Uganda Fights for Human Rights
By Victor M Adamus
Uganda
It’s hard to believe, living here in the States, that
some African Nations still decapitate men and women who are caught engaging in
homosexual acts. “Kill the Gays” bills
are rampant in Uganda and Human Rights Activists there have succeeded in reducing
some sentences to life in prison. They
have also begged the U.S. to denounce these governments for marginalizing these
groups of people who are widely discriminated against. Gays here in the U.S. must read over these
reports coming out of Africa and feel blessed they live in a civilized society
where today steps are being taken to secure their civil rights. By all accounts, even here, it’s been an
uphill struggle.
Even a gay rights activist in Uganda, David Kato, well known
throughout the world for his campaign against anti-homosexual bills, was beaten
to death with a hammer, his body left with a message that other gays would be
the next target. These stories are
difficult to comprehend even from a third world country. Iron bar killings were popular in the 1970’s
when crazy man Idi Amin was in power. It
doesn’t look like much has changed for the gay community since then, more than
40 years later.
As in most countries and Uganda is no exception it is the
“Men of God” who perpetuate a hatred for gays and do their best to influence
the government. Most public laws,
however, become Mob Justice and men kill gay people by lynching or tar brushing them and
in most cases report to officials the execution was because the person was a
menace to society. They simply took the
law into their own hands. In Ghana death
is imposed for evil deeds. Rarely is any
killer arrested and tried in a court of law.
In the U.S. people who fight against gay marriage usually
congregate around extreme Evangelical religions. For many of the faithful religion shapes
morality. This morality often finds
itself in conflict with political affairs, that of separation of church and
state. Unfortunately for the civil
rights movement it has become intertwined for many to view it as a legal
issue. Already 32 states have banned gay
marriage and support for these laws is coming from the right with Presidential
hopeful Mitt Romney making it clear, in a statement to a religious university
recently, that marriage is “between one man and one woman”. On the left, President Barack Obama has shown
his support for gay marriage. The
election in November could very well debate separation of church and
Constitutional law. Equal justice for
all.
Matthew Shepard |
Murders of gay people here in the U.S. are well
documented. A well-known killing
involved Matthew Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming, who one night
in 1998 asked Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson for a ride home was taken to
a remote rural area and tortured, pistol whipped, robbed, and left tied to a
fence to die. This hate crime went to
trial with each of the killers getting life with no parole.
Outside the courthouse was Fred Phelps, leader of the
Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.
His church’s message was “God Hates Fags” and at the funeral he picketed
with signs “No Tears for Queers”. It is
this type of religious extremism that leads the faithful in the U.S. and the true test to come will be equality
under the law. The Christian Nation will
fight hard to convince more people that this is a biblical moral issue and not
one that involves separation of church and state. I wonder how long the issue for equal justice
will reach the African nations whose governments appear to be 50 years behind
the times.
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