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BAN BAHATI: Ploy & Agenda for D.C. Visit by Uganda’s ‘Kill the Gays’ M.P. David Bahati

Posted by: Lez Get Real on December 4, 2010.

Melanie Nathan – Dec 04-2010 - There are reports that David Bahati (MP, Ndorwa County West, Kabale) the author and initial instigator of the Uganda Anti Homosexuality Bill will soon be setting foot on US soil for a supposed conference next week. It has been reported that Bahati applied for entrance to the Winter Conference 2010 in D.C. via E-mail, but that the organizers had not yet received any payment for his attendance; and further that any attempt at making such payment would be rejected by convention organizers. Not only is Bahati not welcome at the event, but also will be locked out if he should show up.

Sources have informed LezGetReal of an apparent ploy and motive on the part of Bahati. Behati does not care about the Convention – that is not why he is really coming here. In fact if he is locked out organizers will in effect be facilitating Bahati’s ploy and so the gate would open for him to to pursue his actual agenda.

The Member of Ugandan Parliament is attempting to gain entry to the USA, hiding behind a convention. He has decided that he is coming regardless of his ability to attend or not. Why would he do that? Well the convention is the reason provided to obtain a USA VISA; generally speaking that would prompt DHS to approve a VISA.

However Bahati’s real motive is to get support amongst his evangelical supporters and cohorts. He needs support for his reelection bid in February 2011 and plans to ensure that through his agreement to push the anti- LGBT legislation in Uganda.

If you think this is an exaggeration you only have to read the original Bill tabled by Bahati and the extremes he has gone to.

During October 2009, Bahati tabled a private-members bill before the Ugandan parliament titled the ‘Anti-Homosexuality Bill’. At the time, the Minister for Ethics and Integrity, Dr James Nsaba Butoro made a strong statement in support of the bill and for the greater sanction of individuals and organizations supporting homosexuality. The bill is aimed at increasing and expanding penalties for ‘homosexual acts’ and for all institutions (including NGOs, donors and private companies) who defend the rights of people who engage in sexual relations with people of the same gender. (Language from change.org Petition to keep Bahati out of the USA.)

The bill also calls for Uganda to withdraw from all international treaties and conventions which support the rights of lesbians, gays and bisexuals, introduces extradition arrangements for Ugandan citizens who perform ‘homosexual acts’ abroad, and includes legal penalties for people who fail to report alleged homosexual acts or individuals and institutions that promote homosexuality or same-sex marriage to the authorities. The death penalty is mandated for HIV-positive people who engage in sex with people of the same gender. The tabling of the bill has been accompanied by threats against any Ugandan media organization that allows LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) Ugandans to air their views or publish press statements.

The Bill is currently lurking and could be pursued to legislative passage. In a recent updated October 2010 interview Behati stated that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, as it’s formally known, will “soon” be law. “We are very confident because this is a piece of legislation that is needed in this country to protect the traditional family here in Africa, and also protect the future of our children,” says Bahati . Does this have a ring to it; like Evangelical parroting? Read more: http://www.queerty.com/ugandan-lawmaker-david-bahati-kill-the-gays-bill-will-be-law-soon-20101028/#ixzz178VixWYb

There is an abundance of evidence, including video obtained by bloggers and featured first in prime media on the Rachel Maddow show, pointing to the fact that the original impetus and current support for Bahati’s bill has come from extreme-right Christians in the United States of America who are working through allied churches and parliamentarians in Uganda.

In March 2009 the Family Life Network, led by Ugandan Pastor Stephen Langa (affiliated to the Kampala Pentecostal Church), hosted a workshop entitled ‘Exposing the truth behind homosexuality and the homosexual agenda’. The workshop trainers included members of three American organizations well-known in US Christian right wing circles:

- Scott Lively, co-founder of the hate group Watchmen on the Walls and author of The Pink Swastika, a pseudo-history book claiming that militant male homosexuals helped mastermind the Nazi holocaust
- Caleb Lee Brundidge, a ‘sexual reorientation’ coach for the International Healing Foundation, a Christian organisation that aims to ‘free’ people from ‘unwanted same-sex attraction’
- Don Schmierer, a board member for Exodus International, an umbrella body for Christian groups that seek to ‘reform’ homosexuals using Christian teachings.

PETITION

STATEMENT OF FACTS:

To Secretary of State,

The Parliament of the Republic of Uganda, in East Africa, is presently considering legislation (“the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2009”) which, if enacted, would punish intimate contact between members of the same sex (homosexuality is already outlawed in that country) with life imprisonment, and in certain cases, death by hanging.

The bill, which has come to be known internationally as the”Kill the Gays” act also provides sentences of imprisonment for persons who conceal knowledge of another’s homosexuality, who publicly discuss the subject of homosexuality, or who agitate or advocate for homosexual human or civil rights or for the decriminalization of homosexuality.

The bill was drafted by its sponsor, one David Bahati, M.P., a member of the governing party, and has met with widespread support among Uganda’s populus

Mr. Bahati has recently announced that he will attend the National Prayer Breakfast to be held in Washington, DC on February 4, which President Obama is also expected to attend. The annual prayer breakfast is organized by The Fellowship Foundation (also known as ‘The Family’), a conservative Christian organization that numbers several high-ranking members of Congress among its members and whose teachings are said to have inspired Bahati’s bill.

The proposed legislation has been noted by several news agencies to be heavily influenced by U.S.-based religious personages and organizations: indeed, a special parliamentary motion to introduce the legislation was passed one month after a two-day conference was held wherein three U.S.-based Christian organizations asserted the need for such legislation, as homosexuality was a direct threat to the cohesion of African families.

RELIEF SOUGHT:

INSOFAR as Section 212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act provides, inter alia, that “Any alien who, while serving as a foreign government official, was responsible for or directly carried out, at any time during the preceding 24-month period, particularly severe violations of religious freedom, as defined in section 3 of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, [is] inadmissible;”

AND FURTHER, insofar as subsection E(ii) of the same section provides that : Any alien who has engaged in conduct that is defined as genocide for purposes of the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide is inadmissible.”

AND FURTHER, given that the subject’s activities as a legislator in his own country are contrary to the principles of respect for and promotion of human and civil rights for all and are directly and intentionally injurious to those principles,

AND FURTHER, insofar as it is within the Secretary of State’s lawful discretion to deny entry to the United States to any person who represents a threat to internal security and orderly administration, it is our respectful request that Mr. Bahati be denied permission to enter the United States, and that a visa for that purpose, if already issued, be withdrawn.

Sincerely,

___________________________________________ CLICK HERE TO SIGN