I have been interested in this conference. Well, am blogging about it multiple times. It is because I think it a dangerous escalation.
We have been punching holes in the Ssempa and Nsaba-Buturo arguments. Because they actually do not know a lot about being gay. But now they have enlisted friends from overseas- (read the Right in America), and are coming out swinging. (Errr, I thought we were the ones who were always accused of overseas help!)
Initial reaction from activists here- a laugh and shrug of the shoulders. It is understandable. Ssempa will always shout. Nsaba Buturo has his homophobic agenda. They are hateful in the things they say and preach, but they are so full of the vitriol of hate that we are used to them. We shrug our shoulders and not listen. We know what they are going to say...
But, they are bringing in real fire power. And we must take note. These guys are the true preachers of hate. They have lots and lots of 'logic' and rationalisation of their message. It can and will look quite logical and rational. We must not laugh them off. We cannot. We must take them seriously.
Afterall, we are going to be awash with how homosexuality is un-natural, and abnormal. How it can be healed. How homosexuality is the worst kind of illness, and how it is to blame for all the world's crisis (even the current economic one...!!!)
Here is an article about the guys who are coming.
Holocaust Revisionist Joins Exodus Board Member At Uganda Conference
A Uganda-based anti-gay group has announced that American Holocaust revisionist and anti-gay extremist Scott Lively will appear at a three day conference in Kampala, Uganda beginning on March 5th.
Joining him will be Exodus International board member Don Schmierer. He heads a group called His Servants, and is the author of five books related to ex-gay counseling. He’s been quite a globe-trotter lately, having traveled to Seoul, South Korea, in March of last year, as well as to the Ukraine last summer.
Also joining them will Caleb Lee Brundidge, a staff member at Richard Cohen’s International Healing Foundation, which advocates the controversial “holding” or “touch” therapy to cure homosexuality.
Scott Lively is co-founder of the international anti-gay extremist group, Watchmen On the Walls, which has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. He is also the author of The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, in which he writes that “the Nazi Party was entirely controlled by militaristic male homosexuals throughout its short history.” In other words, it was gay people who brought World War II to Europe and killed twelve million people in the gas chambers.
Lively’s brand of rhetoric is unusually vitriolic, even by some of the more ardent anti-gay standards. He regularly describes gays as being sick and “followers of the Father of Lies.” When the Watchmen On the Walls held a rally in Novosibirsk, Russia, Lively excused Satander Singh’s murder in Sacramento. Lively contends that “civilization and homosexuals” are engaged in a full-blown war, which is part of the Devil’s design to destroy civilizations:
There is a war that is going on in the world. There is a war that is waging across the entire face of the globe. It’s been waging in the United States for decades, and it’s been waging in Europe for decades. It’s a war between Christians and homosexuals. … Now, the homosexual movement has been winning this war in the United States, and it has been winning this war in Europe. And we’re looking at the future collapse of Western civilization.
This sort of extremist, paranoid rhetoric will probably go down well at in Kampala. Stephen Langa, Director of Kampala-based Family Life Network which is organizing the event, sees gay people posing the familiar sinister threats to children:
[Langa] says homosexuals in the country were boosted by a December 2008 Court victory which declared that it is unconstitutional to discriminate against homosexuals and that they should enjoy the same rights as enjoyed by other Ugandans.
Langa in a statement today said several homosexual groups are active in Uganda and are busy recruiting school boys and girls at an alarming rate using a variety of methods.
Lively struck up a friendship with Langa (PDF: 1.7MB/22 pages) during a tour of the African content Lively undertook in 2002. Like Lively, Langa is not immune to spreading demonstrably false conspiracy theories on this so-called recruitment drive (PDF: 8 pages):
In most cases, porn is a tool used by the homosexuals as the first step toward introducing homosexuality (sex between people of the same sex) to a conservative society like Uganda. They know that if they come directly, they will not be accepted, So what they do is introduce pornography first to that society. The porn then corrupts the minds and morals of that society. After that goal has been achieved, they then introduce homosexuality as an acceptable alternative to heterosexual (sex between a man and a woman) sex. This is because it is much easier to introduce homosexuality to a porn addict than a non-consumer of porn. For example, the founder of Playboy Magazine, was a self-professed homosexual.
In 2004, Langa spoke out more specifically on what he sees as the threat to schoolchildren:
“FLN has also found out that homosexuality and lesbianism are spreading like wild fire in schools,” Langa said. “There is rape inside schools and sex among students themselves. We have also found incest and cases of teachers molesting children and a lot of abortions,” he added. Much of the promiscuity is germinating from viewing pornography in the media and the Internet and blue movies. “If nothing is done to address the present state of affairs, the present generation of parents will find themselves having to bury their children instead of their children burying them,” Langa stressed.
This conference will be taking place on very dangerous ground for LGBT citizens and residents of Uganda. Martin Ssempa, the influential evangelical pastor at Makerere Community Church, has called for open season on LGBT people:
August 2007, Ssempa led hundreds of his followers through the streets of Kampala to demand that the government mete out harsh punishments against gays. “Arrest all homos,” read placards. And: “A man cannot marry a man.” Ssempa continued his crusade online, publishing the names of Ugandan gay rights activists on a website he created, along with photos and home addresses. “Homosexual promoters,” he called them, suggesting they intended to seduce Uganda’s children into their lifestyle. Soon afterwards, two of President Yoweri Museveni’s top officials demanded the arrest of the gay activists named by Ssempa. Terrified, the activists immediately into hiding.
This is no idle threat. Homosexuality is officially illegal in Uganda. Conviction can lead to a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, while sodomy carries a penalty of fourteen years to life.
Pro-gay western media has had a lot of interaction with these guys than we have. So it is understandable that it is actually them who are raising the alarm. Check out these articles
Melbourne Australia Uganda imports US anti-gay experts
PinkNewsUK, though the webpage may have some malware.
gug
4 comments:
In one sense, it shows how despearate these people are, that they need to resort to importing such obvious extremists.
On the other hand, these are the sort of people who start pogroms and whip up hysteria. That's the last thing Africa (or anywhere) needs...
Waaawaaa, it's been like a year since I was last here. No longer blog as much as I used to. I kinda got stuck and I have been thinking ... UP TO NOW ... about our last discussion ... being in your shoes.
But you popped up on my Google news alerts with this story ... and I came in for a read.
I see: nothing's changed. Same old debates. Sometimes I wish I could forward time and see where we'll be in future.
Anyway my comments:
1. When is that conference and where is it? I might pass by, check it out.
2. I am yet to comment fully on the chaps coming in till I google them out, see if they are really hate-filled beasts as they are portrayed in that quoted story.
3. Oh and Langa's quote on that stuff going on in schools is TRUE, I was in one of the schools a few years back.
4. What is the URL of that site where Ssempa posted names and all that? Can I check it out?
5. I remember some list in Red Pepper, was that by Ssempa too? Which activists were arrested?
Oh and like before, I may be confused from the LAST discussion but I still believe the Langa's and Ssempa's are not doing all this out of VITRIOLIC HATE ... if they were, they would be dead by now ... perhaps from a BILE overflow in the gall bladder or sth.
I'LL BE BACK!!
Tovi Ellesse
Dr Ssempa Martin and Mr Langa have the best intentions for would be mothers and fathers of biological children.
My heart bleeds every time I see a homosexual.
Most of my friends who were struggling financially have been enrolled as homos and they are getting allowances.
I have told them I cant misplace my purpose,so i wont join them.
Guys lets work for money with our hands.
Someone should ask Mr. Brundidge about this:
Ex-gay leads ministry to raise the dead.
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