Blogs, Facebook: Uganda gays' last frontier

The gay community in Uganda has turned to social media — blogs, twitter, mailing lists and Facebook — in a bid to garner support for its opposition to the anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 that was recently tabled in parliament.

Saying that the media is openly biased and anti-gay, the community wants activists and evangelists worldwide to speak out against the “criminal and inhumane” Bill and write to the Association of Evangelicals in Africa.

On the Internet, the debate seems to focus on evangelism in and outside Africa and the role evangelists are playing or should play as the Bill awaits presidential assent to become a law.

Many people on a Facebook group formed by Dr Warren Throckmorton, an associate professor at Grove City College, do not approve of homosexuality, though they believe Christianity teaches freedom of conscience and freedom of speech.

“Obedience to the gospel, which pleases Christ comes from free choice and not from coercion of the state through laws like the proposed Bill” is what the Facebook group advocates.

The Bill is also being debated online as a public health and human rights issue by HIV/Aids, health based and human rights organisations.

The draft anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 tabled by legislator David Bahati seeks to impose strict sanctions on homosexuality and proposes a 7-year jail term for anyone who engages in it or who aids, abets, counsels or procures another to engage in it.

In Uganda, homosexuality, just like sex “against the order of nature,” is criminal and carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Under the draft Bill, “promotion of homosexuality including publishing information or providing funds, premises for activities or other resources,” is also punishable by seven years imprisonment or a fine of $50,000.

If the Bill is passed, anyone found guilty of homosexuality would be forced to take an HIV test.

Online, the general disapproving view of homosexuality in Uganda is blamed on the country being largely evangelical and very Bible-based — with evangelists claiming that homosexuality is evil and sinful — hence calls on evangelists worldwide to act by speaking out against the Bill.

“They must address their fellow Christians of Uganda and tell them they must, in the name of God, stop this inhumane Bill from becoming law,” says a blogger on lgbtnews, the gay news blog.

It is alleged on Political Research Associates eNews that no view on the morality of homosexuality other than the evangelical view should be given consideration, that to be homosexual is sinful.

The Other Sheep, an ecumenical Christian ministry that works worldwide to empower lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals and intersexuals, talks of evangelical leaders who are out to perpetuate hate among African evangelicals against homosexuality.

One such leader is the US-based Rick Warren who allegedly told Ugandans that homosexuality is not a natural way of life and thus not a human right.