Ugandan president signs anti-gay law

[DriftingCrow]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/02/ugandan-president-sign-anti-gay-bill-20142245119120579.html
Al-Jazeera English, No author listed

Uganda's president has signed a controversial anti-gay bill that allows harsh penalties for "homosexual offences", calling them "mercenaries" and "prostitutes".

Yoweri Museveni on Monday signed the bill, which holds that homosexuals be jailed for long terms, outlaws the promotion of homosexuality and requires people to denounce gays.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said his country was reviewing its relationship with Uganda now that the bill has been enacted.

Earlier in the day, Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said, the president "wants to sign it with the full witness of the international media to demonstrate Uganda's independence in the face of Western pressure and provocation."

[Jamiep]

All Out is an activist group that is able to flesh out news of anti lgbt happenings in the world, they set up letters in protest & send with a  petition of names of hundreds of thousands of people. I am on their email list & signed the petition against the leader of this country & the Ugandan government to not pass the law. It was probably too much to expect the leader & the government wouldn't pass the law. The letter was also  going to go to the leaders of many countries like  the prime ministers office of my country Canada to have them respond to & pressure Uganda as well. I hope these countries follow through (haven't heard about my country), I see Kerry has spoken for the USA. Makes you angry & sad.

Jamiep

[DriftingCrow]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/02/25/282463472/ugandan-tabloid-names-gays-after-anti-gay-measure-becomes-law
NPR's The Two-Way; Krishnadev Calamur

[A] Ugandan tabloid has published a list of what it calls the country's "top" 200 homosexuals. Red Pepper published its list under the headline "Exposed!" and names some people who'd previously not come out as gay.

The new law is widely popular in Uganda, and is expected to boost Museveni ahead of presidential elections.

[Jill F]

Disgusting.

My guess is this will be used as a political tool to jail and publically shame people witch hunt style who weren't even gay in the first place. 

Museveni's political foes be warned.

[Jenny07]

Reminds me of the 30's in Germany.
We all know how that turned out.

Looks like the world will just let it happen again just like before.

[Eva Marie]

Looks like the world will just let it happen again just like before.

Maybe not.

It seems to me that the world is a little different place than it was during the 1930's; and LGBT rights are currently very center stage. Look at what is happening with Putin in Russia attempting to enact similar laws; he has run into stiff headwinds from the world community because of doing that and has had soften his hard line approach. Money talks; a lot of companies involved in the Olympics also applied pressure on him to back off and he did.

I'm already seeing the beginnings of the same movement toward Uganda. Uganda is clearly on the wrong side of history with this decision.

Arizona is currently learning a similar lesson with their new religious discrimination law that is sitting on Jan Brewer's desk at the moment.

Picking on us is beginning to come at a cost to the people involved in the picking.