Today, President Obama denounced a Ugandan proposal to make homosexuality punishable by life in prison or even the death penalty. Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, Obama said "we may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are -- whether it's here in the United States or ... more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda," according to Reuters.
Ms. Magazine covered the Ugandan bill late last year, writing that James Nsaba Buturo, Uganda's minister of state for ethics and integrity, said the country is "willing to lose funding and withdraw from international treaties, including the UN's Universal Declaration on Human Rights, if necessary. 'We are talking about anal sex. Not even animals do that...We believe there are limits to human rights.'"
Jezebel has also been covering the proposed legislation, commenting on a Daily Monitor profile of out Ugandan lesbian Val Kalende, who has vowed to speak in public about her orientation in spite of increasing threats to her physical safety. Jezebel also quotes an anonymous gay Ugandan blogger who says that "the bill is making us recklessly courageous" by provoking some closeted individuals to come out in protest. The blogger also responded to Obama's statement today, saying, "Hey, I must say that the gay lobby in the US is strong. He has weighed in again, and it will be interesting to see what pressure that does for Uganda. I am quite aware that it was because of the anger of the LGBT people in the US that there is this unprecedented level of intervention." -TLF
Thursday, February 4, 2010
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