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Written by Lisa Neff, Staff Writer
Feb 11, 2010
Tammy Baldwin – Photo: Jason Smith
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, addressing the National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 4 in Washington, D.C., denounced pending Ugandan legislation that would authorize the death penalty for some gays and imprisonment for others.
LGBT civil rights advocates had urged Obama not to attend the breakfast, a presidential tradition since Dwight Eisenhower’s era, because of organizers’ ties to the evangelical Christian network known as the Fellowship Foundation and, more secretively, as The Family. The Family is said to have played a pivotal role in the drafting and introduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda.
“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, as Hillary mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda,” said Obama, addressing the prayer breakfast at the Washington Hilton.
Clinton, who delivered the keynote address, spoke about the denial of human rights, often in the name of religion.
“Religion, cloaked in naked power lust, is used to justify horrific violence, attacks on homes, markets, schools, volleyball games, churches, mosques, synagogues, temples. From Iraq to Pakistan and Afghanistan to Nigeria and the Middle East, religion is used as a club to deny the human rights of girls and women … and to discriminate, even advocate the execution of gays and lesbians.”
Later in the address, Clinton said, “We are standing up for gays and lesbians who deserve to be treated as full human beings. And we are also making it clear to countries and leaders that these are priorities of the United States. …And I recently called President Museveni, whom I have known through the prayer breakfast, and expressed the strongest concerns about a law being considered in the parliament of Uganda.”
Uganda MP David Bahati, who sponsored and refuses to amend the Anti-Homosexuality Act, is said to be a member of The Family, as is Uganda President Yoweri Museveni, who initially supported the bill but, under increasing international pressure, has recommended revision.
The remarks from the president and the secretary of state came as Congress ratcheted up its criticism of the Uganda bill, which would authorize life imprisonment for consensual same-sex sex and the death penalty for HIV-positive people who engage in consensual same-sex sex. The bill also would criminalize the “promotion of homosexuality” and authorize the imprisonment of people who fail to report gays and lesbians to the government.
In the House
In late January, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a hearing on the Ugandan legislation. Testimony focused on the impact the act might have on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in the African nation, the violation of human rights charters and treaties and the need for U.S. officials to act against the measure.
“We believe that pressure must be maintained to make clear to the Ugandan government that simply removing the most obviously egregious aspects of the bill – such as the wielding of the death penalty – will not make this legislation any less destructive,” testified Cary Alan Johnson of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
The same week as the hearing, openly gay U.S. Reps. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Jared Polis, D-Colo., and Barney Frank, D-Mass., led a coalition of lawmakers in sending letters to Obama and Museveni urging action to defeat the measure.
“Should the bill be passed, any range of bilateral programs important to relations between our countries and, indeed, to the Ugandan people inevitably would be called under review,” the letter to Museveni warned.
Frank said, “Having accepted debt relief from the international community only a few years ago, Uganda has an obligation to show some respect for basic human rights. Vicious unleashing of persecution of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people should and will be an obstacle to any future congressional initiative to provide aid to that country.”
Then, on Feb. 4, several dozen representatives backed a House resolution condemning the legislation.
“The proposed Ugandan bill not only threatens human rights, it also reverses so many of the gains that Uganda has made in the fight against HIV/AIDS,” said U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman, D-Calif., who introduced the resolution. Berman chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“This issue,” he said, “has united leaders of different political and religious views in Uganda and worldwide in one common belief in the rights of all human beings regardless of sexual orientation.”
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