Letter to the Pope

Dear Pope,

thanks for your very late guidance on all things human. But, as one human being to another, realising the power of your bully pulpit, I was wondering, will you get off the subject of HIV? I mean, hold a moratorium on all announcements, for the next 100 years, and start releasing up to date guidelines then?

Thanks. From a non-believer, feeling compelled to comment about this.

Pope Benedict XVI has opened the door on the previously taboo subject of condoms as a way to fight HIV, saying male prostitutes who use condoms may be beginning to act responsibly. It's a stunning comment for a pontiff who has blamed condoms for making the AIDS crisis worse.

The pope made the comments in an interview with a German journalist published as a book entitled "Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times," which is being released Tuesday. The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano ran excerpts on Saturday.

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Now, the Honourable James Nsaba-Buturo was bitter.

He lost in the primaries of his party. The rulling NRM party. So, he loses, and who is to blame?

But, those elections were wrong, because they didnt bring out a true result, Buturo as his constituency's representative. So, what is he to do? He is to become an Independent.

Now, you do know where this non-believer's prayers are with this matter. Unfortunately, or fortunately, even Buturo knows

JAMES NSABA BUTURO

Buturo is planning to stand as an independent for Bufumbira East, a constituency he had lost to former presidential assistant Eddie Kwizera.

Sources quoted Buturo as telling a meeting recently that he was rigged out by people with a “mission of promoting homosexuality”. It is the reason, Buturo said, he was not willing to “give up the fight”. Sunday Vision was unable to get a comment from Buturo, who has been outspoken against homosexuality and prostitution.

So help me deities, but I don't understand this UN vote. Does it mean that gay human beings are not under the UN's protection when they are murdered like so?

A United Nations panel’s decision to remove sexual orientation from an anti-execution resolution is “shameful” and may encourage murders of LGBT people, gay rights campaigners say.

The body voted this week on the amendment, which was passed 79-70. The vast majority of countries in support of the change were African or Arabic.

Surely, the love our countries have for us is overwhelming.

Anyway, why should I expect for more from my beloved mother land?

gug

Uganda accuses UN of spreading homosexuality

By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • April 3, 2009 - 17:39

Ugandan ethics minister James Nsaba Buturo has accused United Nations member countries of being involved in a covert mission to 'impose' homosexuality' on other nations.

Speaking at a press conference today, he also said that Uganda will not bow to international pressure to adopt gay rights.

According to DPA, Mr Buturo told reporters: "At the United Nations there are attempts by some nations to impose homosexuality on the rest of us.

"We have learned that they want to smuggle in provisions on homosexuality."

He added: "Yesterday I spoke to [Uganda's UN] ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda and reminded him of Uganda's position, which opposes legalisation of homosexuality.

"It is the duty of Ugandans to be vigilant because agents of immorality are busy using all lies and deceptions to hurt our society."

The minister claimed that people were being recruited to become gay, saying: "Many lies are being peddled. Such lies include foolish claims that some people are born as homosexuals. They are busy enticing Ugandans to join them. This is causing great concern among Ugandans."

Ugandan LGBT groups have hit back at claims they are "recruiting" school children into homosexuality.

In a statement this week, they said: "We know that sexual orientation is not changeable. We are homosexuals and cannot change.

"In the same way, we cannot change heterosexuals into homosexuals. We cannot recruit. We cannot, do not, have never and never will ‘recruit'.

"We can only deduce that those levelling these claims aim to inflame the public against us, a minority group."

A number of speakers have appeared at events in recent weeks claiming to have "quit" homosexuality and confessing to previous bribery of children to "turn gay".

At a press conference earlier this week, Victor Mukasa, the coordinator of the Uganda Minority Sexual Rights group, attacked Stephen Langa of Family Life Network for spreading the allegations of gay recruitment.

He claimed the 'former' homosexuals presented by Christian groups have been paid to fuel hate against gays.

Activists say Uganda, with a population of 31 million, has some 500,000 gays and lesbians.

 

Gay Rights at the UN

In a First, Gay Rights Are Pressed at the U.N.

By NEIL MACFARQUHAR
Published: December 18, 2008
UNITED NATIONS — An unprecedented declaration seeking to decriminalize homosexuality won the support of 66 countries in the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, but opponents criticized it as an attempt to legitimize pedophilia and other “deplorable acts.”

The United States refused to support the nonbinding measure, as did Russia, China, the Roman Catholic Church and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The Holy See’s observer mission issued a statement saying that the declaration “challenges existing human rights norms.”

The declaration, sponsored by France with broad support in Europe and Latin America, condemned human rights violations based on homophobia, saying such measures run counter to the universal declaration of human rights.

“How can we tolerate the fact that people are stoned, hanged, decapitated and tortured only because of their sexual orientation?” said Rama Yade, the French state secretary for human rights, noting that homosexuality is banned in nearly 80 countries and subject to the death penalty in at least six.

France decided to use the format of a declaration because it did not have the support for an official resolution. Read out by Ambassador Jorge Argüello of Argentina, the declaration was the first on gay rights read in the 192-member General Assembly itself.

Although laws against homosexuality are concentrated in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, more than one speaker addressing a separate conference on the declaration noted that the laws stemmed as much from the British colonial past as from religion or tradition.

Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, speaking by video telephone, said that just like apartheid laws that criminalized sexual relations between different races, laws against homosexuality “are increasingly becoming recognized as anachronistic and as inconsistent both with international law and with traditional values of dignity, inclusion and respect for all.”

The opposing statement read in the General Assembly, supported by nearly 60 nations, rejected the idea that sexual orientation was a matter of genetic coding. The statement, led by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said the effort threatened to undermine the international framework of human rights by trying to normalize pedophilia, among other acts.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference also failed in a last-minute attempt to alter a formal resolution that Sweden sponsored condemning summary executions. It sought to have the words “sexual orientation” deleted as one of the central reasons for such killings.

Ms. Yade and the Dutch foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, said at a news conference that they were “disappointed” that the United States failed to support the declaration. Human rights activists went further. “The Bush administration is trying to come up with Christmas presents for the religious right so it will be remembered,” said Scott Long, a director at Human Rights Watch.

The official American position was based on highly technical legal grounds. The text, by using terminology like “without distinction of any kind,” was too broad because it might be interpreted as an attempt by the federal government to override states’ rights on issues like gay marriage, American diplomats and legal experts said.

“We are opposed to any discrimination, legally or politically, but the nature of our federal system prevents us from undertaking commitments and engagements where federal authorities don’t have jurisdiction,” said Alejandro D. Wolff, the deputy permanent representative.

Gay-rights advocates brought to the conference from around the world by France said just having the taboo broken on discussing the topic at the United Nations would aid their battles at home. “People in Africa can have hope that someone is speaking for them,” said the Rev. Jide Macaulay of Nigeria.