Are gays more powerful than Ugandan opposition?

Written by By Norman Miwambo

Tuesday, 09 March 2010 19:39 -

Few well organised and skilled personalities can achieve what non-organised masses can fail.
That is exactly what the global gay-community is doing in regard to Ndorwa West MP David
Bahati’s proposed Anti-gay Bill in Parliament.

The inclusion of death penalty for homosexual and non-homosexual offences, totally
adulterated the Bill. Organised advocacy can work better for politicians than encouraging the
masses to hold street demos which expose them to the risk of being brutalised by armed forces.
That is exactly, how the pro-gay community, have managed to cuff the Uganda government to
nearly backing off the controversial Anti-gay Bill. There is even now a video on the internet that
details how dangerous the anti-gay bill is to everybody, regardless of their sexual orientation.

“I am very grateful to Rob Tisinai for making a master class YouTube video that explains the full
horrors of the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” says human rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell
of OutRage when referring to a short video by Rob which explains the full and deadly clauses in
the Bill.

The bill currently before the Ugandan Parliament was sponsored by MP Bahati from the ruling
party National Resistance Movement (NRM). The bill also has some clauses calling for a death
penalty for anybody guilty of homosexual acts.

Ever since the bill was introduced last year, it has attracted worldwide condemnation. Early last
month, the US President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State, Ms Hillary Rodham Clinton
castigated the bill. Canadian and British prime ministers have also expressed concern.

 The bill extends the existing penalty of life imprisonment for anal intercourse to all other
same-sex behaviour, including the mere touching of another person with the intent to have
homosexual relations and imposes a life imprisonment sentence for contracting a same-sex
marriage.

Although, Uganda’s Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo supports the bill, in an
exclusive communiqué to this reporter about the Anti-gay Bill in Uganda’s parliament, the UK
Minister of State for Africa, Baroness Kinnock, indicated that the British government is so

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Are gays more powerful than Ugandan opposition?

Written by By Norman Miwambo

Tuesday, 09 March 2010 19:39 -

disturbed by the bill that it has let the Ugandan government know about its objection: “We are
very concerned about the bill and have made this clear in numerous representations to the
Uganda government. Most recently, the Prime Minister raised the issue with Ugandan President
Museveni at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad,” said Ms
Kinnock.

President Museveni himself appreciates the power of the West as reflected in his speech last
month to members of his party conference about his experience during CHOGM in Trinidad &
Tobago: “The Prime Minister of Canada came to see me and what was he talking about? Gays.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown came to see me and what was he talking about? Gays. Mrs
Clinton [US Secretary of State] rang me. What was she talking about? Gays. There was a rally
in New York of 300,000 homosexuals. Now, I would want to challenge you members of
Parliament, how many of you, other than me, have had a rally of 300,000 people?

The UK Minister of State for Africa, Ms Kinnock, added: “Likewise, I raised the issue with
Uganda’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sam Kutesa, also at CHOGM. The UK High
Commissioner in Kampala takes every appropriate opportunity to engage Ugandan Ministers on
the issue.

“We have also lobbied through the EU, Sweden, who held the EU Presidency in Uganda, led
EU demarche to Ugandan Foreign Ministry in December. The European Parliament has also
called on the Uganda authorities not to approve the bill in a resolution passed on 17 December,”
last year.

 Kinnock expressed fears about the Bill saying it’s detrimental to those who offer services for
the fight against HIV/AIDS in Uganda. “Our concerns include the negative impact the bill would
have on the rights of homosexual and heterosexual Ugandans through the criminalisation of any
action that could be construed as support for homosexuality,” reads part of the letter.

It adds: “This could be extremely detrimental to the fight against HIV/AIDS in Uganda as, in
theory, most donor agencies and international non-governmental organisations could be
encompassed under this law. The UK is also in close touch with and is supporting Ugandan civil
society organisations campaigning against the bill. We will continue to follow the passage of the
bill and to lobby against its introduction,”

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Are gays more powerful than Ugandan opposition?

Written by By Norman Miwambo

Tuesday, 09 March 2010 19:39 -

Under the current provisions of the bill being a member to organisations advocating and funding
gay human rights and providing condoms or safer sex advice to gay people can be construed
as supporting or promoting homosexuality and  would therefore attract a sentence of between
five and seven years in jail.

“It shows that this Bill is far more lethal and wide-reaching than most people realise. Ugandans
don’t have to be gay or to have gay sex to be sentenced to death,” said Tatchell.

Under the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, the crime of “serial offender” is punishable by execution. A
serial offender is a person who has “previous convictions” for “homosexuality or related
offences.”

In other words, if a Ugandan has previous convictions for offences in the Bill and then has a
subsequent conviction he or she will be classified as a serial offender and face execution.

 “Related offences” in the Bill that can result in a death sentence for serial offenders include
non-sexual acts such as: aiding and abetting homosexuality, advocating same-sex relationships
or LGBT rights, having a same-sex marriage, publicising or funding pro-LGBT organisations,
using the internet or a mobile phone for the purpose of homosexuality or its promotion, being a
person in authority who fails to report an offender to the police within 24 hours.

These related offences are crimes that could be also committed by a heterosexual person. It is
not just LGBT Ugandans who are threatened by this legislation, potential foreign visitors too are
threatened by the bill. Under the bill, all convicted serial offenders are liable to execution,
regardless of their sexuality. So who is safe? There might be nobody.

The writer is a Ugandan living in the United Kingdom

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