February 26, 2014 6:21 AM

How sick do you have to be to make love a crime? Ask a lawmaker in Uganda.

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD

(apologies to Keith Olbermann)

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni

With the stroke of a pen on Monday, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni made the supposed crime of being gay punishable by life in prison. He did so despite the firm warnings of President Barack Obama to withhold his signature — and it’s looking unlikely that he’ll face any major consequences in the near future. Under the terms of the bill that became Ugandan law on Monday, aside from making homosexual behavior punishable by up to life in prison, all advocacy on behalf of gay rights is now banned. The law also provides incentives for citizens to turn in associates of theirs who are gay and declares that performing a same-sex marriage carries a sentence of seven years.

Call me naive, but I find it difficult to understand how and why so many could be so concerned with who and how someone chooses to love. You may not understand it, you may be repulsed by the “ick” factor, but what is it that conveys the right to deny someone to live and love as they sit fit? Even worse, what is it that allows a person to think that treating the LGBT community like pariahs worthy only of extermination?

Uganda’s new law, euphemistically referred to as the “Kill the Gays law,” doesn’t appear to actually legalize the extermination of gays…at least not yet. It’s not exactly a stretch to wonder how long it will be before state-sanctioned homicide (go ahead; call it “homocide”) directed at the LGBT community becomes a reality. President Museveni justified that law by saying that gays had “lost the argument.” I’d defy him to provide examples of when the LGBT community in Uganda was ever allowed a voice. They “lost the argument” because they were never included in the exclusion. You can do that when you view homosexuals as subhuman, as “less than.”

“Africans do not seek to impose their views on anybody,” Museveni continued. “We do not want anybody to impose their views on us. This very debate was provoked by Western groups who come to our schools and try to recruit children into homosexuality. It is better to limit the damage rather than exacerbate it.”

If Museveni’s argument sounds familiar, it should. It comes from the playbook of virtually every Right-wing homophobe in this country…and American Social Conservatives have played a sizable role in assisting Uganda craft and pass this law. Blaming homosexuals for “recruiting” children is one of the most tiresome and dishonest arguments used to justify discrimination and oppression. The truth is that gays no more go into schools with an eye toward recruiting children than there is a “homosexual agenda.” Museveni is simply (and not very creatively) employing a long-discredited argument to justify Ugandans’ fear and hatred.

It’s interesting that a country that can charitably be called an economic basket case is focusing so much energy on oppressing people for the “crime” of loving someone of the same gender. As in this country, I suspect most homosexuals just want to be left alone to live and love as they choose. They don’t want to recruit, they aren’t demanding special rights, and they’re certainly not spending their evenings scheming about how to impose the Homosexual Agenda on good, God-fearing straight people. So what is it that Ugandans are so afraid of? Why are they so insistent on legislating whom and how one may appropriately and legally love? I’m not certain, but I’d have to think that there are an awful lot of Ugandans afraid of what they might learn about themselves if they were to focus their energy and intention inward.

As a very wise man once told me, you hate most what you most fear. President Museveni could stand to ruminate on that…unless he’s truly OK with creating an atmosphere that condones the beating and killing of those whose special “crime” is loving in the “wrong” way.

Just a day after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed a bill into law which punishes ‘aggravated homosexuality’ with life in prison, the hunt for gays has begun, with a Ugandan tabloid Red Pepper, publishing names and some pictures of ‘top 200 homosexuals’ in Uganda.

The list contains some Ugandan LGBT activists. A similar list was published in the same tabloid in 2010, after which, renowned activist David Kato was killed in his home. A Ugandan judge later condemned the outing of homosexuals in the media, saying it amounted to an invasion of privacy.

Today Kasha Jacqueline, a Ugandan LGBT activist who is among those listed in the Red Pepper story, tweeted of an attack on a suspected gay couple, causing the death of one of them.

I understand “religious freedom.” I get that some people are unalterably opposed to homosexuality and consider it an abomination against God. Good on them…but that’s their personal issue, which in no way connotes upon them the right to oppress, harass, or attack homosexuals. If they’re opposed to homosexuality, there’s certainly nothing requiring them to take part in homosexual activity.

(Simple solution: If you’re morally opposed to homosexuality, don’t schtup someone of the same sex. Problem solved. You can thank me later.)

If you believe that your religious freedom provides you the absolute right to demean and attack those whose lifestyle and choices you find contemptible, your religion is a joke. It’s not about your religion, or your devotion to the teachings of Jesus Christ. It’s about your fear and hatred and your willingness to demand that others adhere to your standards.

What Uganda has done is make it clear they consider homosexuals to be unworthy of the protections afforded more “normal” people. That this law will make it easier for some Ugandans to feel justified in attacking and even killing those they believe to be gay is a disturbing sign from a country wanting acceptance as a full member of the international community.

Love isn’t a crime. Those who love differently aren’t criminals. They just want to live an honest life and be true to who they are. What about that is so objectionable and offensive? And why are so many so threatened by someone else’s sexuality?

How sick do you have to be to make love a crime? Uganda’s a pretty good example of the shape of things to come, and it has nothing to do with “religious freedom.” It’s about letting hate set the agenda…and is that REALLY what Jesus would do?

What part of “two consenting adults” is so difficult to understand?

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 26, 2014 6:21 AM.

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