In an interruption to our usual sarcastic news commentary a troubling news story crossed the newsdesk today that we felt the need to draw your attention to. Normal sarcastic service will resume tomorrow.
A petition has been set up on the website AllOut.Org to try and appeal to the Ugandan government to veto a bill making the “crime” of homosexuality punishable by the death penalty.
More specifically:
The law will broaden the criminalization of same-sex relationships by dividing homosexuality into two categories; aggravated homosexuality and the offense of homosexuality.
‘Aggravated homosexuality’ is defined as gay acts committed by parents or authority figures, HIV-positive people, paedophiles and repeat offenders. If convicted, they will face the death penalty.
The ‘offence of homosexuality’ includes same-sex sexual acts or being in a gay relationship, and will be prosecuted by life imprisonment.
Information quoted from Gay Star News
According to the report in 2010 a survey was conducted in which 89% of Ugandans found homosexuality “morally unacceptable” and the Speaker, Rebecca Kadaga spoke of ‘the serious threat’ posed by homosexuals and described the bill as a “Christmas Gift” to the Ugandans who “are demanding it”.
The response to the petition by the international community has shown an equal zeal that the bill be vetoed before these human rights violations are allowed to come into effect. The signatures from the global community are appearing so quickly that it is difficult to see all the different reasons people are signing, but the phrase “human rights” appears a lot.
Governments have also reacted to the proposed bill, stating that aid and financial support to the country could be cut if the bill is allowed to pass, and Barak Obama has described it as “odious”.
Speaking exclusively to Newsnibbles independent author Samuel Z Jones gave us his reaction to the bill:
I blame the Catholic church for spending decades telling Africans that condoms spread AIDS, that AIDS itself is caused by evil spirits, and for condoning witch hunts of small children in remote villages. Can we expect civilized behaviour from a developing nation when the “civilized” world spoon-feeds them nonsense like that?
One of the more concerning things about this news story seems to be the lack on international press coverage. A Google search revealed that none of the major UK news organisations have covered this story, and the majority of websites covering it were LBGT news or equal rights focused. A search of the BBC archive for “Uganda Kill Gays Bill” revealed:
News
Sorry, there are no results for your search.
Well, no, we didn’t. Does this not raise an even larger question? Why is what seems to amount to a law that sanctions genocide of a community not newsworthy? Why are we not being told about this?
It’s not like there isn’t time, or space, webspace is virtually infinite. Who decides that a soapstar’s latest makeover is frontpage news, but a country killing people based on who they love is not worth coverage of any kind.
The fact that it seems to be covered purely by things like “Gay Star News” implies that it’s their problem, an issue of gay rights, when it isn’t. It’s an issue of human rights and everyone’s problem. By allowing just one person to have their human rights to exist as they want to taken from them, is an abomination to the entire planet and should not be tolerated or ignored.
Below are some UK based site we found that did cover the story.
Hope Not Hate: http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/news/article/2479/uganda-to-officially-pass-kill-the-gays-bill
Red Dwaf Forum – yes, that was on page 2 of Google. http://www.reddwarf.co.uk/forum/messages.cfm?messageid=25F1D801-1999-AFED-B4746FD792EDBB5A
Wessex Scene: http://www.wessexscene.co.uk/news/2012/11/14/kill-the-gays-bill-to-pass-as-christmas-gift-to-ugandans/
Admittedly we only searched to page 5 of Google, so if you have any other UK press that has covered this story then let us know and we’ll update the list.
