Ugandan Parents want Anti-gay Bill enacted

Daily Monitor,


At least 100 parents, branding themselves as protectors of African traditional values, have came out to pressure the government to enact the Anti-Homosexuality Bill and ignore threats by donors to slash aid. “They (donors) can keep their money and we will still survive,” Ms Margaret Ssekidde, a concerned parent told journalists in Kampala at a news conference organised by the Family Life Network on Wednesday.

‘Not natural’
The organisation is on a campaign to restore waning indigenous family values, the Executive Director, Mr Stephen Langa, said, stressing that Ugandans will not trade their integrity and promote “unnatural sex” for cash offers from Western governments.

Separately, Archbishop Luke Orombi, a public critic of homosexuality, has said at that they are drafting specific contributions to the Bill now before Parliament. “I am surprised by the global reaction to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill because it is yet a proposal on table for Ugandans to look at,” the prelate said who was addressing a press conference at Namirembe.

US President Barack Obama said the proposed law, which prescribes death penalty for the most heinous gay-related offences, “goes against the tide of history”. Sweden has indicated that the Bill violates minority rights, adding that it will cut aid to Uganda if the Bill is passed into law.

Obama has no idea about history and Sweden, know that we now have our oil, and also cut ties with Saudi Arabia, UAE and most nations in the Arab world that have this a law like this. Allow us practise democracry

The State Minister for International Affairs, Mr Oryem-Okello, in an interview with Daily Monitor on Tuesday, described as “pre-mature and wrong” the chorus of international criticism based on a Private Member’s Bill.

Homosexuals threaten the Speaker of Parliament of Uganda

Daily Monitor, Kampala.

The Speaker of Parliament Edward Ssekandi has said he has recently been under intense pressure over the anti-homosexuality Bill that proposes severe punishments for same sex relationships.

The punishments are not severe, they are just the same as others in similar laws, yet homosexuality is more aggrevated.

While speaking to hundreds of Christians on Christmas Day at Lubaga Cathedral, where he represented the government, Mr Sekandi said: “I have received so many communications from abroad threatening and stressing that they shall not give us money if we support the anti-homosexuality Bill.”

Why should homosexuals threaten us with aid money, if it means getting money in exchange with homosexuality, they would rather stay with their money and we die in diginity like the Uganda Matyrs.

But the Speaker called for calm, saying the matter was being handled judiciously. Mr Ssekandi’s remarks came shortly after the author of the gay Bill, Ndorwa West MP David Bahati, reported to the Ministry of Internal Affairs that his life was in danger.

Mr Bahati says he now fears for his life following the disappearance of his cousin Emmanuel Mabonga. He said ever since he moved the Private Member’s Bill against homosexuality, he has been receiving death threats. It was not possible to verify his claims.

Mr Bahati’s law, tabled in Parliament on October 14, proposes death or life imprisonment for homosexuals, but it also proposes punishments for those who fail to report homosexuals to the authorities. The Bill is currently before the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, which is yet to start public hearings.

President Museveni was recently reported to have told US authorities that he would veto the Bill, although his precise stance on the proposed law remains unclear. Several countries like the US, Britain, Canada and international human-rights organisations have described the proposed law as discriminatory, some threatening to withhold development assistance to Uganda if the Bill is passed. President Obama, in a recent statement to a gay publication, said the Bill moves “against the tide of history”.

Museveni's stance on the bill is clear, HE DOES NOT WANT HOMOSEXUALITY HERE. For Obama, he simply does not know what he is talking about, how can he say the bill is against the tide of history, when we know that because of homosexuality, the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, Homosexuality is the only vice that caused fire from heaven to destroy cities. No community that embraces homosexuality has ever survived. So what history is Obama talking about?

But Mr Ssekandi, in his Christmas Day speech, explained that MP Bahati’s proposed Bill was not out of order. “In Parliament, any member is free to move a Private Member’s Bill. Since Bahati’s Bill is before the Parliamentary committee, it is going to gather people’s views and report back to the House,” he said.

The Archbishop, Dr Cyprian Lwanga Kizito, had earlier said the Bill was not necessary since there are already other existing laws against homosexuality. But Mr Ssekandi insisted that the committee shall weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the Bill and advise Parliament.

The proposed law just wants to make constitutional what is in the penal code, so what is all the fuss about?

Ugandan Pastors demand Rick Warren to apologize to them

Ugandan religious leaders under their umbrella of the National Task Force against Homosexuality have written to Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California demanding an apology following his comments on the anti-homosexuality bill and his letter to Ugandan Pastors.

“Your letter has caused great distress and we are demanding that you issue a formal apology for insulting the people of Africa by your very inappropriate bully use of your church and purpose driven pulpits to coerce us into the “evil” of Sodomy and Gaymorrah. This is expected within seven days from this date,” The letter reads. “Since the bible says that the giant of homosexuality is an “abomination” or a great evil, you cannot achieve the peace plan without a purpose driven confrontation of evil.”

Rick Warren came in the spotlight after he was linked to the bill as one of its funders through his friend Dr. Martin Ssempa of Makerere Community Church. He consequently said he cut ties with Ssempa in 2007 and then wrote a letter to Pastors in Uganda calling upon them to denounce the bill.

This infuriated the Pastors in Uganda have in addition held a peaceful demonstration in Kampala to demand an apology from Rick Warren, to support the President, the people and the government of Uganda in their stand against homosexuality. They have also threatened to burn his Purpose Driven Books in the streets of Kampala if he does not apologize in the given time.

“It is racist for one to think that a black man needs a white man to be told that homosexuality is evil,” Dr. Martin Ssempa was quoted as saying in reference to Rick Warren’s letter.

Bishop David Kiganda, the senior Pastor of Christianity Focus Centre and Chairman of the National Fellowship of Born Again Pentecostal Churches in Kampala region has also said, “He (Rick) has embarrassed us, gone against the word of God and it is a shame.”

On Friday 11th December 2009, more than 200 of Uganda’s top religious leaders met and supported the legislators in strengthening the law against homosexuality.
The National Task Force that is chaired by Dr. Martin Ssempa represents the National Fellowship of Born again Churches, The Seventh Adventists Church, The Uganda Joint Christian Council which also represents: The Orthodox Church in Uganda, The Roman Catholic Church in Uganda, The Islamic Office of Social Welfare in Uganda, and the Born Again Faith Federation.

“Rick you are our friend, we have bought many of your books and have been blessed by them. Do not let the pressure of bloggers and popular media intimidate you into becoming a negotiator for homosexual pedophilia rights in Africa” the letter adds.