Uganda tells Germany it does not support Anti-Homosexuality Bill

The government of Uganda has made a commitment to Germany not to pass any additional penalties on homosexuality. The promise comes in exchange for a German aid. Here is the Earthtimes article referencing a letter from the Ugandan government.

Posted : Fri, 28 May 2010 11:57:27 GMT

Berlin – Uganda has reassured Germany it does not support a bid by one parliamentarian to outlaw homosexual acts, in order to win an extension of existing aid payments, German officials said Friday.

The German development aid ministry said in Berlin it had cleared pledges totalling 120 million euros (148 million dollars) to Uganda over the next three years.

That aid would be conditional on Uganda not passing any legislation imposing new penalties on homosexual acts.

Gay groups protested round the globe last year when a Ugandan legislator, David Bahati, proposed an anti-homosexual bill, calling for life imprisonment for homosexual acts and death for homosexual rape of children.

Uganda’s parliament has studied the bill but not passed it.

Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa sent a written assurance to Hans-Juergen Beerfeltz, state secretary at the German Aid Ministry, saying that the government in Kampala does not support Bahati’s legislation.

“We regard this letter as a positive signal and will continue to insist that the bill does not become law,” said Beerfeltz. He spoke after Ugandan and German officials conferred Wednesday and Thursday on the aid pledges.

The money will be used to fight poverty, stop water wastage and reduce carbon emissions. German Aid Minister Dirk Niebel earlier said he would halt aid to Uganda if the bill were passed.

If accurate, this report seems to be the clearest signal yet that the Ugandan government is now opposed to the Bahati bill. Sam Kutesa was one of the early voices in opposition and this makes it official policy.

American College of Pediatricians answers critics; removes Rekers

The American College of Pediatricians is the small breakaway group from the larger American Academy of Pediatrics. The ACP maintains the FactsAboutYouth website which I have critiqued here and which is the subject of this Minnesota City Pages article. Gary Remafedi is the main subject of the article, although it mentions Francis Collins letter as well as the concerns I expressed in my post on the subject.

In short, the article revives the request from Remafedi to alter the way the ACP reports his work:

The ACP argues that schools shouldn’t support gay teens because they’re probably just confused. “Most adolescents who experience same-sex attraction…no longer experience such attractions at age 25,” the letter says, citing a 1992 study by Remafedi.

Except that’s not what Remafedi’s research suggested at all. His work showed that kids who are confused about their sexuality eventually sort it out—meaning many of them accept being gay.

“What was so troubling was that these were fellow doctors, fellow pediatricians,” Remafedi says. “They knew better, and they have the same ethical responsibilities to their patients that I do, but they deliberately distorted my research for malicious purposes.”

On their website, the ACP has answered their critics. In letters to Francis Collins and Remafedi, the ACP justifies their work. The ACP also mentions my critique but did not respond to it. They say here that I did not contact them. I did not contact the headquarters but I did contact some of the committee members with various concerns. Their rebuttals are not persuasive to me.

In a related development, the ACP has removed George Rekers from their website and psychosocial committee. According to Rachel Maddow’s blog, the move was because Rekers won’t answer their contacts and not because they are distancing themselves from his actions. The ACP added NARTH luminary Neil Whitehead to the committee.

Vanguard extra: David Bahati says American evangelicals secretly agree with Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Mariana van Zeller posted some extended footage of interviews conducted for the documentary, Missionaries of Hate. Here is her description of this interview with David Bahati:

An exclusive, extended interview with David Bahati, the Ugandan member of parliament who introduced the anti-gay bill calling for use of the death penalty. Correspondent Mariana van Zeller asks Bahati about his reaction to President Obama’s and Rev. Rick Warren’s condemnation of the bill, how he would respond if had a gay family member, and his belief that Uganda may have been chosen by God to fight this “spiritual battle.”

I was struck by Bahati’s confidence that American evangelicals secretly agree with his bill and his approach. He expresses the view that the opposition here is not genuine because American evangelicals are telling him privately to continue with his approach.

I want to know, who are these evangelicals? Who is lying? He is saying clearly that some people who are publicly opposing the bill are secretly telling them they favor it. It is jarring for a man to invoke God while at the same time say that his supporters in America are lying to the public. Fess up, name names, who is playing to the crowds?

Vanguard extra: Extended interview with Scott Lively on Anti-Homosexuality Bill

After the premiere of Missionaries of Hate tonight, Mariana van Zeller has posted several additional extended interviews. Here is a little over 6 minutes of Scott Lively discussing his role in Uganda, the reason why the Anti-Homosexuality Bill should be passed and his view of American evangelicals.

Lively has said that it is racist to claim that Americans were responsible for the anti-gay bill and yet he claims credit for starting the “pro-family movement” in Uganda because they did not know what to do. Brace yourself, everything is said with a straight face.

Read my interview with Mariana van Zeller here.

Interview with Missionaries of Hate correspondent, Mariana Van Zeller

Tonight at 10pm eastern time, Current TV’s Vanguard series premieres the documentary, Missionaries of Hate: The American Architects of Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill. If you are interested in the relationship between evangelicals in America and Uganda, you need to see this documentary. Journalist Mariana van Zeller interviewed Martin Ssempa, David Bahati, Scott Lively and many other figures related to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Earlier today, Mariana took time to answer some questions I asked regarding her reporting from Uganda.

Throckmorton: What did you want to find out in Uganda?

Mariana van Zeller: What piqued our interest initially was the question of whether some American evangelicals had an influence on this anti-gay bill. What were American evangelicals doing in Uganda giving a seminar about how Africans can protect themselves from homosexuality? Of all the great work Christian groups are doing in Africa, this just seemed so out of left field.

We definitely explore the American influence in the piece, but by the time we arrived in Uganda the fallout from the seminar was well underway and I think what we wanted to accomplish was to take viewers inside this story and capture the mood of the country. While we were on the ground, the campaign to push through the legislation was really heating up and immediately we began following the bill’s biggest cheerleader, Pastor Martin Ssempa. He’s a very charismatic guy — a real performer — and has a strong following among young people. At the same time, we wanted to show what it was like to be gay in Uganda, particularly in this very charged, anti-gay climate.

WT: What was the biggest surprise to you in your reporting?

MvZ: I was surprised that given the climate in Uganda, gay men and women were willing to speak with us at all. And I was surprised just how far Ssempa would go to try and prove his point. I never thought the first time I’d see hardcore gay porn would be in church.

WT: What did you want to get in the documentary that just didn’t make it due to space or some other reason?

MvZ: There was interview with a retired Anglican Bishop who’s been maligned for the work he does ministering to gays in Uganda. His church has essentially ostracized him and ahead of one of these anti-gay rallies, people hung posters for the event outside of his office. It’s silly, but when you see people taunting an old man you can’t help but feel bad. And it shows that the campaign wasn’t just against people who were homosexual, but those who were accepting of them or at least openly dealing with them.

Also, we did a lot of reporting on the potential cost to public health if a bill like this were to go through. Many health professionals were concerned about what can happen in a country with HIV rates like Uganda if you make it an offense for a doctor to speak candidly with his or her patient about sex.

WT: Did Martin Ssempa or other Ugandan supporters of the bill discuss the fact that so many evangelicals in the US and around the world have denounced the bill? If so, how did they account for so little evangelical support outside of Uganda?

MvZ: Yes. Ssempa thinks American Evangelicals are “wimpy”. In the piece, he specifically calls out Rick Warren. In his mind, Rick Warren is inconsistent in his stance on homosexuality. What I found interesting is that in the face of all these American evangelicals denouncing the bill, Ssempa decided to step us his campaign, at least for a while. But I will say that despite all these denunciations, this bill and campaign still has an American face on it in Uganda, at least to the country’s gay and human rights community. They all point to that March conference as a turning point, a spark. What they’d like to see is one of these big American pastors go there in person and denounce this bill.

Currently the bill is stuck in a Parliamentary committee. However, it could resurface at a later time or in pieces in other legislation. One question I should have asked Mariana is if she has heard from Martin Ssempa recently. He seems to have gone silent. I wonder why?

Watch Mariana’s reporting tonight at 10pm on Current TV.

Here is another personal account of Mariana’s experience in Uganda:

For all my posts on Uganda, click here.