How Western Evangelicals Influence Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill
The bill, if passed, would punish homosexual behavior with life imprisonment and, for homosexuals who have gay sex more than once, with minors, or who have H.I.V./AIDS, with the death penalty. If a Ugandan knows his neighbor or colleague is gay and does not report it, he could also go to prison. If a Ugandan is gay and living abroad, the bill demands that he be deported for prosecution. Uganda’s hotheaded ethics minister, James Nsaba Buturo, when asked about the bill, said to reporters that he is “really getting tired of this phrase ‘human rights.’”
Both Buturo and David Bahati, the parliament member who introduced the bill, are closely connected to The Family, a group of powerful American politicians, corporate executives, and government and non-profit officials who belong to the Christian Right. Their ranks include South Carolina governor Mark Sanford. As author Jeff Sharlet discovered, The Family has been pouring money into a Ugandan youth-leadership program led by Bahati.
Celebrity evangelical Rick Warren is also involved. Last year, the pastor told a conference of Ugandan Anglican Bishops that homosexuality was not a tolerable human right, and his doctoral thesis advisor organized anti-gay Ugandan legislators. For almost a decade, Warren has made it his mission to integrate the church and healthcare systems of neighboring Rwanda, whose president is a close ally. Though The Family and Warren have now publicly rebuked the bill, their activities clearly contributed to the atmosphere that made it possible.
While Ugandan parliamentarians say they will drop extreme parts of the bill such as the death penalty and life imprisonment, there is not much doubt that it will pass. When it does, it will set a dangerous precedent not only for gay rights in Africa, but also for the future of American evangelicalism abroad.
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