STOP THE HATE IN UGANDA
Over 450,000 around the world have signed the petition to stop the "Kill the Gays" bill! The pressure is working and the bill has been delayed, but we need your help to stop it before THIS FRIDAY.
Will you take one minute to sign this petition to tell Ugandan President Museveni to stop the "Kill the Gays" bill in its tracks?
For petition, see
http://www.allout.org/en/petition/ugandaSee also
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Before the end of the week the Ugandan Parliament is set to pass a number of laws against gays and lesbians so draconian that the entire population of that country will feel the effects. The so-called "Kill the Gays" bill, proposed by legislator David Bahati, may come to a vote tomorrow. Every indication is that it will pass and move to President Yoweri Museveni for his signature.
In it, those who are "repeat offenders" of having sexual intimacy with a person of the same sex will be sentenced to death, as will anyone with HIV who engages in sexual activity with a member of the same sex. Those who harbor or assist gays and lesbians will be subject to imprisonment. Even those who know someone to be gay or lesbian who don't report them to the authorities will face a prison sentence.
Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, a retired Anglican Bishop (and courageous heterosexual ally), is a hero in this fight against injustice. He is risking his own life and that of his family in publicly standing up and opposing this proposed law. Just this week, Bishop Christopher courageously appealed to the parliament to stop this heinous bill from becoming law.
But his words are apt not to be heeded. Anti-gay organizations in Uganda, fueled by American evangelicals who have been operating in the country for some years, told lawmakers that gay men were recruiting their school children for sex and that a Western "gay agenda" had the destruction of the Ugandan family as its goal.
But this law would have far-reaching effects on the whole population and not just its lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, citizens. One of the problems with AIDS in Uganda and elsewhere is that people don't know their HIV status, and they may be spreading the virus to everyone in their sexual network.
This proposed law will make everyone more afraid to be tested for fear of being labeled "homosexual," and imprisonment would come along with that label.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bishop-gene-robinson/ugandas-kill-the-gays-bil_b_861150.html