Uganda soccer association plans anti-gay campaign

A Scottish soccer coach may have to choose between his job and his beliefs regarding homosexuality. The Ugandan campaign against homosexuality now spreads to a test of belief. Read on…

Uganda FA Plan Anti-Homosexuality Campaign

Published: 4 July 2009

A Scottish football manager could lose his job as manager of the Ugandan national team unless he signs a form condeming homosexuality.

Bobby Williamson (left), the former Rangers and West Bromwich Albion star who is now head coach of the Ugandan national squad, has been asked to take part in an anti-sodomy offensive in a country where homosexuality is illegal – Uganda.

Williamson, along with every other football coach in the country, must sign a code of conduct which “denounces any support or involvement in sodomy related acts”.

The game’s ruling body acted after Isaac Omalla, a player with Horizon FC, reported his manager, Charles Ayeko, to the police, claiming to have been sexually assaulted by the older man following a match during the inter-regional championships in Lira.

Ugandan newspapers have alleged there is a homosexual culture among some players. Williamson’s employers, the Ugandan FA (FUFA), have now launched a campaign against homosexuality, insisting that all coaches take part.

Code of Conduct

“We are going to address [sodomy] in the code of conduct,” said Stone Kyambadde, the vice-chairman of the Ugandan Coaches Association. “The code will denounce any support or involvement in sodomy-related acts.”

He was backed up by FUFA spokesman, Rogers Mulindwa. “We totally condemn it,” he said. “We want evidence to pin the people involved. It’s here that we will start the clean-up.”

Williamson, who has managed Kilmarnock, Hibernian, Plymouth Argyle and Chester City, replaced Hearts manager Csaba Laszlo in the Ugandan post last year. FUFA’s document represents something of a moral dilemma for the 47-year-old Scot, who has spoken out against discrimination during his managerial career.

He is very popular in Kampala, where he lead The Cranes to victory in the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup in January, their first such success for six years.

Hypothetical

“Sodomy is a criminal offence over there but this is the first I’ve heard of any code of conduct,” he said. “Until FUFA speak to me about that it’s a hypothetical matter and I’ll reserve my views until I’m approached.”

Click the link above to read the rest. In addition to the threats experienced by gays, freedoms are being threatened for non-gays at this point. Recently, a government minister proposed a law which would criminalize free speech regarding homosexuality and now one’s job could be threatened if one refuses to be sufficiently anti-gay.

How ironic; in this country, conservatives worry that their rights to express a belief that homosexuality is wrong might be threatened by laws favorable to homosexuality. I believe people from all sides should stand together to support freedom speech and conscience — whether here or there.

5 thoughts on “Uganda soccer association plans anti-gay campaign”

  1. Well, I hope I see my cat in heaven. Nonetheless, evolution or God created, living things are living things which should be respected. That means the whole earth. Well meaning Christians have polluted and scorched the earth with horrible destructive behaviors. So have non-christians. Sooner or later we are going to have to come to the conclusion that while we view some things differently our world needs to be cared for – as we have so been instructed in scripture.

  2. Lynn David wrote:

    they’ll get what every human being deserves the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

    I have a ‘philosophical’ thought on this. The interesting fact is that human rights came into being in the cultural area inseminated by Greek reason and Christian belief in soul and possibility of individual salvation. This is a point that is no longer stressed today, for fear of accusations of Eurocentrism, but human rights appeared in Christian Europe, not in Uganda, Madagascar or China. John Locke wrote in 1689, ‘liberty of conscience is every man’s natural right, equally belonging to dissenters as to themselves’ (A Letter Concerning Toleration), referring to citizens from Christian states.

    So, on top of the idea of civil rights, that were built on citizenship rights & duties in relation to authority, was laid this halo of ‘freedom of conscience’ that was concerned with tolerating dissenters on matters of faith. The ‘human as a creative potential’ pathos comes from Renaissance’s humanists’ rediscovery of Ancient thought. All these are cultural layers that contributed to the definition of human rights in Europe and the United States.

    The text from the United States Declaration of Independence still keeps the cultural stamp, which makes it clearer: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (1776) In other words, humans have rights because their lives have a value which comes from their creator (compared to other animals, who have been considered soulless). This is what made human life sacred in human law, it’s the umbilical cord with the Christian culture from which human rights stemmed. The experience of the two world wars in the 20th century pressed for a universal imposition of human rights, to avoid similar future destructive events.

    Now – the interesting turn is that human rights have been used to protect behaviours which Christian communities do not agree with. More recently, scientific explanations about humans have been promoting the idea that these behaviours are natural, just like any other animal behaviours. And of course, now animals have rights too, bestowed on them by humans… But how does this drama continue if people increasingly believe that evolutionary forces have shaped the way they look, feel and act and that there are winners and losers in the process? Human rights may be standing in the way of evolutionary forces, protecting some who wouldn’t stand a chance in a real natural state. So it seems we are not in a full-on evolutionary situation, but we may be going back to roots by undermining the (Christian) beliefs which supported the creation of human rights.

    The boomerang effect is that destroying the Christian base will also draw the carpet from under the feet of human rights. This would be a Pyrrhic victory, but it’s not gays’ fault, because I think their intentions are innocent and they have been largely victimised until now.

  3. In effect, Lively’s insane message to the Ugandans was turn Nazi on GLBTQs while you have the power or they’ll get what every human being deserves the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Keep your worship words to yourself, gay peoples are not worthy of them.

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