Author: Warren Throckmorton

Anti-Homosexuality Bill is Next on the Order of Business for Uganda’s Parliament

According to today’s agenda, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill will be the next bill considered by Uganda’s Parliament. Today, the legislative body is slated to act on two bills relating to the oil industry and the Accountants Bill. These bills have been on the agenda for several days and should be nearing a final vote. Given the prior work done on those three bills, the anti-gay bill could come up as soon as tomorrow.

It appears that Speaker Kadaga has given the Anti-Homosexuality Bill higher priority than other business since it was first listed last week. Note the position of the bill on today’s order paper:

 

NOTICE OF BUSINESS TO FOLLOW

  1. THE ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY BILL, 2012
  2. MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT TO URGE GOVERNMENT TO BAIL OUT SEMBULE STEEL MILLS LTD FROM THE INTENDED SALE OF ITS PROPERTIES
  3. PRESENTATION, CONSIDERATION AND ADOPTION OF THE REPORT ON THE ADHOC COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING THE ENERGY SECTOR
  4. THE PUBLIC ORDER MANAGEMENT BILL, 2012

Last week on the listing of business to come, the anti-gay bill was listed third after the motion to bail out the steel mill and the adoption of the report on the energy sector. Today the bill is listed ahead of those two items and is the first item to be considered next.

Given the scope of the oil bills and the Accountants Bill, it is not certain that the anti-gay measure will come up tomorrow. However, it appears that the bill will now be the next bill considered after the current business is resolved.

What Uganda Should Be Worrying About

At the same time Uganda is threatening to make consensual same-sex relations punishable by death or life in prison, the nation is facing a jump in the rate of HIV infections. The Ugandan Parliament website reported today on a Ministry of Health briefing which disclosed that the HIV rate has increased to 7.3% in 2011 from 6.4% in 2004.

Given the rush to enact a law depriving gays of life and liberty, one might think that the driver of this increase is homosexuality. However, that is not the case. According to the article, married couples are driving the chamges.

Dr.Musinguzi warned that the HIV/AIDS rates that had gone down in the 1990s have now shot up and require urgent redress. The new statistics point at Women bearing the biggest burden of the disease with 55% of the new infections discovered amongst women.

The research attributes the trend to multiple sexual partners as the key driver to the spread of the disease. 80% of the men interviewed by health experts accepted leaving with concurrent multiple sexual partners while 68% of the women lived the same lifestyle.

The Speaker of Parliament Rt.Hon. Rebecca Kadaga who officiated at the opening of the dialogue re-echoed the need to lay new strategies to reverse the HIV/AIDS trend.

“Although a number of achievements have been made in the fight against AIDS, the epidemic seems to have shifted from single young persons to those married and in long term relationships. I am also concerned that the rich women are now more vulnerable to HIV than others. This is a worrying trend,” the Speaker noted.

Gays are a negligible aspect of the HIV picture in Uganda but the Parliament is wasting time debating homosexuality. The MPs should be spending their time worrying about the sexual behavior of straights. It is beyond belief that the Ugandan Parliament is risking donor funding over the Anti-Homosexuality Bill when the more immediate issue for HIV is infidelity among straights in long term relationships.

 

 

 

Buzzfeed: State Department Warns Uganda on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Earlier today, Buzzfeed reported on a State Department briefing on Uganda’s efforts to pass the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The briefing should be reviewed in full but the take away is that Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson was in Uganda over the weekend expressing the U.S. opposition to the bill. Carson pressed the point that the bill would violate Uganda’s own human rights standards.

I think the presence of Carson is important and necessary. It is not too late for Uganda’s leaders to step back and reconsider the human rights implications of the bill.

One aspect of the briefing that was interesting to me was the fact that State Department could not confirm the removal of the death penalty. It is important for the media and blogging community to report accurately and maintain some skepticism about reports that cannot be confirmed.

Hat tip: @melanienathan1

Scott Lively and Bryan Fischer Laud Uganda as Christian Nation; Support Anti-Homosexuality Bill

World Net Daily and Scott Lively sang the praise of Uganda’s President Yowari Museveni in an article published November 24. Museveni recently prayed at two events and seemed to repent for Uganda’s sins. His prayer was a recitation of problems with no mention of specific actions on Museveni’s part. However, WND and Scott Lively, who is quoted in the article, believe Museveni’s prayer should be a model for other nations.

This article relates to meetings that occurred in Uganda back in October. The current relevance relates to the fact that Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill is back in the news. The Parliament may consider the bill this week. On that point, Scott Lively opposes the death penalty but lauds Uganda’s efforts to pass the anti-gay bill.

Sunday, Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association tweeted his approval of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill and signaled the appearance of Lively on his show on Monday.

I think Lively and Fischer are completely wrong. They defend the indefensible. Uganda watchers recognize Museveni’s prayer as a move to pander to the conservative Christians of that nation.

This is not the first African leader to declare his country a Christian nation. For instance, Zambia’s late president Frederick Chiluba declared Zambia to be a Christian nation early in his rule. His rhetoric was much like Museveni’s but the rest of the story is that Chiluba was tried for corruption in a trial that cost Zambia millions of dollars.

Furthermore, there is a mistaken belief at work here. Lively and Fischer believe that national repentance is possible. They take the verses in the Old Testament directed toward Israel as having application to any nation today. This flaw is responsible for much mischief. In the Bible, God was active in making a covenant with Israel. However, whether it be Uganda or the USA, God has not made a covenant. It doesn’t work the same way for a political leader to declare such a covenant.

When a political leader acknowledges God, there is no guarantee of prosperity or success. For instance, the Confederate Constitution gave recognition to “Almighty God” in a way that the United States constitution does not do. That document begins:

We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character, in order to form a permanent federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Confederate States of America.

The Confederacy invoked “the favor and guidance of Almighty God” but this invocation did nothing for them.

Museveni has invoked God’s blessing before and yet Uganda remains a very poor nation with multiple problems. Lively says Uganda will prosper for their stance on gays. However, Uganda has been a difficult place for gays to live for many years without some obvious divine blessing.

Spokesman Says Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill Will Not Be Debated Today UPDATE – NTV Report: Committee Endorses Life in Prison

According to spokesman Nsimbe Kassim, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is still in committee and will not be debated today. Kassim told me that the report from the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee will not come before Parliament today but will probably come up next week.  The main business today is more work on the bills relating to the oil industry in Uganda. According to yesterday’s agenda, Parliament must get through two Petroleum Bills, the Accountants Bill, a resolution to encourage a bail out of a steel mill and consideration of a report on the energy sector before debate on the anti-gay bill.

UPDATE: In the category of “I’ll believe it when I see it” is this report from the BBC.  In May 2011, MPs said the death penalty had been dropped when in fact it was still in the bill.

UPDATE: This NTV report lends some credibility to the BBC story above. Committee chair Stephen Tashobya is quoted as saying the report is complete and others speaking off camera say that the penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” will now be life in prison. This report indicates that action on the bill will take place next week.