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Uganda's Parliament has vowed to pass the "Kill the Gays" bill as a 'Christmas Present'

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(Reuters) - Uganda's parliamentary speaker said she wanted to pass as a "Christmas gift" for Ugandans an anti-gay law, which rights groups have criticized for its draconian penalties against homosexuals.

The bill had initially proposed the death penalty for gays in the conservative east African country but still presents an array of jail terms for convicted homosexuals, including life imprisonment in certain circumstances.

Denounced as "odious" by U.S. President Barack Obama, the bill has left veteran President Yoweri Museveni struggling to balance the demands of the evangelical church on one side and aid donors on the other.

Some international donors have threatened to cut aid if the legislation, which is now before a parliamentary committee and was first introduced in parliament in 2009, becomes law.

"Ugandans want that law as a Christmas gift. They have asked for it and we'll give them that gift," parliament speaker Rebecca Kadaga told Reuters on Tuesday.

As House speaker Kadaga can ask the committee to expedite scrutiny of a bill in order to bring it back to the House for final debate and voting.

Existing legislation already outlaws gay sex. The new bill prohibits the "promotion" of gay rights and punishes anyone who "funds or sponsors homosexuality" or "abets homosexuality".

Kadaga said it was still possible to pass the bill this year although there was little time remaining before the House went on recess for Christmas holidays.

"It's very, very possible, we can do it," Kadaga said.

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.

INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION

Last month Uganda's leading daily newspaper, Daily Monitor, reported a spat in Canada between Kadaga and Canada's foreign minister over Uganda's harassment of gay people.

"If homosexuality is a value for the people of Canada they should not seek to force Uganda to embrace it. We are not a colony or a protectorate of Canada," the paper quoted Kadaga as saying.

Her comments drew support among some Ugandans on Twitter and Facebook and upon returning from Canada she received a rapturous welcome at Entebbe, Uganda's main international airport.

Clare Byarugaba, coordinator for Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CSCHRCL), said the group would petition the constitutional court to declare the draft legislation unconstitutional.

"The international community supports us and we also believe in the constitution of our country which protects the rights and freedoms of everyone," she said.

"And we'll petition it (constitutional court) and we strongly believe the law will be on our side," she said.

International activist group Avaaz condemned the decision.

"Sentencing people to life in prison for love is not a "Christmas gift", it's a sickening violation of human rights," campaign director Emma Ruby-Sachs said in a statement.

In August gay rights activists hacked several Ugandan government websites to denounce what they regard as harassment of homosexuals in the east African country.

The country also banned 38 NGOs in July it accused of promoting homosexuality and recruiting children into homosexuality.

source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/13/us-uganda-homosexuality-idUSBRE8AC0V720121113

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Posted

Holy shit, this is real? I seriously thought it was another joke thread subject, like romney and scotland.

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Posted

welp

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Posted

Intolerance: the gift that keeps on giving

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I'm not going to go there and tell them all to start loving homosexuals, but jail for life and execution are too extreme. If homosexuality is such a serious problem there, then they should at least allow them to leave the country or something. Some kind of "If you come out of the closet you have three days to leave the country with police protection, if you're not gone by then you're subject to being arrested and we're not going to step in if you get mauled by a bunch of christians."

Of course, there's probably something wrong with that sentiment because I know nothing of Uganda or the situation over there or what.

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It's a shame to understand that some of this world is still delved into this medieval phase where one is simply fearful of what they don't understand. Homosexuality, as far as I know, has never damaged a society. There is a large installment of ignorance among those who hate it so much that they just can't leave it alone and keep to their own selves. I mean, it's 2012 and gays in the United States are being persecuted as bad people. They'd just like to marry and be miserable like any heterosexual couple is.

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The article calls east Africa conservative. I really don't understand how actively killing people is conservative, but okay article. Little remarks like that are just sopping wet with bias. Like what.

Conservative means different things in different regions. It means to "conserve." As in keep traditional culture. Homosexuality is not accepted as a traditional concept in most areas, especially Africa.

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It's a different culture. Condemning another culture as wrong or bad for killing gay people is a lot like them actually killing gay people.

I mean one involves killing so its different. But we obviously and admittedly cannot understand why a culture would kill gays. We can't wrap our minds around that logic. So us, whoever us is, trying to tell these people who we cannot understand that they are wrong will end badly. How do I say "things will work themselves out" without sounding as if I tolerate the killing of gay people? Because, good heavens, I don't tolerate that.

What conceivable logic could there be behind what would quite despicably be legal genocide? Damning their culture is not the case, I'm damning their system of deliberation. Was their sense to Hitler's holocaust (sorry to rip a Third Reich reference out of myself)? You can't defend that. This is what I see as a follow-up and the mass instillation of ignorance from that video crudely titled "Eat Da Poo Poo". It'd shown a pastor spewing all of these things he'd supposedly researched about the methods of homosexual practices; such as eating their own feces (as implied by the title). Sure, some gays may do that (and it's completely disgusting) but is there not any heterosexual couples who enjoy such obscenities? People who rampantly hate need only the smallest segway to create an epidemic of ignorance. I don't agree with the homosexual lifestyle myself, but it doesn't bother me and I don't hate gays, nevermind killing them. Let's make another example out of Westboro Baptist Church. I'll isolate their burning hate for gays from all of their other lunacy. They call the entire country of The United States "Fag Enablers" and also go on about how every American serviceman and servicewoman is a "fag". It's pretty much the same thing, but a radical and conscious decision wrought by a country's government. Among the 31 million people who reside in the country roughly 500,000 of them are gay citizens. That's only a bit more than 1.6 percent of the total population, so I wouldn't say it's a measure of gay population control (if anyone would be as backwards to suggest that). There is nothing logical behind such a law. Also, there is no way you can guard the relatable comparison between hating a country for killing gays and the actual killing of gays. "Different culture" is no excuse, human beings should not be slain for their genetic orientation, culture means nothing when it comes to it. Plenty of cultures had radical customs during centuries ago, but throughout time became refined and highly civilized. Uganda would be better off dealing with the coked-out child soldiers they have walking the streets with an automatic weapon and an intent to kill.

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Posted

It's your own fault if you take the WBC seriously.

pheonix561 and SilverAlchemic like this

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It's your own fault if you take the WBC seriously.

*sigh* That wasn't my point, I was just making an example of them. It's a sordid fact that an ideology like that of WBC is beginning to govern other countries. You should have read a bit deeper into my post. :)

SilverAlchemic likes this

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*sigh*

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*sigh*

Glad to know you share my sentiments of your post. ^__^

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Some people are well enough to realize mass murder of a neutral people is wrong, others apparently aren't. I'm not preaching the word of God's sent word, God isn't involved, or for perhaps the Ugandan people it is, cleansing their nation with a moral attitude. I could care less if you agreed with me, it means less to me than "(nothing)".... negative nothing. :P

I'm not speaking against the culture, because this is not Ugandan culture, it's their judicial system. You basically stated that the concept of "right and wrong" is just an illusion used to either justify or oppose an action or a movement. The truth is, killing any group of people who are of no serious threat to the general population is deplorable, it's clear though that this nation doesn't realize that. Jim Crow laws persecuted blacks during the 1950's, that's no longer though. Why so? It was wrong, and after a certain amount of time had passed, they became outlawed concepts. Seemingly every other group of people have been passed through some sort of violent persecution, I suppose gays are just next in the purging rotation.

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The Holocaust occurred because Germany was in a Depression that was worse than the one we were going through at the time. Hitler promised to get Germany out of the depression, which he actually did, unless I am mistaken.

I am not justifying the Holocaust, but there was a conceivable reason for why an entire country went along with it.

SilverAlchemic likes this

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The Holocaust occurred because Germany was in a Depression that was worse than the one we were going through at the time. Hitler promised to get Germany out of the depression, which he actually did, unless I am mistaken.

I am not justifying the Holocaust, but there was a conceivable reason for why an entire country went along with it.

Oh, please... You know what, nevermind. Whatever you say.

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