A [retired] college psychology professor's observations about public policy, mental health, sexual identity, and religious issues
This from the twitter feed of Queen Noor of Jordan:
Where’s Bryan Fischer?
Note the Coptic cross on the wrist of this young man…
CNN seems to get this backwards, although perhaps the Muslims returned the favor.
[Update 10:00 a.m. in Cairo, 3:00 a.m. ET] Egyptian Coptic Christians are expected to gather at Tahrir square to pray for those who have lost their lives since the protests started. Muslim protesters said they will form a ring around the Christians to protect them during the service.
Rachel Maddow adds commentary to the controversy over David Kato’s murder.
Those close to Kato have told me that Kato did not pay prostitutes and that the scenario developing around him is implausible. If they are correct and Enock Nsuguba killed Kato for other reasons, I suppose a gay panic type defense might be a strategic move in order to avoid the hangman.
Maddow here may overemphasize the direct American influence on this bill. However, she certainly is correct that the rhetoric offered by Scott Lively and Caleb Brundidge (I leave out Don Schmierer because his talk included very little about reorientation and was nothing like Lively’s venom) was supportive to the plan of certain Ugandans to create the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Lively’s nuclear bomb cannot be wished away with confusing and hateful op-eds. The only productive stance by people who misled the Ugandan people is to repent and ask them to follow the example of Jesus when he prevented the mob from killing a women believed to be a sinner.
So says this Reuter’s report:
David Kato, one of the country’s most visible gay campaigners, was beaten to death with a hammer at his home on Thursday and died on the way to hospital.
Homosexuality is taboo in many African nations. It is illegal in 37 countries on the continent, including Uganda, and activists say few Africans are openly gay, fearing imprisonment, violence and loss of jobs.
Kato had been featured in an anti-gay newspaper in October that “outed” people it said were gay and called on the government to kill them. His photograph was published on the cover under the headline: “Hang Them.”
The activist said he had received death threats since the publication.
“The prime suspect, Nsubuga Enock, was arrested today at around 4pm when he went to visit his girlfriend,” police spokesman Vincent Ssetake told Reuters.
“He has confessed to the murder. It wasn’t a robbery and it wasn’t because Kato was an activist. It was a personal disagreement but I can’t say more than that.”
Currently, there is no objective way to know what that disagreement was about, if indeed that is accurate. Many of Kato’s Ugandan friends tell me privately that they doubt this narrative and are also seeking to find the truth.
UPDATES:
CNN (Nsubuga was a gardener) and AFP (Nsubuga was a prostitute) add detail and suggest that Nsugaba was hired for sexual reasons. As one of those providing comment said, Kato had been accused before of rape. Nothing came of those charges which are suspicious due to their source. At this point, I am still withholding my opinion about the plausibility of the narrative which has developed.
According to the BBC, Ugandan police have arrested Enock Nsubuga in connection with the murder of David Kato.
Ugandan police have arrested a man over last week’s murder of David Kato, a gay activist who sued a local newspaper which outed him as homosexual.
Police say Enock Nsubuga, the second person arrested in connection with the killing, is their main suspect.
They deny that Mr Kato was killed because of his sexuality and that initial inquiries point to robbery.
It is not a good sign when the police think they know the motive before they arrest the suspect. An Enock Nsubuga has this Facebook profile (this Enock likes his beer) but I don’t know if this is the same person.
In the Planned Parenthood expose video revealed today, clinic manager Amy Woodruff (who has now lost her job) refers to the Metropolitan Medical Associates (the actor on the video says Metropolitan Medical Association but this appears to be the same place) as a place where teens can get an abortion with minimal oversight and no identification.
After being down for at least a couple of days, the MMA website is now working. One may also find a link to the clinic at NewJerseyabortion.com, a portal that also links to Women’s Choice Medical Center in Hackensack. The Women’s Choice Medical Center is a smaller clinic than MMA and does abortions for women who are under 14 weeks along. MMA does abortions for women under 24 weeks, according to a source at the clinic.
Recently, the organization has had some medical and regulatory problems. In 2007, the clinic was temporarily shut down due to a failed inspection of the facility following the death of a patient. The patient died as the result of a failed abortion. The inspection revealed dirty and unsafe conditions.
After the incident was reported [the death of the patient], state inspectors found dirty forceps, rusty crochet hooks used to remove IUDs and a quarter-inch of dark red “dirt and debris” under an examining table in the Engle Street clinic.
The state let the facility reopen in March 2007.
Regarding the claim on the Planned Parenthood video that MMA is an easier place for a teen to get an abortion, I note that the front page of the clinic website promotes the fact that one does not need parental consent in NJ. Most of the pictures seem to be of young teens. On the what to expect page, I could find nothing spelling out if there are any age restrictions. There was also an online discount coupon with a restriction on one use per person.
