Ugandan president committed to blocking anti-gay bill: officials

Human Rights Day protest against Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill - Ugandan Embassy, London, 10 December 2009. L-R: Michael Senyonjo, Richard S, Topher Campbell, Peter Tatchell, Godwyns Onwuchekwa, Rev Rowland Jide Macaulay. Credit Brett Lock of OutRage!

 

Source: DC Agenda

U.S. officials have received assurances from the Ugandan president that he would work to block a harshly anti-gay bill from becoming law in his country and would veto the legislation should it come to his desk, according to the State Department.

Jon Tollefson, a State Department spokesperson, told DC Agenda that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has pledged on several occasions to the top U.S. diplomat engaged in Africa that he would stop progress on the anti-gay bill.

Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson received this assurance from Museveni on Oct. 24 during an in-person meeting with the president in Uganda and again during a phone conversation with Museveni on Dec. 4, Tollefson said.

Homosexual acts are already illegal in Uganda, but the anti-gay legislation — a bill sponsored by a member of the president’s party — would, among other things, institute the death penalty for repeat offenders of the homosexual acts ban and those who have homosexual sex while HIV positive.

Additionally, the bill would criminalize the formation of LGBT organizations and the publication or broadcast of pro-gay materials in Uganda.

The legislation is moving forward in the Ugandan parliament, and this week lawmakers were slated to have a second reading of the bill, according to the Times of London. Mark Bromley, chair of the Council for Global Equality, said the bill is expected to come up again in January for a final reading.

Tollefson said during the Oct. 24 meeting that Carson met with Museveni and other high-ranking Ugandan officials to express concern about the legislation and conveyed that its passage would be “a big step backwards in human rights” that “could really have the potential to harm the reputation of Uganda.”

“And the president understood the concerns and said that he would do what he could to make sure the bill was not passed,” Tollefson said. “He would not sign the bill. … He made a commitment to the secretary that he would work to make sure it wasn’t signed into law.”

Tollefson said when the bill started moving forward and gaining international attention, Carson on Dec. 4 contacted Museveni by phone to reiterate U.S. concerns, and the president again expressed his commitment to stop the bill from becoming law.

“So that being said, the assistant secretary is expecting the president to live up to that commitment and … he expects President Museveni to live up to his reputation as a leader in the HIV/AIDS struggle in Africa,” Tollefson said. “It’s a significant human rights issue. I know it also gets in the way of treatment and prevention and education on the HIV/AIDS front.”

Asked whether it’s the understanding of U.S. officials that Museveni would veto the legislation should it come to his desk, Tollefson replied, “Right, that’s a commitment that he’s made. He made that personally to the assistant secretary on that first meeting that he had on Oct. 24 and again on a call on Dec. 4, and so we’re going to continue to expect that.”

Tollefson said the United States wants Museveni to go beyond his private commitment to blocking the bill from becoming law and to make a public statement against the legislation.

“He has not done that, and we’ve asked him to come out and say how — be a leader in this, just as he’s a leader in HIV/AIDS,” Tollefson said.

On Friday at the State Department, Carson briefed non-governmental organizations on the commitment Museveni made to the United States and explained the work U.S. officials have done to prevent the measure from becoming law.

Tollefson said about 20 NGOs were represented at the briefing, including groups focused on African development, LGBT issues and confronting the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Among the groups that were invited to the briefing, which was closed to the public, were the Human Rights Campaign, the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Human Rights First and Human Rights Watch.

Bromley was among those in attendance at the briefing. He confirmed for DC Agenda that he was told Carson had received assurances from the Ugandan president that he would work to stop the bill from becoming law.

But Bromley said he isn’t sure whether the president would terminate the bill by vetoing it or via some other method.

“I’m not incredibly sure that veto is the right word because I’m still trying to clarify whether the president actually has the authority to veto under the parliamentary system, but basically he assured Assistant Secretary Carson in October and then again in December that he would keep the bill from going forward,” Bromley said.

Noting that the bill came from a member of the president’s party and his party “dominates the politics” in Uganda, Bromley said pressure from the president would “certainly slow the bill.”

“But Secretary Carson made it clear that on two occasions, President Museveni has said he would stop the bill from going forward and he said that he’s continuing to write to him and sending messages that the U.S. expects him to honor his word,” Bromley said.

Tollefson also detailed work the State Department has done to help block the legislation from going forward and said Carson has made clear to Museveni that — in addition to rejecting the measure — the United States expects full decriminalization of homosexuality in Uganda.

“He made very clear that we will not accept simply the removal of the death penalty or some of the harsher aspects of the law,” Tollefson said. “We expect full decriminalization of sexual acts between adults. There’s no hedging on that.”

Noting that supporters of the legislation in Uganda have been saying religious leaders are in favor of the bill, Tollefson said the State Department has delivered to the country statements from U.S. religious leaders denouncing the legislation. A statement from Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church in California, was among the statements from religious leaders sent to Uganda in opposition to the bill. Warren recently spoke out against the bill.

Tollefson said the State Department also believes the legislation could have a detrimental effect on the region around Uganda and noted that movement on anti-gay legislation in Uganda and other countries will be recorded in the State Department’s annual human rights report.

“It won’t just be focused on Uganda, we’re not going to make a lot of effort to remove this from Uganda while remaining silent on neighboring countries that have similar legislation even if they’re already on the books,” he said.

Asked whether restricting funds under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief could be a way to deter Uganda from passing the bill, Tollefson said that question came up during the Friday briefing, but U.S. officials are reluctant to pursue that option.

PEPFAR, a multi-billion dollar initiative started by President George W. Bush, provides treatment for those living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries.

“Public funds to start retroviral treatment is not a one-day commitment, it’s a lifetime commitment, and we haven’t had that discussion and we don’t want to have that discussion,” Tollefson said. “And, of course, no one would want to see that happen, so it’s not something that we want to consider.”

Bromley said he’s impressed with the State Department’s level of commitment to stopping the anti-gay legislation from being passed.

“I’m very pleased that the State Department has been so forceful and is now publicly challenging President Museveni to honor his word and commitment,” Bromley said. “I’m pleased that they are responding as assertively as they are and that they are now doing so in a public fashion.”

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Millions mis-spent on HIV prevention in Africa, gays ignored

Source: British Medical Journal

Ideology not science drove the prevention side of PEPFAR, the US international HIV/AIDS programme, during the Bush administration, an insider with personal knowledge of the situation said last week. The charge is not new but the source and the details are. They came at a forum at the liberal think tank The Center for American Progress.

They are contained in a new report and recommendations, "How Ideology Trumped Science: Why PEPFAR has failed to meet its potential," written by Scott Evertz, which is to be published shortly. He was the domestic "AIDS Czar" appointed by President George Bush in 2001. He lasted only 15 months before being shifted to a position in the department of health dealing with AIDS internationally.

Speaking at the forum, Mr Evertz called PEPFAR (President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief ) "a heroic programme of monumental consequences" in terms of testing, treatment, prevention of mother to child transmission, and care for orphans. "However, from the very early discussions about the PEPFAR programme it became patently clear to me that we weren't going to discuss certain harm reduction strategies in relation to either our domestic or international programming."

Bush "did indicate to me rather strongly that needle exchange and condom distribution were out of the realm of discussion...It was very clear to me that our prevention efforts were going to be somewhat challenging, because there was an ideology that existed from the beginning as we approached prevention," Evertz said.

A disdain for science "led to de-gaying of HIV/AIDS, de-IDUing [injection drug users] [of HIV/AIDS]...Vulnerable populations quickly became set off to the side as a result of ideologies that drove opinions about how we would do prevention in the administration."

Mr Evertz said that such an approach made no sense when estimates of the prevalence of HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM) are 30% in Ghana and 43% in coastal Kenya. Among the first $3bn (1.8bn; {euro}2bn) that PEPFAR spent on prevention, a mere $100 000 went to a single programme targeting that risk group.

He recounted how one potential candidate for the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, who had run an AIDS services group for decades and had the support of his Republican governor, "was summarily axed from consideration because he was supportive of needle exchange and condom distribution."

Many of the advisers to the administration on global AIDS issues were drawn from the abstinence movement within the religious right in the United States. Mr Evertz quoted one spokesman for an evangelist group as saying, "AIDS has created an evangelism opportunity for the body of Christ unlike any other in history."

Mr Evertz said the conservative US group the Children's AIDS Fund applied for a $10m grant to promote abstinence education in Uganda. A technical review committee said it was not appropriate, but Andrew Natsios, then the administrator for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), over-rode that advice and awarded the grant. Protests from Democrats in Congress did not succeed in reversing the award.

"By funding programmes such as this and usurping a strategy by which grants are approved by technical experts paid by the American taxpayers, we were sending a message to some of our partners on the ground ...we want a programme that is centered on abstinence," Mr Evertz said.

The administration used PEPFAR as an opportunity "to excite the (political) base" of support for it among religious conservatives. They were comfortable working with "the innocent victims of AIDS, namely women and children living in Africa," he said.

Mr Evertz said the draconian anti-gay legislation being considered by the Ugandan parliament is "absolutely, positively inexcusable. We need to use PEPFAR funds to discourage such behavior and to encourage work" with gay groups. However, when pressed later, he said funds should not be withdrawn from treatment programmes; once antiretroviral treatment is begun, it must be sustained.

"When homophobic groups are funded...they help to legitimate the stigmatisation, the discrimination," said Ronald Johnson from the lobbying group AIDS Action Council. "That is the environment we need to change by not funding those programmes and making clear that the human rights approach" is the best way to address the AIDS pandemic.

Kent Klindera works for the US charity amfAR to try to strengthen the capacity of groups doing prevention work in Africa among gay men. He said that some people worry that if PEPFAR money is withdrawn from a country, then gays will be blamed for that and made a scapegoat. Others compared the situation to apartheid and called on the US and Europe to apply the equivalent of sanctions, which helped to bring down apartheid.

Mr Klindera called the PEPFAR five year strategic plan, released on 30 November, "wonderful rhetoric." He was encouraged by the programme's "rights based approach." But "one problem is that MSM is not clearly defined."

Mr Klindera cited a programme in Kenya where the focus is preventing the infection of "innocent" women whose husbands are having sex with other men. He said, "The growing openly gay community is not being served at all."

Mr Johnson also found the five year plan "a breath of fresh air," but at the same time, "I kept looking for that next sentence that wasn't there," when it came to implementation.

Paul Zeitz, from the Global AIDS Alliance, criticised the Obama administration for being slow to respond to the Ugandan situation. "I find it very disturbing," he said. He and others urged the administration to conduct "a top to bottom review" of all ties with Uganda-grants for PEPFAR, HIV research, military and trade relations-if the legislation to outlaw homosexuality is passed.

Mr Evertz's report initially was supposed to be released at the 15 December forum but it is being held for last minute revisions to reflect release of the PEPFAR five year strategic plan and congressional action this past weekend that lifted the ban on funding syringe exchange programmes and the requirement for abstinence programmes.

• Read the complete report here (PDF)

U.S. closer to lifting HIV travel ban

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Washington Blade

By CHRIS JOHNSON

The Obama administration has taken a new step toward lifting the ban on HIV-positive foreign nationals entering the United States in a possible indication that a full repeal is coming soon.

A memo issued Tuesday by U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services instructs officers to place on hold any green card applications for foreign nationals that would otherwise be denied simply because of HIV status.

These holds will continue until the release of the final rule change, which is expected later this year from the Department of Health & Human Services.

Steve Ralls, an Immigration Equality spokesperson, said the memo signals that the administration is "very close" to repealing the ban and is instructing agencies to be ready.

"USCIS is clearly expecting guidance from HHS very soon, and has decided to hold applications by HIV-positive applicants rather than deny them, as the new rule will no longer prohibit their entry into the country," he said.

Ralls said it was earlier thought the administration would end the travel ban sometime around the end of this year, but the release of the memo suggests repeal may come "ahead of that schedule."

"I can't imagine that USCIS wants a three-month backlog of green card applications, so the message that I get is that essentially Health & Human Services has informed USCIS that the rule change has been approved and will be implemented shortly," Ralls said.

Last year, former President George W. Bush signed into law, as part of the reauthorization of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a provision removing the HIV travel ban from federal statutes.

The law returned authority to HHS on whether HIV should stay on a list of communicable diseases barring foreign nationals from entering the United States.

Bush State Department Ignored Iraqi Gay Murders

George W. Bush via last.fm

By Duncan Osborne

As concern over the killings of gay Iraqis grew in 2006 and 2007, the US Department of State appears to have done little more than develop media talking points and squabble over who at that agency should handle press interviews.

“[I]t is outrageous to see that by walking away from their responsibility to further investigate, document, and then ultimately discuss the human rights abuses with the Iraqi government, the US government missed a great opportunity to prevent the mass-scale attacks against LGBT community, which happened earlier this year in Iraq,” wrote Hossein Alizadeh, regional coordinator for Middle East and North Africa at the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), in an email.

Writing in Gay City News, Doug Ireland first broke the story in March of 2006 that Iraqi gays were being killed by death squads. Ireland and other gay press outlets continued covering the story in 2006 and into 2007, with the mainstream press offering occasional stories. The killings and the gay press reports on them have continued into 2009.

In September 2007 –– nearly two years ago –– Gay City News sent a Freedom of Information request to the State Department that sought all records “that relate to or identify homicides, assaults, or other violent acts committed against homosexual persons in Iraq.”

On May 26 of this year, the department responded, releasing two documents, totaling nine pages, that represent all the records that agency compiled from March 1, 2003, roughly the start of the Iraq War, through the date of the records request. No documents were withheld and only a small portion of the released documents was blacked out.

Two pages consist of a letter, dated March of 2007, from Senator Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican, to the department that forwarded an email from a constituent who was concerned about the killings.

The other seven pages are mostly internal emails –– three pages are a 2006 Washington Blade story on the killings –– with one from September 2006 and the rest from 2007.

The earliest State Department email was from a Larilyn Reffet, a staffer based in Baghdad, to other staff. Reffet noted that she had reached out to gay groups and received one initial response, but nothing more. It was not clear from her email if just Iraqi gay groups did not respond, or gay groups outside of Iraq also ignored her.

Contained in her email is the text of a 2006 letter that was sent to Paula Ettelbrick, then IGLHRC’s executive director, in response to a letter about the killings that Ettelbrick sent to the department. The department appeared to rebuff Ettelbrick in that letter.

“Our Embassy in Baghdad is interested in further dialogue on this issue with NGOs in Iraq,” wrote Victor Hurtado, a department staffer.

“NGOs in Iraq,” or non-governmental organizations, may be diplomat-speak for saying the department has no interest in talking to IGLHRC or other groups outside of Iraq.

Other emails show department staffers were concerned about mainstream press coverage and developed some talking points to respond to reporters. They noted when the department was not mentioned in such stories.

When Deb Price, a Detroit News columnist and an out lesbian, sought comment on the issue, staff had a minor tiff via email over who would talk to her.

Michael Petrelis, a longtime gay and AIDS and persistent critic of gay groups, faulted the State Department and gay groups.

“I am saying as an activist, IGLHRC had a responsibility to write back to Hurtado and say you should widen the circle of people you are willing to talk to,” he said. “They should have gone public with this. I don’t see the State Department alone as the problem. I see the NGOs in the US not engaging the gay public on these matters.”

Working with the Rainbow World Fund, a San Francisco-based relief agency, Petrelis and other activists recently raised $7,500 for gay Iraqi refugees. They will hold another fundraiser on June 19.

There is no evidence in the documents that the department ever discussed the killings with the Iraqi government. Alizadeh wrote that the documents showed the Bush administration stance –– “only making occasional vague comments about the high-level violence in that country (as an excuse not to pursue the issue further) when pressured by the media or NGOs (like IGLHRC).”

He added, “I hope President Obama’s State Department will not abandon Iraqi gay and lesbians. There is a lot we can do to prevent further violence against this most vulnerable group.”

At a June 10 press briefing this year, a State Department spokesperson said, “In general, we absolutely condemn acts of violence and human rights violations committed against individuals in Iraq because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. This is an issue that we’ve been following very closely since we have been made aware of these allegations and we are aware of the allegations... This US Embassy in Baghdad has raised and will continue to raise the issue with senior officials from the government of Iraq and have urged them to respond appropriately to all credible reports of violence against gay and lesbian Iraqis.”

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International did not respond to requests for comment.

Gay City News sent to same records request to the Defense Department, which said it had no records, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has not completed its response.

Source

On-going arrests in Uganda

By Frank Mugisha, David Kato Kisule, Victor Mukasa

The situation in Uganda is still hectic and tension is still on as ex-gay George “Georgina” Oundo continues to have media platforms to “out” LGBT people and organizations. Oundo has weekly programs on different television stations where he continues his smear campaign against LGBT groups and individuals. He is also naming specific organizations as the key funders of the LGBT movement in Uganda, including IGLHRC, Human Rights Watch, Hivos, Amnesty International, and the Astraea Foundation, among others.

The situation also has taken a new direction after a 19-year-old man accused Pastor Robert Kayanja of Rubaga Miracle Center of having sodomized him. This story has been running in the Uganda media for almost two weeks now. After police cleared the pastor of sodomy charges, the President of Uganda came out and blamed the Ugandan police for not handling the investigations very well. Anti-gay groups are also strongly supporting the Pastor’s accuser.

So far there are no new developments from Parliament about the proposed bill or amendment to the penal code. However, Christian fundamentalists continue to press the government to toughen the laws against homosexuality. Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) has reported the birth of a new anti-gay Christian group whose name has not yet been made public.

SMUG is following up on the arrests of individuals on charges related to sexual orientation and/or gender identity, trying to determine the exact circumstances of the arrests and to provide legal and psycho-social assistance as appropriate:

Mbale Case 1:
A student was arrested in Mbale and eventually set free by police. By the time SMUG visited the police station in Mbale, he was not there and the police file with his case was missing. However SMUG learned that he was a Kenyan student and that he was taken back to Kenya by his parents. His current whereabouts is unknown.

Mukono Case:
Semondo Simon was arrested on charges of aggravated defilement. After visiting Mukono police post and Kawuuga prison, SMUG learnt that Simon was taken to Luzira maximum prison. SMUG is trying to get a letter of introduction from Uganda Prisons to go and interview Simon at Luzira prison.

Entebbe case:
Kalule was arrested on charges of carnal knowledge against the order of nature and was granted bail. After anti-gay groups demonstrated in Kampala, he was re-arrested on charges of aggravated defilement. Kalule appeared in court on May 18, 2009. The magistrate informed the court that she had no jurisdiction to grant Kalule bail since this must be granted by the High Court.

Mbale case 2:
Wasikira Fred, a transgender person also known as Namboozo Margaret, and Pande Brian were charged with carnal knowledge against the order of nature. On May 21, 2009, the two appeared before Chief Magistrate Margaret Tibulya, who granted bail to Wasikira Fred. Pande Brain was denied bail because his sureties were not substantial. Wasikira told SMUG that while in prison, he and Brian were subjected to cruel and inhuman degrading treatment that included being subjected to a forcible examination of their anuses for signs of penetration.

There are additional reports of arrests of men on charges related to sexual orientation and gender identity in Kampala, Kapchorwa and Busheyi districts. IGLHRC and SMUG are following these cases and will post updates when we have them.

Source

Chicagoans protest anti-gay pogram in Iraq

Everything from Iran to gay leadership was mentioned during a Gay Liberation Network (GLN) rally that drew approximately 15 individuals to the corner just outside of Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, on a blustery Sunday afternoon.

The rally—which commemorated the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) —had been scheduled to take place near President Barack Obama's Hyde Park home, but had to be moved. IDAHO protests also took place in San Francisco and New York City.

GLN's Bob Schwartz became the primary spokesperson for the organization. (Andy Thayer—who usually leads the group's rallies—was in Moscow, Russia, where he was arrested during a gay-rights rally. He was released shortly thereafter.) And Schwartz had no shortage of opinions.

While talking to the press, Schwartz commented that the focus of the rally shifted from the Polish consulate to reports of torture of gay Iraqis. “Their anuses have been glued shut, and then diarrhea has been induced,” he said.

Speaking about the physical move of the rally, Schwartz said, “We think that [being moved] from [near] Obama's residence is a denial of rights.” He said that a state law prohibits protests outside a public official's private residence, but said that he's “seen other groups by the security barrier. But when we wanted to go out there—and we had secured a permit— [we heard] late Friday afternoon that we couldn't do it.”

About Iraq, Schwartz said, “Since [that country] is a U.S.-occupied territory—a puppet regime—they should be directed by Obama to stop the killing of gay men over there. Everyone knows that the U.S. has a lot of influence over what happens in Iraq.”

During the rally, Schwartz also mentioned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wondering why she did not mention anything about the reported abuse of gays when she visited Iraq.

Continuing about Obama, Schwartz told the media, “To our knowledge, this is the first time a local gay organization has held a demonstration that's called Obama out on anything. The national gay leadership before the election made no demands on Obama; they just said, in effect, ‘Whew! He's not George Bush or [Sen. John] McCain.' They put no demands on Obama—and the Black leadership didn't either, for that matter—and, now, we're reaping the harvest. I like to quote Frederick Douglass, who said, ‘Power concedes nothing without a demand.' Obama has made promises about things, like ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' and now he's back-pedaling.”

Going back to gay leadership, Schwartz then named a couple groups: “The Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force backed a man who didn't back equal civil rights for gay people. I can't imagine any other group doing that.”

Source

Sources: US to sign UN gay rights declaration

By MATTHEW LEE

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration will endorse a U.N. declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality that then-President George W. Bush had refused to sign, The Associated Press has learned.

U.S. officials said Tuesday they had notified the declaration's French sponsors that the administration wants to be added as a supporter. The Bush administration was criticized in December when it was the only western government that refused to sign on.

The move was made after an interagency review of the Bush administration's position on the nonbinding document, which was signed by all 27 European Union members as well as Japan, Australia, Mexico and three dozen other countries, the officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Congress was still being notified of the decision. They said the administration had decided to sign the declaration to demonstrate that the United States supports human rights for all.

"The United States is an outspoken defender of human rights and critic of human rights abuses around the world," said one official.

"As such, we join with the other supporters of this statement and we will continue to remind countries of the importance of respecting the human rights of all people in all appropriate international fora," the official said.

The official added that the United States was concerned about "violence and human rights abuses against gay, lesbian, transsexual and bisexual individuals" and was also "troubled by the criminalization of sexual orientation in many countries."

"In the words of the United States Supreme Court, the right to be free from criminalization on the basis of sexual orientation 'has been accepted as an integral part of human freedom'," the official said.

Gay rights and other groups had criticized the Bush administration when it refused to sign the declaration when it was presented at the United Nations on Dec. 19. U.S. officials said then that the U.S. opposed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation but that parts of the declaration raised legal questions that needed further review.

According to negotiators, the Bush team had concerns that those parts could commit the federal government on matters that fall under state jurisdiction. In some states, landlords and private employers are allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation; on the federal level, gays are not allowed to serve openly in the military.

It was not immediately clear on Tuesday how the Obama administration had come to a different conclusion.

When it was voted on in December, 66 of the U.N.'s 192 member countries signed the declaration — which backers called a historic step to push the General Assembly to deal more forthrightly with anti-gay discrimination.

But 70 U.N. members outlaw homosexuality — and in several, homosexual acts can be punished by execution. More than 50 nations, including members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, opposed the declaration.

Some Islamic countries said at the time that protecting sexual orientation could lead to "the social normalization and possibly the legalization of deplorable acts" such as pedophilia and incest. The declaration was also opposed by the Vatican.

Source