Why they persecute us.... in their own words.

Uh,

the finals of the Rolling Pebble saga were supposed to be today. They didnt materialise.... [I had problems with the date, you know, the 13^th and all that...] So, I am happy that it is now going to be the 15^th. Don't really know what the fuss is about. But, welcome the opportunity.... [touch wood]! The finals, like in the final rulling on the Rolling pebble saga.

Hey, there is a new, relatively, gay ugandan blogger around. He is the Gay Ugandan teen. Love his thoughts. He is dissecting the Rachel Maddow, David Bahati interview. Worth reading... Hey, even Ugandan teens [some, those who are gay, of course], do think of Bahati as a cringe inducing embarassment of a politician. You go, dude, just blast them, and claim your space on the blogosphere.

Here is an excerpt of Bahati's justification for my persecution. Oh, he says it is love, not hate. I think I have justification in protesting.

In an interview on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show, the lawmaker insisted his bill was not about hate.

"We have a huge problem in our country," Bahati said. "People who are coming from abroad, investing in Uganda to recruit children into a behavior that we believe is a learned behavior and can be unlearned."

"We believe that our children should not be recruited in something they don't believe in," he added.

"I am not in a hate campaign, I do not hate gays, I love them, but at the same time I must protect our children who are being recruited into this practice."

Bahati went on to assert that more than $15 million has poured into the country over the past 7 months to defeat the bill and to recruit children into being gay.

"They go to a school, teach them, entice them with money, to lure them into this practice," he said.

When Maddow asked, "How do gay people hurt your family?" Bahati answered that it hurts the Ugandan family when the "purpose of procreation is undermined."

If you really want any confirmation from me, a gay man in Uganda.... I do not, and have NEVER recruited a child into homosexuality.

I am pretty sure that I was not recruited.... don't even know what that means, unless it is something like turning a straight person gay. I don't think it is possible. That does not stop Bahati from accusing me of recruitment. And asking that I be hanged.

And, here, from LezGetReal, an open letter to the couple that hosted Bahati in the US. It is a serious, heart to heart letter. Becomes quite political at the end. Does lessen the outright heart to heart touch, but, it is serious. You hosted a ghoul. Why did you?

Mr. Bahati told Ms. Maddow on her show that the Bill is founded and rooted in one fact; he said it is a based on evidence that Homosexuals are "recruiting children in Uganda, into homosexuality." Now I am a lesbian and cannot for the life of me imagine what that means. I asked a gay male colleague what it meant to him and it defied his sense of logic too. So when Maddow asked Bahati for proof, Mr. Bahati said he would provide this proof. Maddow is waiting and the gay community is not holding its breathe because we know its a lie. The very concept is non-existent. If anyone was indeed harming children in a sexual way, I imagine such would fall under Uganda's sexual assault laws, no matter who would cause such harm, gay or straight.

Sadly, anti-gay speech is politically correct in Africa.

An article in the Christian Science Monitor examines this. They assert that the Anti-Homosexuality bill in Uganda was withdrawn. Not true. As Bahati was happy to confirm to the Americans. But, there is this article about the Kenyan consititutional process.

And in Kenya, as the country prepared to vote last summer in a referendum to establish the new Constitution – an attempt to prevent a return of the leadership crisis that followed ethnic clashes after the December 2007 elections – it was conservative Kenyan churches (urged on by the Pat Robertson-funded American Center for Law and Justice) who opposed the Constitution, arguing incorrectly that the new Constitution would have legalized abortion and same-sex marriages.

Converging reasons

Wanyeki Muthoni, executive director of the independent Kenya Human Rights Commission, says that the tumult over homosexuality is the result of three converging trends.

First, Kenyan gays are becoming more politically active and vocal, lobbying hard for "basic equality and nondiscrimination." Second, the global debate over the ordination of gay priests, increasingly accepted in Europe and the United States, has caused a conservative backlash here in Africa, with African churches largely rejecting those reforms. Finally, African churches have been radicalized by what Ms. Muthoni charges is "the ever-increasing influence of homophobic American Evangelicals in Africa."

I followed the Kenyan Constitutional process from afar. And, I was quite happy at the fact that it was successful. Suddenly, there was the dawn of a new Kenya. A vibrant neighbour who is unafraid of democratic ideals. I was happy for them.

And, yes, I was very concerned at the way the evangelicals formed the core opposition to the constitution. Yes, they did. I didnt know that they were being funded from outside.... funny, me as a gay African, I am supposed to be the one getting the foreign funding, from recruiting American and European homosexuals.

In Uganda, for the 3 reasons given above, I am quite aware that the first one does not apply.... that, unless you want to assume that gayuganda is an army. Some do. For their own convenience. But, gayuganda is not an army. The other two reasons for the rising anti-gay sentiment in Uganda are very true.

I was restless... and there was so much to write about...

I go now to exercise....!

gug