The C Street home housing the Christian power broker group The Family, where Nevada Sen. John Ensign and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford sought refuge and advice â is also notable for its involvement in another realm of anti-gay legislation: Ugandaâs bill criminalizing homosexuality.
We already noted the religious right-wingâs support of making Uganda a home base for homophobia, but now comes word that Americaâs own Christian politicos are backing President Yoweri Museveniâs campaign to make gay sex punishable by death.
As Jeff Sharlot, author of the expose The Family, tells it, the billâs biggest supporter is a member of The Family. David Bahati, the lawmaker pushing for aggravated homosexuality crimes, âappears to be a core member of The Family. He works, he organizes their Ugandan National Prayer Breakfast and oversees a African sort of student leadership program designed to create future leaders for Africa, into which The Family has poured millions of dollars working through a very convoluted chain of linkages passing the money over to Uganda.â
Moreover, says Sharlot, âwe discovered that David Bahati, the man behind this legislation, is really deeply, deeply involved in The Familyâs work in Uganda, that the ethics minister of Uganda, Museveniâs kind of right-hand man, a guy named Nsaba Buturo, is also helping to organize The Familyâs National Prayer Breakfast. And hereâs a guy who has been the main force for this Anti-Homosexuality Act in Ugandaâs executive office and has been very vocal about what heâs doing, in a rather extreme and hateful way. But these guys are not so much under the influence of The Family. They are, in Uganda, The Family.â
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And he found all this out by looking at The Familyâs 990 tax forms; thatâs something critics of the National Organization for Marriage have been pushing for.
So how did President Museveni get involved?
In 1986, a former Ford official name Bob Hunter went over on trips at the behest of the U.S. government, but also on behalf of The Family, to which â for which both of which he filed reports that are now in The Familyâs archives. And his goal was to reach out to Museveni and make sure that he came into the American sphere of influence, that Uganda, in effect, becomes our proxy in the region and that relationship only deepened.
In fact, in late 1990s, Hunter â again, working for The Family â went over and teamed up with Museveni to create the Uganda National Prayer Breakfast as a parallel to the United States National Prayer Breakfast and to which The Family every year sends representatives, usually congressmen.
[âŚ] Itâs a very close relationship. He is the key man. NowâŚ
[âŚ] It means that they have a deep relationship of what theyâll call spiritual counsel, but youâre going to talk about moral issues. Youâre going to talk about political issues. Your relationships are going to be organized through these associates. So Museveni can go to Senator Brownback and seek military aid. Inhofe, as he describes, Inhofe says that he cares about Africa more than any other senator.
And that may be true. Heâs certainly traveled there extensively. He says he likes to accuse the State Department of ignoring Africa so he becomes our point man with guys like Museveni and Uganda, this nation he says heâs adopted. As we give foreign aid to Uganda, these are the people who are in a position to steer that money. And as Museveni comes over, and as he does and spends time at The Familyâs headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, a place called The Cedars, and sits down for counsel with Doug Coe, thatâs where those relationships occur.
Itâs never going to be the hard sell, where theyâre going to, you know, twist Museveniâs arm behind his back and say do this. As The Family themselves describes it, you create a prayer cell, or what they call â and this again, this is their language from their documents â an invisible believing group of God-led politicians who get together and talk with one another about what God wants them to do in their leadership capacity. And thatâs the nature of their relationship with Museveni.
We neednât tell you: The implications are dire. Itâs not abnormal for foreign heads of state, like Museveni, to have ties to American politicos. But heâs deeply routed in a secretive organization that promotes hatred under the guise of loving Jesus. And the very people â Americaâs elected officials who believe in human rights â we would expect to pressure Ugandaâs lawmakers not to make such a bill law are turning out to be its biggest supporters.
Justin
I don’t think we should call the Uganda bill homophobic. It’s far worse. I think we should call it genocide.
Peter
And to think that we have people like Senator Brownback of Kansas, who is apparently planning on running for Governor of Kansas, who has promoted this genocide in Uganda.
Attmay
@1 Justin:
This is a gay Holocaust. We need to get the gays out of the country safely, then cut off all foreign aid to these genocidal savages. As far as I’m concerned, banning homosexuality is a casus belli.
Bomb Uganda.
Spartan
Call i what you like guys: ‘genocide’, ‘homophobia’ and you can concoct all kinds of conspiracy theories. But one thing is going to happen. Uganda is going to get tough for homosexuals. If you really care about them give them one-way tickets to your gay-tolerant societies.
Synnerman
Evil is as evil does Forest, even if it’s wrapped in a Jesus coating.
John from England(used to be just John but there are other John's)
Hey if anyone from Uganda is on this site…start tweeting like the Iranians did over the elections…!
schlukitz
Ah yes. The Christian faithful doing what they have always done best.
Spreading bigotry and hatred.
Condemning large groups of people.
Leading crusades.
Holding Inquisitions.
And, killing people.
What makes Christians any different from the Muslims who also want to see us all dead?
It seems that history is doomed to repeat itself. Over and over and over.
Jadis
This is why we need a queer Zion. We will always be victims until we have our own nation able to take victims from the pogroms, and treat Uganda the same way Israel did with Idi Amin.
InExile
We need to start going after our enemies just like they do to us.
schlukitz
The problem as I see it, InExile, is that the powers that be would put us in prison for making the very same threats against them, that they make against us with impunity. ;(
Such is the power of religion.
schlukitz
Why isn’t this on the front page of the New York Times or any of the news channels on TV?
1EqualityUSA
http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/action
What is genocide and what can be about it? Find out techniques for heightening awareness by tapping onto the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum web site.
Ensign and Sanford need to be thoroughly shamed, publicly and in writing. Everyone needs to write to newspapers and T.V. stations. It makes me sick.
schlukitz
Thank you for the link, 1EqualityUSA. I went to the site and checked it out, but did not find any reference there to Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni’s campaign to make gay sex punishable by death.
I am wondering if anyone has made them aware of this revolting development and, if so, what their “official” position on the matter is?
Not to put down this organization in any way, manner or form, but their repeated requests to make donations, without any specifics of what this money will actually be used for or the the manner in which it will help to alleviate the suffering of peoples in the countries where genocide is a daily fact of life, left me feeling a bit like having visited HRC’s website, where the accent is also on sending money with very little information or dialogue on what they are actually doing to obtain civil-rights for the LGBT community, besides patting themselves on their backs.
I apologize in advance if I sound like a doubting Thomas, but after the bitter defeats that we have suffered in California and Maine and now all of the new activities that NOM is beating the drums and collecting money for, I have lost what little faith I had in these humongous, top-down organizations that seem to exist purely for their own celebration and edification.
As InExile pointed out on other Queerty blogs, we have a President who does not support same-sex marriage and conspicuously avoids any mention of or acknowledgment of the injustices meted out to us when the shit is hitting the fan for gay people. This is just one more good “for instance”.
If our own President and government to whom we pay taxes and offer our lives on a platter to serve this country, while being devalued and defiled for doing so, will not speak up for us and protect us, then who will, I ask?
It makes me sick too, Equality. It is beginning to look more and more like we of the LGBT community are sailing a lonely ship of hope on a very dark, turbulent sea.
And, sad to say, there is no lighthouse in sight.
sekaiichibankawaii
@Jadis I totally agree. It’s one of the many reasons I admire the Jewish people. They were able to organize and secure a nation for their own people where they would be relatively safe from persecution. I wish we could do the same because we will always be persecuted until we have our own homeland.
MarkD
Beware the god heads!
terrwill
Uganda gets approximately HALF A BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR in foreign aid from the United States. These sub human filthy animals deserve to lose every dime of that money. As to the “family” Please, please, someone fund a thorough expose’ about the shady dealings of these vile pieces of shit…………
Steve Leong
BOTTOM LINE FOR THOSE WHO DO HATRED AND HARM ONTO OTHERS CREATED DIFFERENTLY FROM THEMSELVES BY GOD: WHAT ONE SOWS, SO SHALL THEY REAP!!! I pray only that it happens SWIFTLY, and when it happens, they will be aware and enlightened that they created it!
Steve Leong
Hawaii
Same Crap
“These sub human filthy animals deserve to lose every dime of that money.”
Fighting bigotry with, uh, bigotry?
terrwill
SAME CRAP: FUCK YOU What are you in favor of: “creating a dialouge” with these savages?? Or “finding common ground?” They are advocating putting any person who has Gay sex in prison for life!! If you know about a Gay and don’t report them within 24 hours you will be thrown in jail for 3 years. I am sure you would also be “offended” if I said that same things about the islamic fundamentalist sub human scum who hang Gay teens after torturing them for two years for simply being Gay. Your kind is the reason these scumbags feel empowered to act towards the Gay community. There is no reasoning with these savages. They hate every fiber of our being and if given the choice would put each and every one of us to death without a second thought. Yea I wish to fight bigotry with bigorty, I would like to fight with a lot more if was within our power. Your kind is more offended by “bigotry” instead of the fact that these savages recieve over half billion dollars per year of OUR TAX DOLLARS. Its the same as asking the Jews to pay for the gas that was used in the ovens. But I am sure you would also be “offended by being “bigoted” against the nazis. Come out of your fairy tale warped sense of reality. There are many cultures who wish nothing but death and pain on the Gay community, stop making excuses for them…………….
schlukitz
Bravo, TERRWILL. You said exactly what I was thinking.
I get so effing tired of PC, turn-the-other-cheek gays who defend our persecutors, even when those persecutors are trying to string up us from a public lamp post. One could drown in the “take the high road shit”.
You are absolutely right. Making nicey-nice with those who would murder us without a second thought is a complete waste of time. They are not interested in dialogue. They just want us dead.
I have two words for people who defend our enemies.
Wimps and traitors.
The Swimmer
Would I be out on a limb to say this is the repeat of Nazi Germany? I have said for years that Evangelical Christians want us exterminated and this is the first step in their perpetual Holocaust to see gays exterminated. Once they turn Africa into a smoldering concentration camp they will try doing the same in the rest of the world.
schlukitz
@ No. 21 – The Swimmer: You said…
Would I be out on a limb to say this is the repeat of Nazi Germany?
Not in the least!
Daniel
There are a couple million gay people in Uganda. They could wipe out politicians who violate human rights if it is majority rules rather than human rights (millions of people vs. a few hundred politicians). That would be horrible but not unexpected since heteros have historically wiped out politicians who violate human rights. That’s why the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created in the first place, because politicians violated and will violate human rights and people need to know when they cross the line so the Universal Declaration was created to educate the general populace. Africa is sadly filled with countless tragedies brought about by corrupt politicians and religious leaders. Genocide has occurred more often in Africa than any place in the world. Unfortunately the good politicians and religious leaders get caught in the midst of such horrendous events which spiral out of control. Hopefully that will not happen in Uganda but it doesn’t look good according to most news reports out of the region.
terrwill
Schlukitz : You were mad at me for my post on Gay marriage, but based on your very correct posts on this thread, I am re-adopting you as my surrogate Grandfather!!! đ
terrwill
#21 THESWIMMER, I 100% agree with you and my newly re-adopted surrogate Grandfather. These subhuman scumbags in Uganda as well as the rightwing-nutbag zealot lunatics right here in the US would not hesitate to shove us all into ovens, no different than the nazis did to the Jews in the 40’s. And the fact that sitting United States Federal elected officials are in cohorts with these savages is outrageous. We send over half a billion dollars a year to this filth. And yet again, and again we get those who are “offended” when someone from our community strips the PC bullshit away from an issue and exposes it for just what it is.
For years the nazis in Germany harrassed and slowly stripped away the rights of the Jews, enacting laws that restricted their freedoms. Stripped them of rights and possissions all leading up to the Holocoust. And if you don’t think the life sentence that the Gays in Uganda are sentenced to is a death sentence you are sadly mistaken. One can only imagine the horrors a Gay prisoner would face in the walls of one of those hell holes.
schlukitz
Terwill, just to add to what you have correctly stated about the Nazis harassing and slowly stripping away the rights of Jews, it should be noted that the very same thing was done to tens of thousands of homosexuals as well.
Yet, we rarely hear any lip service being paid to that ugly atrocity.
Attmay
@20 Schlukitz:
I agree with you. If you think these monsters will listen to a “dialogue” when the only lines they will be saying are “die faggot,” then you are either dangerously naive or have Stockholm Syndrome. From now on I will turn the other cheek with my fist. The Old Testament that these goyische bastards love so much says “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life.” How long before we gays start putting that into practice?
The Nazis started with the boycott of Jewish businesses, then the Nuremberg laws. The gay marriage bans are our Nuremberg laws. The leap from there to Auschwitz and Dachau wasn’t so large.
But of course Obama won’t cut off foreign aid. Of course the UN won’t lift a finger to stop these atrocities unless they can link the US or Israel to them. Only Western countries are human rights violators, remember?
They are the bigots, not us. We are the freedom fighters. I reject the sovereignty of any nation that has laws against homosexuality, and if the US ever becomes like this then I will not hesitate to treat it the same. If we ever need to go back to the days of colonialism and imperialism (minus the racism and homophobia of the era, of course) to protect our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, so be it.
Bomb Uganda and all anti-gay terror states. The fascist scum who run them must be put to death in the most painful form allowed by the law.
The LGBT community must bash back! An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life.
Zeke Krahlin
{{ Jadis posted:
This is why we need a queer Zion }}
Agreed. You may be interested in reading my piece written over 10 years ago, on just this topic:
New Declaration of Independence
http://www.gay-bible.org/write/4_newdec.htm
Cam
To the people saying things like “We need to open up a dialogue”….um, no, when somebody is running at you with a baseball bat yelling “Die Faggot”, you FIRST need to take them down. Then, when they are in prison, or in some other way not able to harm you, you can worry about having a dialogue to rehab them. If we continue to give Uganda money, then our government is complicit in supporting the imprisonment and murder of gays. I shouldn’t be shocked, we’ve been giving money to countries that treat their women like slaves or cattle for decades now.
schlukitz
Cam, that is the most sensible thing I have heard in a month of Sundays on this site.
Trying to have dialogue with someone who is coming at you with murder in their heart, is like hold up a cross in the expectation that they will stop dead in their tracks.
Who are they kidding?
I’d rather be an alive faggot, than a dead nice-guy.
Steve
If America had a democratic president, we’d cut any aid we give to Uganda and then demand all the money we’d ever given to them back.
I could not care less if the entire population of Uganda starves to death tonight. If they are unwilling to stand up to such an insane government, then they do not deserve to live any more than Uganda deserves to exist.
Jim Hlavac
And what the Westboro ruling did was make it perfectly legal for people to call for our extermination. For that’s what the Westboro church wants. It’s not free speech, it’s calling for extermination, by any means, and nothing less. Alito was right; the only one.
Meanwhile, on a Gay Republic — for years I have proposed we all just move to a region roughly including AZ and NM south of I-10, the nib of West Texas, most of Chihuahua, and all of Sinaloa, Sonora and the Baja of Mexico — and secede. We have enough gays to all move there, vote us in, vote us out, and be done with it. There’s enough food growing potential, water, pasture, and oil and fisheries to keep us sustainable. We’d attract gays from all over the world. We could have a Republic up and running in 10 years from a concerted effort to do this. Off and on I’ve been working on a fantasy novel about it. It would make a most intriguing film too. And who knows, perhaps a reality if we’re feisty enough. The Baja of course for the shape of it, the Sea of Cortez for the Speedo wearing opportunities.
Though sometimes I’m called a “radical” đ