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Ear to the Ground

Obama Slams Uganda’s ‘Odious’ Anti-Gay Bill

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Posted on Feb 4, 2010
Uganda march
AP / Stephen Wandera

Starting them early: Sign-toting children demonstrate against homosexuality in Uganda’s capital city of Kampala on Jan. 22.

The U.S. may still have a long way to go in terms of securing the civil rights of its GLBTQ citizens, but in some other parts of the world, such as Uganda, institutionalized homophobia threatens to take a deadly form. President Barack Obama spoke out Thursday against anti-homosexual legislation currently under consideration in the African country, calling the bill “odious.”  —KA

BBC:

It is “unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are,” [Obama] told politicians and religious leaders at a prayer breakfast in Washington.

Homosexual acts are already illegal in Uganda and punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

The bill would raise that penalty to life in prison.

It also proposes the death penalty for a new offence of “aggravated homosexuality” - defined as when one of the participants is a minor, HIV-positive, disabled or a “serial offender”.

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By purplewolf, February 5, 2010 at 9:42 am Link to this comment

One would think that if the death penalty for being gay was justifiable, would it also be justifiable to kill the heterosexual parents who had the audacity to produce and give birth to such an abomination? Get real. Just where do these idiots think gay people come from? It is not a choice, it is preconditioned well before that person is born into them. I know there are those out there who will deny it, but really, do you think people would deliberately choose to be gay knowing the way “strait Christian people” feel about them or to put themselves in a situation that could kill them on purpose?

These people are not broken and punishing them or killing them will not stop gay people from being born in the future. If that is the thinking of the ignorant masses out there, you would first have to stop all heterosexual breeding all over the world. That is the only way to assure in your insecure selves that there will never be another “gay” person ever born onto this earth again. And besides if your bible and God were so insecure with gays, they never would have been created in the first place or else God would have smitten them out of existence long ago.

Why is it the these right winger religious whack jobs keep thinking that they have to bring about the end of the world faster or kill off all the people different from themselves, can’t their God do it on his own?

What if the tables were turned and all heterosexuals were to be beaten, tortured, discriminated against or killed for their way of life, religion, having too many kids? It could happen to you too. Think about it. When all the gays are gone-if that ever happened, which group of people would they decide to hate for no valid reason next and forget about justifying it with your written book of heresy.It has been altered so much by so many, is there actually any truth in it or just the leanings of the latest interpreter?

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By ofersince72, February 4, 2010 at 11:20 pm Link to this comment

Dittos to FRT….and a bunch of other stuff
Hey Obama, Don’t ask me,  Don’t tell me…..
But did you not endorse those acts that FRT speaks of
You are indeed a champion of social justice.

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By FRTothus, February 4, 2010 at 6:41 pm Link to this comment

...but lets stand the “odious” Patriot Act (for starters).

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A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
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