Anti-Gay demonstration last month in Kampala, Uganda. (Marc Hofer/The New York Times)
UPDATE: Chilling videos here of Scott Lively’s violence-inciting lies from Box Turtle Bulletin.
Check out this op-ed piece in the LA Times by Douglas Foster, the Medill Professor of Journalism at Northwestern University.
He describes the incredible liberation felt by African Gay men over something simple: dancing together at a Gay bar, Simply Blue in Johannesburg.
And he effectively indicts the three American fundamentalists—Scott Lively, Caleb Lee Brundidge and Don Schmierer—who inspired the notorious “kill the Gays” bill in the Ugandan parliament, and now want to run away from it:
They participated in the March conference that sparked the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2009, though they insist they had no intention of inspiring legislation that calls for the death penalty for homosexuals. But by posing as experts who offered testimony about how gay men rape teenage boys and how homosexuals are plotting to destroy marriage and the family, they helped build an explosive device and light a fuse.
One of them, at the time of the conference, announced that these sorts of revelations were like a “nuclear bomb” that would eliminate the entire country of homosexuals. They can’t now disclaim responsibility for the bomb having been detonated.
Self-proclaimed Christians want Gay people dead. It’s that simple.
But what Lively, Brundidge and Schmierer will find—what Sarah Palin will find, and Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, “tea-partiers” and James Dobson will find—is that they are the cursed, despicable, tiny minority. And Jesus will have the last laugh.++
Scott Lively making money in Uganda. (Courtesy Box Turtle Bulletin)
Akinola, Repudiate Anti-Gay Violence 
Mr Foster, homosexuality is one of several perversions that have gripped western society and are about to destroy it. Until recently, you had only a small number of paedophiles. But today their numbers are fast increasing, and will soon get out of control. They will also demand the freedom to ‘love’ children. And with more people in Europe and America preferring the company and affection of pets to those of humans, are we not about to see an explosion of bestiality? Add this to the already insurmountable problem of drug (especially cocaine) addiction, and you can see where your society is heading. But the whole world is not going down with Europe and America.
In America, you have a lot to be thankful for. You are not involved in the struggle for shelter, clothing and the day’s meal that your kinsmen experience in Africa. Yet in spite of our poverty, we will not allow perversions to undermine our moral values. I believe that there will always be headline news stories that will give the impression a false impression, but homosexuality, bestiality and all the other ‘freedoms’ which Americans are enjoying will never gain root here in Africa.
Comment by Afasi Bobilor — January 12, 2010 @ 4:35 am |
I will leave up Afasi Bobilor’s comment because it is a concise and articulate statement of the kind of thinking that undergirds the anti-Gay violence of some African governments and churches.
Of all the ways to attack this statement and disprove it, I choose this one: it assumes that Africans are somehow more moral and intelligent than Americans and Europeans, who allegedly sit by while their societies self-destruct, due to excessive “freedoms.”
It’s a fine rationale for African dictators, who curtail freedoms for the sake of the morals of the people while robbing them blind.
When the people get sick of “the struggle for shelter, clothing and the day’s meal” and learn that their real enemies are their own corrupt, incompetent governments, perhaps there will be hope for Africa. They have their own homegrown models in Cape Town, but so far they prefer to blame Western “freedoms” and “perversions” while believing in their own superior morality, standing by as their societies self-destruct due to corruption, thievery, brutality and stupidity.
Comment by josh — January 12, 2010 @ 11:19 am |
The problem with Africa is that it’s full of angry, easy to manipulate people. They’re angry about their pathetic standards of living but are either too stupid or cowardly to confront the government, so they’re always desperate to find scapegoats. Ignorant fools.
Love, an exasperated Nigerian.
Comment by Deee! — May 29, 2012 @ 10:30 pm |
We love Africa anyway, Deee, though I do find the folks often exasperating. Nigeria is rolling in wealth and corruption. The continent is an ongoing tragedy no one seems capable of correcting, No one has ever brought the commitment it would take – money, troops, aid workers for a century or more – so reform never happens. Politicians can’t be trusted with it, militaries degenerate into armed thugs, businesses are only concerned with extraction, and the Western powers are paralyzed by their own legacies of racist imperialism. If Africa refuses to help itself, there isn’t much to be done.
It is up to the people to lead, and that does seem to take education. The United States was once a poor country too, but it was blessed with highly educated leaders. Now Africa is churning out mass quantities of educated, smart folks, but they don’t seem to have the patriotism to devote themselves to public service. (If patriotism is the right word; anyone for matriotism, love of the motherland?)
Thank you for your thoughts.
Comment by josh — May 29, 2012 @ 10:55 pm |