500 Words on How to Kill the Gays

I've held back my comments on Uganda's "Kill the Gays" bill for some time. The following 500 words explain why, and my frustration dealing with this important issue.

If your country wants to make homosexuality punishable death, there’s an easy way to avoid public scrutiny: convert to Islam.

The liberal media – to which I hope I belong – have been making a lot of noise over the past few months about a new law proposed in Uganda. The proposed law would make homosexuality and homosexual acts punishable by death. Under the proposal friends, family and others who know a homosexual can face jail time as well. There’s been talk of muting the proposed law a little by replacing death with life imprisonment, although I can’t imagine that’s much better in a Ugandan jail.

The proposed law in Uganda is outrageous, but it’s not novel. In fact, I’ve overused “proposed” so that you realize that this is not yet the law of Uganda. Meanwhile, 7 countries have already prescribed death for homosexuals: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Mauritania, and regions of Somalia and Nigeria. (In Nigeria, the northern Muslim region treats homosexuality as punishable by death, while the southern, Christian-majority region only calls for life imprisonment.)

While the criminalization of gays and lesbians is obscene, the pass that the Muslim world has gotten in this debate is as offensive. According to ILGA, a worldwide network of more than 700 GLBT organizations, you will find 72 countries that call for serious imprisonment (more than 10 years) of homosexuals. The list sweeps through the developing world and are made up of Christian, Muslim, Hindu (yes, India is still on the list!), and tribal countries. But of all the countries surveyed for their report – more than 150 – only 7 allow for executions and all 7 are Muslim.

What makes Uganda different?

More than 80% of Uganda is Christian, with nearly half of all Christians subscribing to the Roman Catholic Church. Some think they’ve found ties to Christian Fundamentalist networks in the United States and the main sponsor of the “Kill the Gays” bill, David Bahati. I’ve read that the motivation for the proposed law is the rising prominence of gays throughout Africa and a fear – a phobia, of sorts – of a rising gay subculture. There is no doubt that gays are gaining more visibility on the continent, which has some of the most oppressive anti-gay laws already on the books. I imagine that would strike fear in the hearts of fundamentalist of any ilk.

But as the Uganda story gets more and more ink, I am frustrated in chats with like-minded liberal friends who seem ignorant to the laws already in the books in the Muslim world. I’m sure I’ll be called anti-Muslim by some, but I think the only explanation of the intense focus on Uganda is a lovely mix of anti-semitic/pro-Islam bias and true racism. In my experience, because of the perceived bias and oppression of Palestinians by the Israelis, the rest of the Muslim world often gets a “Treat Women and Minorities like Crap” Card.

Yes, this law in Uganda should be stopped. But don’t think the oppression will cease.