CrazyDrumGuy

• President Obama condemned Uganda’s “death penalty for homosexuals” law at a prayer breakfast organized by the American “Christian” group which supported the law. (AFP)
• Your U.S. Senate will vote on a jobs bill next week, but it will probably die along with all other legislation in the Senate. (USA Today)
• The GOP is soliciting campaign contributions from Wall Street, apparently not recognizing that “Wall Street” is a synonym for all of America’s least favorite people. (WSJ)
• Public funding for healthcare hit record levels this year and will soon exceed 50% of all healthcare spending in the US as more and more people can’t afford their health insurance and turn to Medicaid. If only someone had introduced legislation to try and do something about this… (LA Times)
• HOLY CRAP! SHARK ATTACK! (MSNBC)

2/4/10 11:30 am | Comments disabled. | Permalink | Tags: Barack Obama, healthcare, Senate, shark attack, Uganda, unemployment, Wall Street

Uganda Gay Genocide Bill on Verge of Passage

Ugh. Terrible news coming out of Uganda:

Activists and political observers expect the private members’ bill, which proscribes the death penalty for “serial offenders” and is still in the committee stage, to pass with little opposition and some minor changes.

Likely changes may include modifying the death penalty to life imprisonment, altering clauses nullifying international treaties, conventions and protocols that contradict the act, and removing a section about extradition.

“It’s catastrophic,” said Frank Mugisha, chairman of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a local activist group.

“People are being arrested, intimidated already. What’s going to happen if it’s passed?”

COURT CHALLENGE

Bahati, of the ruling National Resistance Movement party, said diplomatic pressure would not affect the legislation.

“We cannot exchange our dignity for money,” he said.

Rights groups say gays and lesbians already face illegal detention and abuse under Uganda’s current laws, a situation that is likely to worsen if the bill is passed.

“Certain provisions in this bill are illegal. They are also immoral,” said Kate Sheill, Amnesty International’s expert on sexual rights, in a statement with 16 other rights groups.

“They criminalise a sector of society for being who they are, when what the government should be doing instead is protecting them from discrimination and abuse.”

Museveni has been quoted in that local media as saying that homosexuality is a Western import, joining some Ugandan and continental religious leaders who believe it is un-African.

Activists see the legislation as another sign of the growing impact of U.S. evangelicals and anti-gay campaigners in Uganda. But Bahati denied any foreign influence contributed to the bill.

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”.

Activists say they will contest the bill in court if passed.

Canon Gideon Byamugisha, a prominent leader in the Ugandan Anglican Church has properly called this bill “state-legislated genocide” against homosexuals. Meanwhile, American evangelicals like Pastor Rick Warren (yes, that Pastor Rick Warren, who gave the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration) refuse to condemn the legislation.

12/4/09 1:11 pm | Comments disabled. | Permalink | Tags: LGBT rights, Rick Warren, Uganda