THE SHOT — A rally today in Jinja, outside the Ugandan capital of Kampala, calls on Western influences (including The Obama) to exit the nation’s debate on further criminalizing homosexuality.
The demonstration comes as police worked yesterday to shut down an anti-gay rally as pro-gay activists, led by the Rev. Marlin Lavanhar and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kampala, tried to secretly convene a strategy meeting; it’s unclear if today’s demonstration was a replacement for yesterday’s cancellation.
terrwill
Hmmm, I wonder if these scumbags want the US to “back off” paying their cesspool of a nation the Half Billion Dollars per year our tax dollars in foriegn aid that they recieve????
Mountainword
Seriously – if they want to be like that, we should back off EVERYTHING. Let them starve in their hateful little shithole!
YCKTR
Seriously…let’s back off…completely.
!
Axel
@terrwill:
Yeah, let’s blame millions of people for the actions of a few!
The next time you read about some gay man killing or raping someone, just think of how many people, who are bigots like you, will generalize that all gays must be killers and rapists.
Hmm, I wonder how gays in other countries feel when they see virulent anti-gay violence and propaganda spew from Americans? Should they have hatred for all Americans because of the actions of a few?
H
The U.S. economy, as unhealthy as it is, is propped up because of foreign investment. So, if the Chinese or Europeans got mad at a few jerks in the U.S., would you encourage them to pull their investments? What do you think would happen if China stopped by U.S. Treasury notes or suddenly sold all of them to divest of American assets?
Newsflash: Ugandans didn’t care about homosexuality like this until white American Christian fundamentalist went to Uganda to spread their hate. Those fundamentalists were deeply tied into the Bush administration and provided financing to build up Uganda’s current political and religious elite.
terrwill
@Axel: Sorry that you feel the need to cast sympathy for those who would wish to imprison you and every member of your family who knew you were Gay. And the “few” as you put it, seems like there were thousands at that rally, a good turnout for the Pro Death to Gays proposed law. And tell me exactaly what the benefit we recieve from our proping up that “country”?? I have every right to speak out against my tax dollars going towards a country who would imprison or murder members of my community, even if they live half the globe away.
And I am a very selective “bigot” for those who hate and wish nothing but pain and death for Gays, I am very “bigoted” against those scumbags…..
Jeff K.
It’s obvious that colonialism ended too soon.
Same Crap
@Jeff K.: Idiotic comment, even by queerty standards.
Bob R
@Axel: Yes, the Holocaust was the result of just a few Nazi’s, the German people “knew nothing”. Why should all of Germany have been punished because a few fanatics murdered over 6 million people? As for your China analogy; China and much of the world’s economy depends on America’s success and solvency. Yes they lend us money, but we buy their products, it’s a symbiotic relationship. And they also influence our policy in many areas, directly or indirectly by threatening us economically. That’s the way of the world.
The Supreme Court has just stated that money is free speech and people as well as corporations have the right to express displeasure with Uganda’s murderous laws and cultural ignorance by speaking with our dollars. I would just as soon my dollars not go to Uganda. Perhaps then the people may change their government’s views.
The Milkman
I understand Axel’s point that this ugliness is the result of the infusion of right wing conservative evangelical theology into cultures that had never known it before. That’s true. But stopping one’s critique at that point belittles the cognitive abilities of Ugandans. Why should we think that Ugandans can’t see through the transparent bullshit that is homophobic theology? Are we to assume that they should be given a pass on their disgusting display of hatred simply because the genesis of that hatred originated in western theological constructs and activities? I’m as critical of America’s right wing as anyone, but Ugandans must shoulder the lion’s share of the culpability here. The only way hatred can win over a people is if their hearts are inclined toward it in the first place. We’ve seen it here in the states and in other industrialized nations, and we’re seeing it now in Uganda. The result is an equally horrifying display of the lowest impulses of humanity, and is deserving of sharp criticism and swift sanctions. If the Ugandan government can regain control over this debate and dismiss the misguided and hateful rhetoric as the trash that it is, then there might be room for negotiation… but I just don’t see much of an effort on the part of the official representatives of the nation.
ben
Uganda, rot in hell.
Thom
@Axel:
I’m sorry actions of a few??? If we were just talking about a handful of people I don’t think we’d have to be worrying about gay executions in Uganda. We shouldn’t blame the whole nation, but it obviously has a ton of popular support.
tjr101
If they have a problem with our western values then they should have a problem with our western money too. America needs more of our borrowed money to stay within the borders anyway!
reason
Axel makes some great points: I think it is lost on most of you that by cutting of aid to Uganda we are imperiling the same gay people there that we are claiming were trying to save. Or is it even about saving the gay people there or about your own egos?
What ever the case, the Chinese are in Uganda building, educating, and farming as they work to gain influence around the third world. They are also positioning to grasp the world by the balls education their own billion minds, spreading goodwill to the majority of the world, and enslaving America through debt and cheap goods. While here in America we are leaving large swaths of our populace poorly educated or trapping them in failing schools and cultures. Meanwhile we are wasting energy on bigotry, hatred, tea parties, and infighting among ourselves. Our insatiable greed is empowering our enemies while we send our good paying jobs overseas for cheap labor mark them up and sell them at a premium in our country then import barge loads of cheap goods made in foreign lands. Our stupid leaders are busy trying to stick daggers in each others hearts, and are blindly copasetic triumphing American Exceptionalism while the nation is circling the drain. Every time a gay kid does not reach his full potential because he thinks less of himself because the way society treated him, a person gets inferior education, a kid is killed or starved on the streets corner, one choices themselves at great expense to others, or someone is dealt a gross injustice we are squandering that exceptionalism.
Tartuffe
You think they’d spend their time and money protesting other things.. like the percentage of their national population under the poverty line, or the fact that illiteracy there is so rampant that they can’t even spell the words they’re using to spread their hate.