Uganda: judgment day for LGBT?

By Paul Canning

We will update this post as news comes in on the 'kill the gays' bill, check our Twitter feed or..

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Update, 2pm GMT: AP just reported that the bill is not on today's Parliament agenda.

The report quotes an MP 'John Alimadi' saying that "the bill may have been dropped from the agenda because of a worldwide outcry against it." There is no MP with that name. Are they quoting opposition MP John Drazu Arumadri ?

A Parliament spokewoman has told Throckmorton that the bill is not on business for today and no more business would be done in this Parliament. But it could be immediately carried forward to the new Parliament session in June.

Update, 3.45pm GMT: Jim Burroway reports that the AP story is inaccurate (this is not a first).

Update, 5pm GMT: Ugandan gay activist Frank Mugisha has posted the following to Facebook:

Camped at Ugandan parliament all day , insulted by some members of parliament bill not debated wait for Friday

Mugisha wrote yesterday:

Am very optimistic the Uganda kill gays bill , wont pass into law, stay strong and let us keep the pressure on very strong !

Update, 5.20pm GMT: Throckmorton has expanded on what Mugisha means by 'wait for Friday:

Parliament spokeswoman Helen Kawesa just told me that Parliament has adjourned but will reconvene on Friday to consider the remaining bills on the agenda. They will begin in the morning and work until all of the bills are considered. The intent is to address all bills. The AHB [Anti-Homosexuality Bill] is the last one and is the most vulnerable but with an all day session, it is possible for it to get a third reading. According to Kawesa, Friday is absolutely the last day however as the new Parliament is sworn in on Monday.

• I have posted on what could and should happen if the bill becomes law.

~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday, Warren Throckmorton and Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin - who have been following this for over two years and have been the best source of news on developments - told us that the Anti-Homosexuality 'kill the gays' bill will come before Uganda's Parliament today. Warren has been told by its key proponent, David Bahati MP, that the bill has been ammended, including the removal of the death penalty.

Burroway explained yesterday that Bahati has influence over the Parliament Speaker - as he needs support for his re-election - so it is expected that time will be found for its discussion, at the tail end of the current Parliament. Today's Parliament session is expected to run until 8pm or later, Ugandan time.

• See Explaining what is in Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill
• See updates from Monday/Tuesday

The 31 member Ugandan Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law warned about so-called 'concessions' in their press release yesterday (our emphasis):

"The Coalition has been reliably informed that attempts have been made to find a ‘win win situation’ which protects both National and International interests by amending those portions of the Bill which are most offensive to international best practice." 

"As a Coalition we do not believe that there is any conflict between national and international perspectives on the failings of the original Bill, nor do we believe that amendments in any way offer an acceptable way forward; while the wording may change, the intention of an Anti-Homosexuality Bill will remain the same: to Kill the Gays. We therefore reject the original Bill, together with any attempts to amend it, in their entirety."

The allout.org petition to President Museveni has received an unprecedented 300,000 signatures. It is due to be presented today by Bishop Senyonjo. Another petition by Avaaz has over one million signatures.

Consequences

The US State Department has signaled that it is closely watching developments and key Congressman Barney Frank has indicated that, if passed, the anti-gay law will have consequences for Uganda's aid.

Right Wing European Union parliament President Jerzy Buzek and the head of the Liberal group in the EU parliament on Tuesday again urged Uganda to think twice about passing the bill into law.

“If the law is approved by the Ugandan parliament, it will be necessary for the EU to review its relationship with the country,” the Liberals’ Guy Verhofstadt said in a statement.

Another group of Members of the European Parliament wrote to Ugandan MPS today and said:

"We are determined that the adoption of any legislation further criminalising consensual sex between adults (including the adoption of this Bill, whether in its current or in any modified form) will have a severe negative impact on our bilateral relations, in both its aid and its diplomatic dimensions."

Yesterday British Foreign Secretary William Hague responded to lobbying on Twitter saying that the Kampala embassy had issued a formal - and rare - diplomatic demarche, a representation of protest/concern, agreed and issued by the EU member states to the Ugandan government.

We will be expanding later today on the consequences if the bill is passed. Done, see post.

US TV News host Rachel Maddow has been reporting on the bill for the past two years. Here is her report from last night:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Related articles

• Barney Frank: Cut Off Aid to Uganda if 'Kill the Gays' Bill Passes (towleroad.com)
• Uganda: MSM misleads again on 'kill the gays bill' (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• State Dept Calls Uganda Bill "A Significant Step Backwards"; Barney Frank Recommends Cutting Aid (boxturtlebulletin.com)

Video: Maddow on Kato

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

The leading liberal US news show host Rachel Maddow presented a segment Friday night about the death of Ugandan activist David Kato and editorialised about how the US should regard the impact of its citizens, those evangelicals working in Uganda, on the local LGBT community.

The segment had actually been trailed eight days before but news from Egypt has precluded it being shown earlier. Maddow has been one of extremely few mainstream US television journalists to consistently cover Uganda and her show has interviewed at some point most of the leading players, including David Bahati MP, author of  what she has  dubbed the 'kill the gays' bill.

She has given space to other journalists, such as Jeff Sharlet, author of 'The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power', covering the links between the 'kill the gays' bill's authors and very powerful US evangelicals, linking Bahati to right-wing republican politicians for example.

Maddow's coverage is collected by her under the headline 'Uganda be kidding me'.

In this segment she covers the scenes at Kato's funeral and shows extracts - you can watch a 7 minute video of the funeral - including the powerful comments of retired Anglican Bishop Senyonjo. She talks about the police's dismissal of homophobia as a motive in Kato's murder and lists evidence that maybe it was a hate crime. (Warren Throckmorton comments on his posting of Maddow's segment that: "Those close to Kato have told me that Kato did not pay prostitutes and that the scenario developing around him is implausible.")

Maddow quotes Kato on how evangelicals have taken their arguments to Uganda and found an audience for their discredited (what she has dubbed) 'cure the gay' ideology. She calls them 'quacks'.

If Ugandans believe what these Americans are telling them, she says, it's no great leap to believe you should force gays to, as Bahati has put it, "repent", for haven't these Americans showed how we can 'cure' these people?

So this is 'an American story', she argues. Bahati's rise in Ugandan politics is, she says, directly linked to his American sponsors. She points out that Bahati has not passed on the evidence he claimed existed in her interview with him that foreigners were 'recruiting children to homosexuality' and sending millions into Uganda for that purpose.

She paraphrases Bahati's response to her show following Kato's death as:

"We want to kill people for being gay because the Americans told us you don't have to be gay if you don't want to be."

Maddow says at the end that donor countries should convey to Ugandan authorities "do not disappear David Kato's murder - otherwise we will make you a pariah for it."

She sums up:

"Given American citizen's vile involvement in that country maybe America can take the lead on this?"

Related articles

• Anti-gay reaction to David Kato's death (wthrockmorton.com)
• Ugandan 'kill the gays' bill author on US TV (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Bahati "more than confident" bill will pass (wthrockmorton.com)
• Obama Statement on Slain Ugandan LGBT Activist David Kato (towleroad.com)

Ugandan 'kill the gays' bill author on US TV

The author of Uganda's 'kill the gays' bill, David Bahati MP, was interviewed 8 December by Rachel Maddow, an openly lesbian MSNBC host. Maddow extensively covered links between Uganda and American right-wing evangelists and politicians earlier in the year but has not returned to the subject for some time.

Bahati was in the US for a Washington DC conference on financial practice however the conference organisers barred him once they learned who he was. LezGetReal reports that following this interview Bahati was told to leave the US by authorities. Gay Uganda has suggested it was actually a fundraising trip.

Maddow led off with the background to the Ugandan bill, which leads all the way back to the fight against nascent LGB rights in the United States in the 1970s and the oft-used idea that lesbians and gays 'recruit' ...

In the final part of the interview, played last night, Maddow ended with a warning to Bahati that he could be charged with crimes against humanity (he has been quoted saying he wanted “to kill every last gay person.”)

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