In an eerily Orwellian move, the anti-gay conference in Kampala, Uganda, has produced serious calls for gays there to be placed into forced “therapy.” From UGPulse:
The Minister of Ethics and Integrity, Dr. James Nsaba Buturo has today told a conference organized to discuss the ways to fight Homosexuality that he will soon submit a bill on pornography and homosexuality for discussion in Parliament.
The conference that took place at Parliament was organized by Defend the Family International, an organization in the United States of America that was formed to fight homosexuality.
Buturo says the he will present the bill against pornography first before presenting that against homosexuality though he declines to mention exactly when these bills will be presented to Parliament.
He says pornography is partly a cause of homosexuality since it negatively affects the morals of the victims of pornography and makes them easily susceptible to the vice of homosexuality.
He says the provision in the penal code on homosexuality is too small to cover all concerns in homosexuality.
Buturo says the government will not only end at making laws against homosexuality but will also engage in sensitizing schools and churches in the fight against this vice.
The President of Defend the Family International, Scott Lively says it is good for the government of Uganda to criminalize homosexuality but the government should subject the criminals of homosexuality to a therapy rather than imprisoning them.
Lively says this is aimed at the criminals recovering from homosexuality which is the main objective of those fighting homosexuality and not to punish homosexuals through imprisonment. He says even schools should borrow this idea of therapy in dealing with gay students.
XGW warned Exodus privately and publicly of the dangers associated with this meeting, and why one of their board members had no business being there. These warnings were met with weak responses, if any, and nothing for the record. Our own contact on the ground there has heard nothing from Don Schmierer (Exodus) to indicate his disagreement with anything so far.
This entire affair is shameful and Exodus International has a very short window in which to soundly renounce the entire conference, the idea of forced therapy and, as we suggested earlier, call for the decriminalization of homosexuality in Uganda and the rest of the world. We also believe they have no choice but to ask for Schmierer to resign from the Exodus board. As a representative of Exodus, an ex-gay organization, we don’t believe he can speak on the subject of “preventing homosexuality” without strongly reflecting back on Exodus.
This needs a loud and unambiguous response from Exodus and International Healing Foundation as well, and it needs to be now.
I have several magazines that cover women’s issues in Africa, Middle Asia and the Middle East.
1. Poverty and illiteracy are definitively feminized. Which makes females of all ages vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation.
2. There are trends that concern child brides. Girls as young as 9 and 10 are forced to marry adult men. Some as old as in their 50’s. These girls are traded sometimes for cash and simply household goods, but there are public health issues that makes this more of a terrible trend. Premature pregnancy and the stress of childbirth, leave these girls with damaged or infected sex organs. Many of them die in childbirth or from subsequent infections. Cycling the search for new brides.
3. Violence against females who reject male solicitation is another terrible trend. Girls have acid thrown on them, or are set on fire. Some are butchered with knives. The point is though, to disfigure these girls so that they will forever have to endure a life of rejection and poverty. Many are left disabled by blindness from these attacks.
4. Illiteracy feeds poverty which cycles into the other negative aspects of female life in these regions. Less funding, skilled teachers and materials are reserved for girl’s schools. Oprah did research and found just how widespread the compromise to a girl’s education was. She concentrated though, on the region of her own ancestral origins. Hence, the founding of an exclusive academy for girls in Africa.
4. Homosexuals are not a problem nor threat to females for these reasons alone. Heterosexual men threaten females AND gay men and women EVERYWHERE. Females are not a minority in the world, but make up for less than a tenth of the influence over the laws and cultural norms that control or influence their lives.
5. Lack of sexual equity or autonomy in relationships have made females of all ages very vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection.
People like Scott Lively, or Rick Warren who enter African countries and literally inject their values that have traditionally compromised the gender variant, will only exacerbate and problem FOR gay people, yet ignore the significant problems facing WOMEN in Third World countries for their own gain.
With all their determined assertions on the purpose of men and women in the world, there is precious little understanding of what undermines the lives of females everywhere, whether hetero or lesbian. There is little they are doing to inform these societies about the vitality of an EDUCATED woman. And woman who can live her life without threat of violence to be independent of men’s control on her life.
They have no interest in changing the archaic traditions that men entitle themselves with, mostly through RELIGIOUS influence on public policy.
I submit, I’d have MUCH more respect for these men, ANY of them, if they addressed the brutal hatred and ferocious assaults on women that influence how gay people are treated as well.
Considering females are more than half of the world’s population, this should be their tantamount concern instead of remaking gay people into the image of hetero norming, which considering what I just said, ain’t so wonderful either.
Sounds like a Holocaust revisited.
Forced sterilization, institutionalization, …..what’s next,…..Concentration camps?
What a bunch of dangerous loons.
I am not a big defender of pornography, but this quote is so ludicrous:
Riiiiiight. Straight guy looks at porn; instantly wants to have gay sex.
This kind of reasoning, by the ironically named Minister of Integrity, is right up Exodus’ alley.
And Regan, thanks for your analysis. You never fail to add a lot to the conversation!
The most pressing sexual issue that I have heard about from a number of people who have been in Africa (Southern Sudan, Uganda, Kenya) is the issue of rape.
In many parts of Africa, fetching water is women’s work. Girls (sometimes quite young) and women often have to walk long distances to get the water. They routinely get raped, particularly in unstable border areas and areas of conflict.
One friend of mine talked about a girl requesting condoms from their clinic. She wanted them in hopes her rapists would use them. The clinic (related to some sort of funding policy) would not give her the condoms. During his time there, this girl became HIV positive. He will never go back there with this medical relief group again.
If Exodus and their psycho Ugandan allies really wanted to do some good, perhaps they could work on this issue of girls and women being routinely raped while going to fetch water, rather than increasing the suffering of gay people who are causing no harm.
Don’t bother.
And don’t bother addressing Alan Chambers, either. Unless you want to see him dance around and give you a womanly bullshit passive-aggressive response, just as he has all these years.
This is partly because gay activists have given Alan Chambers a free pass and haven’t aggressively went after the “ex-gays”. This “live and let live” thing would be nice, but apparently I’m the only person who’s BEEN aware that this is a 1-way street, and always will be.
Either get more hysterical, or the Ugandan gays are as good as dead.
And you’re next.
What do you want on YOUR tombstone? Oh nevermind. Your relatives won’t find your remains when they’re reduced to ashes. Go ahead and start adopting out your pets, and make a will too. It’s over.
Feel better now, Scott?
Not yet!