Gay Liberation Network is joining worldwide protests against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill now being debated in the Ugandan parliament. To coincide with International Human Rights Day, a protest is planned for Thursday, Dec. 10, 6:30 to 7:30pm, Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, at the corner of Waveland.
Gay Liberation Network is highlighting the role that evangelicals in the U.S. have played in opening the door to death penalties for Ugandan Gays. According to news reports, anti-gay activist Scott Lively and Exodus International board member Don Schmierer spoke at an antigay seminar earlier this year, claiming that people can “pray away the gay,” thereby blaming the victims for choosing a well deserved punishment. GLN points out that almost all of the existing anti-gay laws in Africa are holdovers from the European colonial governments which dominated the continent in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and highlights ties between The Family, a right-ring organization based in Washington D.C. and Ugandan legislative leaders.
The new Anti-Homosexuality Bill, if passed, threatens life imprisonment or the death penalty for anyone alleged to be homosexual, according to GLN and news reports. Examples given include parents who don’t report a lesbian daughter or gay son to the authorities facing a possible three years in prison or teachers who don’t report lesbian or gay students facing the same penalties. GLN reports that landlords who give housing to a suspected homosexual risk 7 years imprisonment and that the Bill threatens to brutally punish anyone who works with the gay community in areas of HIV/AIDS activism or health care.