accurately represent our position as a nation on homosexuality.
We now request you Rt. Han Speaker to use your good offices to:-
i. Urgently have the Parliament debate and pass the Anti-Homosexuality Bill without any further delay. Nothing would make us happier than a dully passed anti-homosexuality bill as a Christmas gift this year.
ii. Institute a parliamentary committee to investigate the extent of the recruitment of our children into homosexuality· and the impact of this vice in our schools, institutions of higher learning and any other relevant areas of our society.
iii. Establish a safe mechanism whereby our sons and daughters who are molested by homosexuals can be protected from harm by the homosexual abusers and their machinery.
iv. Maintain homosexual behavior as a crime in our law books.
v. Explore ways of collaborating or working together with the religious groups, civil society groups, other stakeholders such as schools and universities to find viable interventions to mitigate the damage that has been wrecked in our society by the gay agenda that has been operational in our nation for some time now.
In closing, we are aware that some of our youth have been misled by gay activists and have been led into the vice of homosexuality using inducement and enticement. We are also aware that there are those whose surroundings and other factors leads them to same sex attractions. For such people, we extend a hand of love and understanding and give them the good news that change is possible through counseling, guidance and spiritual and professional help.
To this end, no Ugandan should sentence themselves to a life of misery because of the false gay propaganda that change is impossible. Many homosexual people have been successfully restored to heterosexuality over the centuries. Change is possible and our religious leaders and civil society organizations with the appropriate competencies will spearhead the move to· bring restoration to those Ugandans who need it.
The statement calling for the anti-homosexuality Bill is based on lies. The ability to “cure” people of homosexuality has been completely discredited by science including all related credible international medical associations. The statement lies blatantly when it accuses gays of recruitment. These people offer no proof or credible sourcing. In fact Martin Ssempa was already criminally convicted for lying about such things through a recent direct accusation that was proven false in a Ugandan Court of law. (see article ref. below) . It is impossible to recruit people into a sexual orientation; and the lie that gays and lesbians molest children, and the false allegation that homosexuality has harmed Ugandan society is nothing more than flagrant smokescreens for the true ills of Uganda.
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David and Goliath
Ugandans have been seriously misled about the condition and factors surrounding homosexuality and other than a handful of local activists who courageously held their first ever LGBTI pride this year, and with very few religious advocates such as Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, little has happened within the country to educate Ugandans and convey the truth about homosexuality.
From 5 to 8 March 2009, a workshop took place in Kampala with three American evangelical Christians: Scott Lively, an author who has written several books opposing homosexuality; Caleb Lee Brundidge, a self-professed former gay man who conducts sessions to heal homosexuality; and Don Schmierer, a board member of Exodus International, the discredited organization devoted to promoting “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ”.
The theme of the conference, according to The New York Times, was the “gay agenda“: “how to make gay people straight, where false information such as how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how ‘the gay movement is an evil institution’ whose goal is ‘to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity. ‘ Lively, who asserted in his workshops that homosexuality was akin to child molestation and bestiality, and causes higher rates of divorce and HIV transmission. Lively’s emphasis was on the cohesion of the African family, that he said was being threatened by “homosexuals looking to recruit youth into their ranks”. It is believed that the Kill the Gays Bill came about as a direct result of this workshop and the relationship between Bahati and U.S. Evangelicals.
I have received information from Uganda, but do not have the resources to investigate and so I have yet to substantiate, that MP Bahati has received financial benefit from U.S. Churches supporting this Bill. It is well known and previously reported here on OBLOGDEE that Bahati has visited the USA as a guest of Jack Klenk, a member of Truro Church, in Fairfax Virginia, and now retired Federal Government director of education in the USA. Klenk and other Church members of Truro have been known to visit Uganda often in apparent mission tours. Truro Church broke away from the Episcopal Church amidst the controversial appointment of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson.
Ugandans have relied on these lies and false information perpetuated by politicians and religious leaders alike.
There is no saying what will happen when the Bill passes. However there is no doubt that the international community will be compelled to bring repercussions to the country, whether through boycotts, AID restrictions, and possibly even sanctions. It will be very difficult for U.S. corporations and hospitality industry to function in good faith in a country that proposes the death penalty based on sexual orientation, as well as harsh prison sentences if employers, parents, friends, doctors and teachers etc. fail to turn in known gays and lesbians.
It seems from this fervor that it is now a matter of time. As it is a private member bill, there is no possibility of a President Museveni veto of the Bill.
While the Ugandans claim sovereignty as their right to ignore international human rights standards, global leaders such as President Obama, Sec. of State Hilary Clinton, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UK Prime Minister David Cameron have spoken out harshly against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Update 11/12/2012 : Warren Throckmorton who has been watching and writing about AB for many eyars notes on his blog today:
” More promises to pass the bill from Rebecca Kadaga. After three years watching this situation, I am more concerned now than ever that the bill will pass. If/when it passes, I hope it is immediately challenged in court.
Let’s remember that Museveni has no effective means to veto the bill and did not attempt this last Parliament. He can send bills back to Parliament but if that body is persistent, bills will become law.”
WHAT WILL THE WORLD DO IF UGANDA PASSES THE AHB – See my August 2011 Article at http://gayusathemovie.com/2011/08/petition-tell-uganda-stop-kill-the-gays-bill-set-to-pass-in-2-weeks/
http://sdgln.com/news/2012/11/12/uganda-speaker-vows-pass-kill-gays-bill-christmas-gift-nation
http://sebaspace.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/a-freshly-rejuvenated-uganda-homophobic-lobby-goes-to-work/
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