Meet the U.S. Politicians Who Want to See Gay People Dead in Uganda
Speaking yesterday on NPR’s Fresh Air
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=120746516 , Jeff Sharlet – who wrote a best-selling book documenting the political influence of the family – noted that many U.S. politicians, straddling both sides of the political aisle, are involved with “The Family.” Sharlet spoke about how members of “The Family” have been quite active in Uganda, including Ugandan Parliamentarian David Bahati, who is a member of “The Family” and one of the legislators behind the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49189“{Bahati} appears to be a core member of The Family. He works, he organizes their Uganda National Prayer Breakfast and oversees a African sort of student leadership program designed to create future leaders for Africa, into which The Family has poured millions of dollars working through a very convoluted chain of linkages passing the money over to Uganda,” said Sharlet.
Not only that, but The Family has long considered Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to be their key point man in Uganda, according to Sharlet. And President Museveni, it turns out, is one of the biggest advocates for killing gay people in Uganda. He also just met with a bunch of Ugandan youth and urged them to resist the forces of homosexuality.
That’s a pretty direct, not to mention abhorrent, connection between U.S. evangelical political leadership and Ugandan human rights abusers. Do U.S. politicians like Congressmen Bart Stupak really want to have on their consciences the murder and imprisonment of gay people in Uganda? Urge his office to condemn this proposed bill now.
The facts on the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill are clear cut
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/10/15/uganda-anti-homosexuality-bill-threatens-liberties-and-human-rights-defenders . Here’s what the bill will do if passed into law: it will create a criminal violation known as aggravated homosexuality, and anyone convicted of it will be sentenced to death; it will send anyone supporting gay rights to prison, even if they’re straight; it will imprison parents of LGBT children if they don’t rat out their kids to the government; and it will sentence people to life in prison for talking favorably about same-sex marriage.
Maybe it’s all part of Uganda’s new tourism campaign: Come for the lush wildlife, stay for the brutal repression.
For Congressmen like Joe Pitts and Bart Stupak to have ties to politicians who want to murder gay people is earth-shattering. But the scary part is that “The Family” has a membership far beyond just these two politicians. Sharlet has documented a whole boatload of U.S. leaders involved in “The Family,” including Sen. John “How Much Money Will it Take to Keep My Mistress Silent” Ensign, Sen. Tom “Blackmail is the Best Way To Stay in Political Power” Coburn, and Gov. Mark “Buenos Aires is the Best Place for Adultery” Sanford. The list goes on: Sen. Mark Pryor, Sen. James Inhofe, Sen. Chuck Grassley, Sen. Mike Enzi, Sen. Sam Brownback, Rep. Heath Shuler, Rep. Mike McIntyre, and Rep. Zach Wamp. And that’s not an exhaustive list!
Do all of these folks want to see gay people murdered in Uganda?
If not, they sure better go on record condemning this bill. Rep. Tammy Baldwin
http://www.gaypolitics.com/2009/10/31/baldwin-urges-clinton-to-condemn-ugandan-anti-gay-bill/ has already urged the U.S. State Department to condemn the bill. What would be stopping these “Family” politicians from signing her letter as well?