As Melanie Nathan pointed out yesterday, Uganda’s Parliament is back from recess and has the Anti-Homosexuality Bill on their list of business to come. You can see it at number 8 (open Word document) on the list of planned business for this session.
In case you want to read it, here is the bill. Rumors continue that the bill will be modified coming out of committee but no one should believe it until it happens.
If you have some time and want the backstory, read here.
12 thoughts on “Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill is Back”
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Whether or not the final bill includes capital punishment they are still criminalizing a sexual orientation. I have concerns over the Scott Lively litigation. Then this crops up again and those concerns are instantly diminished; They shouldn’t be.
“Rumors continue that the bill will be modified coming out of committee but no one should believe it until it happens.”
Indeed … in May 2011, the wording was changed but the hanging remained, including for consensual relations. Bahati has lied before, and he is likely to lie again … and again … and again.
The death penalty aspect is indeed just the tiny tip of a very nasty iceberg. (I – and, I suspect, Warren also – alluded it because the shenanigans surrounding that aspect of the Bill show the fundamental dishonesty of the Bill’s proponents – a dishonesty that not only is a deadly threat to innocent people, but that also brings Christianity into disrepute. For us Christians, so-called ‘Christian’ supporters of the Bill – with or without the death penalty – are part of ‘the enemy within’, and we must work to neutralize the threat they pose both to LGBT persons and to us. And if that means ‘making common cause’ with human rights activists who do not claim to be Christians or even are ‘less-than-complimentary’ about Christianity, then IMO so be it.)
This is a significant development: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/07/uganda-deport-theatre-producer-david-cecil
There’s no need to comment on the significance of this latest happening – it speaks for itself.
The article also describes reports concerning the claimed removal of the death penalty as ‘conflicting’. Not quite sure where the ‘conflict’ is regarding that point! Unless the Parliament of Uganda is now subverting its own procedures, the hanging of so-called “serial offenders” (whether they are gay or straight) is, as of now, still very much in the Bill.
There’s been another key development in the last 48 hours … but I’ll let Warren tell us about it! Possibly good news …
There’s been another key development in the last 48 hours … but I’ll let Warren tell us about it! Possibly good news …
Back to the parliament: since before the recess, two bills have ‘leapfrogged’ the Bill. These are the Geographical Indications Bill 2008 and, before the AHB 2009 (note date – i.e. it’s the original draft, as we’ve kept pointing out) on ‘Notice of Business to Follow’, our old friend the Public Order Management Bill 2011.
One does wonder if the Bill is just going to ‘sit there’ for a while … after all, the AHB 2009 (again the original draft) made a ‘come back’ a year ago, then the situation degenerated into the now-familiar chaos.
Back to the parliament: since before the recess, two bills have ‘leapfrogged’ the Bill. These are the Geographical Indications Bill 2008 and, before the AHB 2009 (note date – i.e. it’s the original draft, as we’ve kept pointing out) on ‘Notice of Business to Follow’, our old friend the Public Order Management Bill 2011.
One does wonder if the Bill is just going to ‘sit there’ for a while … after all, the AHB 2009 (again the original draft) made a ‘come back’ a year ago, then the situation degenerated into the now-familiar chaos.
This is a significant development: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/07/uganda-deport-theatre-producer-david-cecil
There’s no need to comment on the significance of this latest happening – it speaks for itself.
The article also describes reports concerning the claimed removal of the death penalty as ‘conflicting’. Not quite sure where the ‘conflict’ is regarding that point! Unless the Parliament of Uganda is now subverting its own procedures, the hanging of so-called “serial offenders” (whether they are gay or straight) is, as of now, still very much in the Bill.
The death penalty aspect is indeed just the tiny tip of a very nasty iceberg. (I – and, I suspect, Warren also – alluded it because the shenanigans surrounding that aspect of the Bill show the fundamental dishonesty of the Bill’s proponents – a dishonesty that not only is a deadly threat to innocent people, but that also brings Christianity into disrepute. For us Christians, so-called ‘Christian’ supporters of the Bill – with or without the death penalty – are part of ‘the enemy within’, and we must work to neutralize the threat they pose both to LGBT persons and to us. And if that means ‘making common cause’ with human rights activists who do not claim to be Christians or even are ‘less-than-complimentary’ about Christianity, then IMO so be it.)
Whether or not the final bill includes capital punishment they are still criminalizing a sexual orientation. I have concerns over the Scott Lively litigation. Then this crops up again and those concerns are instantly diminished; They shouldn’t be.
“Rumors continue that the bill will be modified coming out of committee but no one should believe it until it happens.”
Indeed … in May 2011, the wording was changed but the hanging remained, including for consensual relations. Bahati has lied before, and he is likely to lie again … and again … and again.