Anti-gay Credentials.

Sex is always about politics. Or politics is about sex? Or the politics of sex?

One of those ‘teachable moments’ from a feminist. But, there is one thing that I had not appreciated- and that is how much MY sexuality is such a huge political tool.

In Uganda, it is a given. Be a politician, you must be anti-gay. Of course you remember what happened in Zimbabwe, where the opposition has had, per-force to come out gay bashing, because that is what is politically correct. [Latest from Zimbabwe, we are waiting for the trial. You know, I think those guys are going to be 'convicted' and then given a huge sentence so that Mugabe glories in thumbing his nose at the west. Sigh...!]

What really nauseates is the way being religious is by definition, being anti-gay.

No. I am not religious.

But that doesn’t stop me from appreciating the theory that being 'religious' one has to brush up on anti-gay credentials. Ssempa was accusing Kayanja of not being anti-gay enough soon before he came out with his ‘Kayanja is gay’ pastor wars. Orombi and the Church of Uganda drove out Bishop Ssenyonjo because he was pro-gay. Now, I have been following some of the Christian right of America… Engel of TheCall. The story is fascinating, simply because it is a microsm of the whole anti-gay ‘good Christian’ politics of America. And Uganda of course. It’s a deadly mixture. Politics. Religion. Sex. It is volatile, very.

Seems as if no one can be on the side. One cannot be a Christian, and be gay, or gay loving. No, Jesus loved all sinners but homosexuals. That seems to be the underlying theme. And gay hate is love… it is Christian love, however much gay people try to assert that Jesus’ love also included them as members of the human race.

Very interesting, and eye opening.

Why does it concern me? Because this ideaological struggle being played out on a continent thousands of miles away from me, is affecting me in ways that I would not have thought possible. Kind of funny. Thousands of miles apart, culture and politics separating us… yet our destinies intertwined because of ideaologies that concern my sexuality. I would have loved it to be just something between me and my lover…. But seems that that will not be so.

Sigh….!

Talking about Engel, it is kind of tough to say you would want me in prison because I am gay when you are a Christian (professional Christian, I call it), but Engel does articulate that point. 

Influential Right Wing Evangelist Supports Uganda’s ‘Principled Stand’ on Executing Gays.

Far right evangelist Lou Engle is highly influential among the social conservative wing of the GOP (which is pretty much the entire GOP); he has hosted “prayercasts” attended by top Republican politicians including former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, and is involved in many other high profile political activities.

And this “man of God” who has the ear of the GOP leadership believes homosexuality should be criminalized; the nation he admires for their “principled stand” is Uganda. 

Of course, that is the Ssempa, Bahati, and Nsaba-Buturo point of view. No wonder he was really happy to meet them in Uganda when he came. 

As we show in Vanguard's "Missionaries of Hate," during TheCall Uganda, Engle surrounded himself with some of the key backers of Uganda's anti-gay legislation, including Pastor Julius Oyet, Minister of Ethics and Integrity Nsaba Buturo and the bill's author, MP David Bahati.

My musings aside, the Ssempa videos continue to get a reaction from the world. They are interesting, and infuriating. Someone gets to the point of writing an X-rated letter to Martin Ssempa. Is funny to read, and hits some points

Dr Ssempa

I cannot begin to tell you how frightening it is to know that someone like you is "fighting" HIV/AIDS with your bigotry and ignorance. I've just watched your hate filled approach here. among other clips available to the equally ignorant. The downside for you is that people like me also have access to this trash and the passion take you on personally.

I note that you hate what homosexuals do in their own homes so intently that you just couldn't help but to research it, view it and display it. Come on now, admit that it turned you on just a little bit. Because if it hadn't, you wouldn't be so eager to tell everyone about it.

Well, someone is really unhappy about Dr Ssempa’s HIV fighting credentials!!!!

Have a good day. Just watching England try to salvage some pride in the World Cup. Must say it is more interesting than the French debacle…. Was really fun to watch that world class soap opera.

gug

Death to the Gay

There is a very interesting article on the Throckmorton blog on some of the good old American right religious leaders interaction with our good old Ugandan homophobes. It is worth reading, really worth reading. Probably, you should also read the previous post concerning the Lou Engle visit to Uganda. Oh, the topic, same old stuff. Bahati, Lou Engel, and a new beast of horror, one that had crossed my horizon, but had failed to prick my interest. I guess he really should be a person that I should pay more attention to. He is Apostle /Bishop Julius Oyet. They are all good, Pentecostal, charismatic Christians.

No, I am not glossing over the apology which was no apology from Engel. Nor am I really surprised that American right Christians seem to say something else in Africa, and something else when they are called to account in the US. Nor am I offering any new insight in Bahati the man who wants death or imprisonment for gay Ugandans. But, in Julius Oyet is another Martin Ssempa. A malignant, ignorant hatred that, though quieter, is as repulsive and deadly. The descriptions are apt.

Julius Oyet is anti-gay. Of course, every good Ugandan Christian is by definition anti-gay (sorry, good Ugandan Christians)

And, does he really know exactly what homosexuality is? Well, not realy, concluded Author Jeff Sharlett of the book The Family- an expose of that right wing Christian lobby group.

I rode with Bishop Oyet and Bahati in Bahati’s car to the Sheraton hotel, where I interviewed Oyet for about 45 minutes, recorded. I’ll be writing about what I learned in Kampala in my forthcoming book,….

6. Oyet seems to be quite confused about what homosexuality actually is. After he explained that he was engaged in spiritual warfare with homosexuality, I asked whether he believed homosexuals are demonically possessed.

Oyet: “Um, because it is abnormal. It is abnormal sex, you would say yes. You would say yes. Because one drives you to that. Because homosexuals, they would now eat their own feces. They would eat their own waste. That is what they call golden shower where you lick the anus of someone. Isn’t that demonic?”

Uh!

Remind you of someone? Pastor Doctor Martin ‘eat da poo poo’ Ssempa. The same ignorance, and crowning of the ignorance with a lack of desire to know anything that is positive about the people, human beings that they vilify. [chuckle…. to me, sex is a very positive thing to embrace, not to run away from. Ha ha!]

But, Julius Oyet, this good Christian leader, a Pentecostal Bishop, does come up with some good Christian justification for the death penalty for me in Uganda.

Here’s Oyet on the death penalty: “There is not the death penalty at the end for everybody. There is the death penalty at the end for aggravated homosexuality.”….

His rationale for the death penalty? “If the Bible supports the death penalty which is true and then you call yourself a Christian nation, listen. If I would be killed because I am dying scripturally I can repent to God before I am killed but [if] I am [eliminated] from the Earth that’s ok… if the victim confesses or repents, we can waive it off. Something like that…. In my view, homosexuals should be grateful. But instead they are not. Why I’m saying they should be grateful is because in Ugandan culture if you go and rob someone, if you go and rape a child and people find you, they will kill you.”

If you need any reminders, the death penalty under that bill would be my punishment if I had sex when I am HIV positive, if my partner was disabled in anyway, if I was a repeat offender (uhhhh!, that is why I do have sex with my partner as often as I can. repeat offender, of course!)- and of course; having a below 18 partner, and coercing someone to have sex with me.

I hated this conclusion from the author. I really hated it. But, I cannot say that his observation about the anti-gay activists of Uganda was false. Here it is, in bold

His rationale for the death penalty? “If the Bible supports the death penalty which is true and then you call yourself a Christian nation, listen. If I would be killed because I am dying scripturally I can repent to God before I am killed but [if] I am [eliminated] from the Earth that’s ok… if the victim confesses or repents, we can waive it off. Something like that…. In my view, homosexuals should be grateful. But instead they are not. Why I’m saying they should be grateful is because in Ugandan culture if you go and rob someone, if you go and rape a child and people find you, they will kill you.” [Here he is echoing a point made to me by many leaders of the anti-gay movement -- that the bill is for the benefit of the gays in that it protects them from mob justice, replacing it with the rule of law and a death penalty they can appeal.]

Truth, it makes me want to throw up.

But my nauseated repulsion cannot deny the fact that my countrymates, and very good, upstanding, Ugandans, morally upright, consider that, me as a gay Ugandan am such a freak that I deserve death. Lynching, and if it can be sanctified legally, well, all the better.

Gosh…!

Yeah, and he equated opposition to the anti-homosexuality bill as opposition to God. Really! In truth, with such stellar Christian witness...., any reason for me to express why I would rather not be loved by such solid and good christians?

gug