About Us (me) About us should really be 'about me,' because I am simply one person who believes that the situation in Uganda (and other parts of Africa) has gotten out of hand with all the homophobic, anti-gay rhetoric. I am upset with how the fundamentalists, anti-gay groups from the U.S. have declared Uganda as ground zero for their propaganda and their un-Christian agenda. Pastor David Bahati, the Ugandan Member of Parliament who authored of the infamous "Kill the Gays Bill" seems to lack theological scholarship with respect to the Bible's view on human sexuality and, never-mind his lack of love and compassion. He has embraced the mis-information and the exaggerated and false claims supplied by this American anti-gay lobby, and is convinced his legislation must be passed to protect Ugandan youth from homosexual predators. He and the bill's supporters remain undeterred by the international outcry. Nevertheless, I pray that even if he and his supporters turn a deaf ear to the international uproar, that others in Uganda will step up to uphold the human rights of the GLBT community and that compassion will lead to understanding and affirmation of all Ugandan citizens, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. I am a Canadian, a Christian, a transsexual woman, and a lesbian who enjoys life and liberty in one of the most progressive countrues in the world. Things could be better, there is still much work to be done, but at least we have a government that provides protection from discrimination on the basis of sexuality. For that I am grateful. What's next for Uganda? I must confess that it was not until January 2011 that I invested any think time on the situation in Uganda. Yes, I had heard of the crazy "Kill the Gays Bill," but I was focusing on personal stuff and I simply shrugged my shoulders and said, "I'm glad I don't live in Uganda." To say that I did a 180 degree turn out of my own convictions and outstanding character is not what happened. The truth is I was surfing the web on Dec. 30th and went to a friend's blog post titled, "Genocide Brewing in Uganda," in which she summarized what was taking place and how imminent was the passing of this insane piece of legislation. She provided links to CNN, Amnesty International, BBC, Time and a few other news organizations. I spent the next two hours going from one link to another and I was horrified. I emailed my friend and asked if she had any links to where I could send an email to; I needed to scream at someone. She replied that it may be a lost cause since the Ugandans seemed to be completely defiant in face of the international outcry. I concluded I had to act. I found the Ugandan Parliament's website, which profiled all 327 Members of Parliament and I spent the next three hours extracting all of their email addresses. I wrote a letter and sent it to all of them. I sent the list to my friend so that she could post it on her blog. But the reality was that I couldn't see too many people taking the time to compose a letter, copy all the email addresses, and not to mention, spend more than a couple of minutes doing so. That is when the idea hit me to create a website that simplified the process, albeit, not too automated since anti-spam filters would quickly reject hundreds of emails if they were coming from the same server. That is how this website was born. The domain was registered the following day and the site went live within 6 hours. I sent a New Year's greeting message to all 120 of my email contacts and begged them to send emails immediately. But it was New Year's weekend and not many people saw the email until the early part of the week. Soon, I started getting replies back as friends let me know they had sent letters and were sharing the link with their friends. It was a slow start, but it got the ball rolling. Three days after I sent my letter to Parliament and the site had gone live, I started getting responses from some of the Ugandan MPs. Those who favored the bill were, for the most part, nasty and rude and suggested I mind my own business. Those who opposed the bill were, on the other hand, grateful for the letter and my advocacy. I was stunned. What had I gotten myself into? I also started receiving emails from LGBT Ugandans who had come across the website and they too were grateful for the effort. How could I not get sucked into this vortex of human rights activism? The stories I have heard, their hardships and the struggle to exist is beyond anything I could imagine. The struggle will not be over until all laws that criminalize and stigmatize the LGBT minority are repealed and new laws enshrining basic human rights and equality for all are passed. As I stated earlier, I came upon this struggle recently, but it is never too late to add your voice to this and to invest your time and money by supporting organizations such as St. Paul's Foundation for International Reconciliation. Also, avail yourself of the excellent work done in 2007 by a group of international advocates called the Yogyakarta Principles, which offer hope for a long term solution. Here is the link again to a PDF version of their document. In closing, if you are person of faith, pray for Uganda. Back to the top of the page | For the Love of Christ — in my opinion From the beginning — gays have been pushed to the outside of the gates in every culture (with the exception of a few). They WERE very well KNOWN in Jesus's day. In fact, it may be entirely possible that the Centurion who came to Jesus, asking him to "heal" his "servant" at "home" may have been the soldier's "partner." Homosexuality was widespread in the Roman army; in fact, soldiers away from wives and homes for long periods of time used their servants to relieve themselves sexually. And yet — Jesus treated them equally, and DID NOT single them out as an example of sin, nor did he do that to prostitutes and women of ill repute. There is also speculation that the convert Paul (who is credited with writing three of the six clobber verses in the Bible that are used to justify anti-gay theology) was very "in tune" with gay culture of his time, maybe he too had experienced "partners" — and that his own homophobia troubled him enough to write something. But that something was NOT from Jesus. Paul's writings came a minimum of 50 years after Christ. By comparison, Jesus never said anything prohibiting intimate, committed and loving relationships between two persons of the same sex and he never said anything about homosexuality. Rather, he alluded to a much more encompassing definition of marriage when he talked about eunuchs in the context of divorce and marriage (Matt: 19:11-12). He prefaced his comments by stating that not everyone would be able to accept his comments. This was a teaching device instead of an exclusionary proclamation. It was as if he was inviting his disciples to wrap their brains around what he was about to say (and not say). In that context, he was stating that marriage was to be taken seriously, because God took it seriously too. Therefore, divorce was not to be taken casually. When he interjects eunuchs into the discussion, he includes persons with a different sexuality into the equation. Significantly, he did not set up any delineations as to who a eunuch might be allowed to marry. IF that is the case, then a eunuch was free to marry. The question then is, who should a eunuch marry, a man or a woman? Intersexed persons, those who according to Jesus are born eunuchs from their mother's womb, are not always 50/50 male and female. They could be more male than female, or more female than male—the possibilities are endless. Consequently, there is the possibility that what may appear as two men, though one is a eunuch, have every right to make a lifetime commitment to each other. Jesus uttered no prohibitions, did not define the allowable "pairings," nor did he say that eunuchs would be condemned or go to hell if they married. Jesus' point is that marriage is all about fidelity and commitment between two persons. He was not hung up about sexuality, why then are Christians so preoccupied with what is between our legs? How does this relate to sexual orientation and attraction to the same sex? Doctors and the parents of an intersex child have a difficult time deciding how to best raise that child. They will often make a decision one way or another, to raise a girl or a boy. The deciding factor might simply be a cultural preference or what the parents feel they want in terms of gender. Unfortunately, studies show that in fifty percent of the cases, as that child gets older and becomes more sexually self aware, the sex chosen for the child is at odds with the child’s gender identity. If this is the case for a person born with “ambiguous” genitalia, that their gender identity is not directly related to their biological sexual characteristics, then who has the right to draw any lines of delineation as to which gender and sex pairings are correct? Jesus invited ALL to the table — he meant ALL. He pointed out to love God first (God is love), and others AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF (or LOVE the gift of life given to you, no matter what your particular human characteristics. Being gay is NO choice, Being heterosexual is NO choice either. We do not wake up one day and make those inclinations and decisions. We may "act" on either for numerous reasons, but we do not choose. As the American Psychological and Psychiatric Associations have told us for 40 years – "Being gay is simply another(complex) human characteristic, such as being left handed or the fact that eyes have ANY color at all, no genes known yet for those either. As Christians and as a civil society, we must stop allowing the unknown history, the mis-information/untruth of previous long standing "self interpretations" and the "Corporate Religious views" (often made for more dubious reasons; i.e. to support slavery in past, women as second class citizens, women and children as property of men, and a long list) to prevent us from doing God's will and the progressive work of understanding God/Love more each day. Back to the top of the page |
To the Honorable Members of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda Dear Sirs and Madams, If the Anti-Homosexual bill is reintroduced in Parliament, there are some questions that run far deeper than the debate about homosexuality in Africa: – Will Uganda's Parliament help build a society based on democratic values and institutions or will religious theocracy encroach on these cherished institutions? – Will Uganda's Parliament be clear about the separation of church and state? – Will Uganda's Parliament understand the faith-based hate behind this Bill? – Will Uganda's Parliament further criminalise sexual minorities and alienate them from prevention and treatment services increasing the spread of HIV/AIDS? – Will Uganda's Parliament base decisions about sexual orientation on scientific knowledge or questionable theology? – Will Uganda's Parliament risk looking foreign aid from the United States and European Union by pandering to theocratic agendas, unscientific ideologies and questionable theology? What about tourism revenue? – Will Uganda's Parliament disregard the Nations Human Rights Council's Resolution Against Anti-Gay Discrimination of June 2011? Please examined the facts, and seriously consider the consequences the Anti-Gay-Bill will have on Ugandan society, that you will reject this legislation. Do the right thing and reject this bill, should it come up for debate during the 9th Parliament. History—and the world community—will judge you on the basis of how you vote. Show the world you stand for equality, life and liberty and the protection of basic human rights for all your citizens.Yours Sincerely, (your name and city) Back to the top of the page | To the Honorable Members of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda Dear Sirs and Madams, The bar of injustice to minorities has been raised in Uganda. You have read about it, seen it in the footage of courageous people. Cruelty abounds, and only you, and concerned people around the world can stop it. Uganda’s "Kill-the-Gays Bill" is wrong, wrong, wrong, and must be reversed. I appeal to you and your fellow Members of Parliament to do the honorable thing. Show the world that you have the courage to show compassion for all of the country’s people. Let sanity and compassion prevail! Yours Sincerely, (your name and city) Back to the top of the page | To the Honorable Members of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda Dear Sirs and Madams, When things go wrong in the world community, those of us who care have an obligation to speak up. What has gone wrong in Uganda? A am writing to express my serious concern for what is being referred to as Uganda’s "Kill-the-Gays Bill,” due to come before your parliament. The proposed bill previously shocked the world, and still does if it is re-introduced. and I appeal to you and your fellow Ministers to reverse this ill-conceived piece of legislation. Do it. For humanity’s sake! Yours Sincerely, (your name and city) | To the Honorable Members of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda Dear Sirs and Madams, Uganda’s "Kill-the-Gays Bill” is an ugly title for an ugly piece of legislation that threatens the lives of hundreds and possibly thousands of Uganda’s citizens. The proposed bill has shocked the world, and it must not become law. I appeal to you and your fellow Members of Parliament to reverse this ill-conceived piece of legislation. Be brave, and show respect for the diversity of all of Uganda’s citizens. It’s in your hands! Yours Sincerely, (your name and city) |
