Please sign petition to stop Uganda's "Kill the gays" bill

[Derechos]

STOP THE HATE IN UGANDA
Over 450,000 around the world have signed the petition to stop the "Kill the Gays" bill! The pressure is working and the bill has been delayed, but we need your help to stop it before THIS FRIDAY.

Will you take one minute to sign this petition to tell Ugandan President Museveni to stop the "Kill the Gays" bill in its tracks?

For petition, see http://www.allout.org/en/petition/uganda

See also

snip

Before the end of the week the Ugandan Parliament is set to pass a number of laws against gays and lesbians so draconian that the entire population of that country will feel the effects. The so-called "Kill the Gays" bill, proposed by legislator David Bahati, may come to a vote tomorrow. Every indication is that it will pass and move to President Yoweri Museveni for his signature.

In it, those who are "repeat offenders" of having sexual intimacy with a person of the same sex will be sentenced to death, as will anyone with HIV who engages in sexual activity with a member of the same sex. Those who harbor or assist gays and lesbians will be subject to imprisonment. Even those who know someone to be gay or lesbian who don't report them to the authorities will face a prison sentence.

Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, a retired Anglican Bishop (and courageous heterosexual ally), is a hero in this fight against injustice. He is risking his own life and that of his family in publicly standing up and opposing this proposed law. Just this week, Bishop Christopher courageously appealed to the parliament to stop this heinous bill from becoming law.

But his words are apt not to be heeded. Anti-gay organizations in Uganda, fueled by American evangelicals who have been operating in the country for some years, told lawmakers that gay men were recruiting their school children for sex and that a Western "gay agenda" had the destruction of the Ugandan family as its goal.

But this law would have far-reaching effects on the whole population and not just its lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, citizens. One of the problems with AIDS in Uganda and elsewhere is that people don't know their HIV status, and they may be spreading the virus to everyone in their sexual network.

This proposed law will make everyone more afraid to be tested for fear of being labeled "homosexual," and imprisonment would come along with that label.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bishop-gene-robinson/ugandas-kill-the-gays-bil_b_861150.html

[patrice]

1. Kick!

[clyrc]

2. Did it already!

And I put it up on my FB page so friends could do it too.

[Leopolds Ghost]

3. Can we get a list of RW evangelicals who are lobbying for the law?

[Derechos]

7. Here is what wikipedia said about the US evangelical roots of the bill

"From 5 to 8 March 2009, a workshop took place in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, that featured 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, an organisation devoted to promoting "freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ".<10> The theme of the conference, according to The New York Times, was the "gay agenda": "how to make gay people straight, 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' ".<3> An Anglican priest from Zambia named Kapya Kaoma was in attendance, and reported on the conference. Ugandan Stephen Langa organised it, and was supported by 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. According to Kaoma, during the conference, one of the thousands of Ugandans in attendance announced, " feels it is necessary to draft a new law that deals comprehensively with the issue of homosexuality and...takes into account the international gay agenda... Right now there is a proposal that a new law be drafted."<11>"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda_Anti-Homosexuality_Bill

[Leopolds Ghost]

4. Museveni is a US ally. What impact would passing the bill have on US recognition by Admin?

[Leopolds Ghost]

5. HuffPost blogger congratulates American LGBT comm'ty for thinking lives of black gays were important

"The American -- and indeed, worldwide -- LGBT community and its allies voiced their outrage when the "Kill the Gays" bill was first proposed last year. It represented a maturing of our community, thinking far beyond the bounds of our own civil rights and social comfort and instead beginning to care deeply about the lives of LGBT people beyond our national borders."

Why am I more disturbed than heartened by this paragraph? It seems to imply that the LGBT community does not give much thought to the concerns of blacks or Africans. After all, in the DC area the Black community and the Gay community are at inextricable odds, with the latter essentially wanting the former displaced out of the city, and vice versa.

[rpannier]

6. K&R

Signed this morning
Thanks for posting