Uganda passes anti-gay and anti-pornography bills

[omuwalamulungi]

Really hacked off with my adopted nation this morning, to say the least.

Story at:

Daily Monitor

BBC

The president still needs to agree and there is a lot of international pressure on him but it's going to happen. Anti-pornography bill would extend to women wearing mini skirts in public.

You'd laugh, except these people genuinely think wearing a skirt is inviting rape, or that homosexual men recruit children.

I was in Uganda not so long ago, with this all rumbling in the background. I found the number of missionaries and the influence they held quite scary, especially as so many seemed to be completely ignorant, wilful or otherwise, about so many aspects of life/culture.

It is appalling. We found people were quite reluctant to talk about it, not condemning it, but not outwardly agreeing with it either. It was like no-one even wanted to acknowledge it either way.

On a slightly related note, I found it really interesting the number of men that would hold hands, presumably because the idea of being openly gay is so absurd that there's no 'stigma' around acting like that in public. It was only then that I realised I've never seen men holding hands here. I couldn't believe how strange I found it.

7988's dislike of the term 'homophobic' is interesting. It's commonly understood meaning is someone who dislikes or discriminates agains gay people, which is something that 7988 has admitted to, and professes to see nothing wrong in doing.

So why the dislike of being labelled as such? There are many white supremacists, for example, who are happy to acknowledge that they are racist. To them, being a racist (or homophobe) is not a pejorative label, but one they are proud to own.

It suggests that 7988 has a significant degree of cognitive dissonance between wanting to believe that he/she holds reasonable, acceptable views, and knowing that he/she damn well does not. That there is good reason for their views to be a pejorative label.

It would be amusing if it were not for the fact that such views are currently contributing to people being persecuted, maimed and killed.

Blimey this has moved on a bit!

They are two separate bills, for clarity. The so called "kill the gays" bill which has now been demoted to "lock the gays up for life" and the "anti pornography bill".

And for pitys sake the Bible also tells us that we should sell our daughters into slavery and not wear mixed fibres.

Pacific He is only seven months but has already visited and will continue to do so, I love Uganda but I hate all of this. Aren't there bigger problems they could be solving?

Sorry to add to the derailing omu and I'm sorry also that I have not yet read your helpful links. I will go back and do so when I have a moment.

Have they included the clause that was proposed to make it compulsory to denounce someone that you know to be homosexual? I know it was contemplated at one point; so particularly barbaric.

Law7998 being gay is not a choice. Gay people don't try and make straight people gay. They are very happy being with each other!
So now you know those facts what problem can you have with gay people?

I shall certainly carry on defending the Biblical view on sexuality as the media certainly won't anymore unfortunately. But why? I don't like bondage. That means that I don't do it. I don't spend any time telling other people not to. That just seems weird. What is the point of telling other people, who are perfectly happy with their choices, where or where not to put their penises?

Apparently Uganda is number 3 in the world for googling gay porn. Hilarious, methinks thou dost protest too much, etcetera.

My understanding is that the denunciation part of the law was passed too - is that right?

There was a time when children were encouraged to denounce their parents - not that long ago, in Germany. And we all know how that ended. And even more recently neighbours reporting on their neighbours (in the GDR to the Stasi).

And closer to home, the government is trying to put into law requirements that landlords report people to the immigration services/police if they believe that they are or are trying to rent accommodation whilst not having permission to remain in the UK.

I'm not taking a side swipe at people I disagree with by calling them American extremists. I was raised by these people, these are the same people who try to kidnap the children of people living in gay relationships to "save" them - or their own grandchildren/nieces/nephews/family members if their own family members leave. My own kids have been threatened by these groups, my father's side of the family is still heavily involved with it. And these groups are interested, involved, and quite proud about their connection with creating these laws.

It's not that hard to find the connection and the harm they are causing. When these people are broadcasting the names and photos of people they believe to be gay and calling for their death isn't extreme, I don't know what is. How someone can consider this a 'debate' when this is real people's deaths going on, I can't understand.

Christian oppression in other parts of the world does not counterbalance their call for murder from people living in countries (US) where they are only not oppressed but have a socially protected status. And this neocolonialistic idea that African countries need White Western input on their moral laws and getting to chose who lives or dies is nothing short of inhumane. This does not nothing to help Christians affected by oppression, that's a really ridiculous excuse for wanting to kill people that having nothing to do with said conflict and just want to live in peace as they are.

Onto the topic, most recent reports I've seen show that the Ugandan presidents plans to sent it back to Parliament after discussions (which he can do twice, then they would need a 2/3rd majority to force it), it's gone pretty quiet since those reports so people are cautious about how to take it.

"You are not entitled to an opinion if it is discriminatory,..."

That is one of the silliest things I have read on MN.