Q2

Okay: if you are not familiar with the bill (pdf) (wiki) currently pending before the Ugandan Parliament, turn around and learn about it — then come back. The bill was introduced in 2009-September, and is scheduled to be voted on by 2010-March-01. It will, among other things, criminalize gay and lesbian sex between consenting adults — under pain of death. Humans to fail to “report” LGBT persons within twenty four standard hours of discovery will face a prison sentence of no less than three years.

…

Yeah. To say that human rights are going to be violated under this bill is an understatement. We know what happened after the events of 1994-April-06 — over five hundred thousand humans died, probably more than a million. While I’m not going to suggest–not yet, anyways–that such a tragedy will be repeated if this bill passes, I am confident that Bad Things will happen.

So. What are we gonna do about it? Several of us throughout the Elmhurst College community are talking about ways we can raise awareness of the bill before it passes… If enough people know, if enough people are aware of the existence of the bill, if enough people get up and call or write their American Congress-critter and demand the American Congress and the POTUS do more than issue a statement of opposition. As a side note, I do applaud the five Republican–!–Congress-critters who have expressed their anger to President Museveni. That’s five down, five hundred thirty remaining. This whole fight is not just about gay rights or gay equality — it’s about human rights, human equality.  This battle won’t be won by a bunch of American queers coming out and demanding that something be done — it’ll only be won when all the humans of all flavors and orientations come out in opposition to the bill. We can’t do it alone…

• The first approach we are going to take is contacting the Ugandan Consulate and asking if they would send someone to come to Elmhurst College and speak about the bill. This is unlikely to succeed, but nobody can say we didn’t try.
• The second approach involves networking with the various college campuses across the United States, and organizing a general information campaign. Once we give people information about the bill and its effects on humans, people will hopefully be willing to get up and call their Congress Critters and order them todo something. Teresa Doyle and myself will be doing something along these lines in 2010-week five, with booth in the Frick Centre: exposing the issue while trying to bring attention to the third approach.
• The third approach involves a well-known and sometimes frowned upon tactic: public humiliation. If some sort of rally along the lines of the National Equality March were to be held with the express purpose of gaining the attention of the press and publicly shaming the Ugandan Parliament into withdrawing the bill, we might have a shot at success. Where this rally would take place is a mystery: Millennium Park? the College Mall? We don’t know. What we do know is that the Parliament resumes its legislative session on 2010-February-15…any rally would take place before that.

On 2010-January-04, an short piece appeared on page A16 of the New York Times highlighting the issue; I think everyone should read it, and click to view a bigger-yet-still-resized-version…

If you have ideas for helping us, or bringing attention to the issue, please share them with me: my contact information is in the About page.