Marianne Clyde

Date Added: Friday, December 11th, 2009

As a world leader in the eradication of the dreaded pandemic, AIDS, Uganda deserves the hugest respect and admiration.  They have taken a stand to bring the issue out in the open and implement testing, treatment, education and prevention.  Awesome.
In that country, homosexuality is currently illegal.  At the present time, there is a bill before the parliament that would further, not only stigmatize same sex orientation, but would penalize practicing homosexuals with life-long prison terms, and potentially execution.  It would also promote prison terms for anyone who knows that someone is a homosexual and does not tell.  This one act in itself would cause the whole issue to go even deeper underground and absolutely undo whatever good has been accomplished to rid the country of AIDS.
It is being approached as a moral issue, promoting prison terms to anyone who even approaches someone to have a same sex liaison.  This is breeding ground for false accusations...your word against mine....everyone becomes suspicious of everyone else;  everyone becomes the enemy.  It's "us" against "them".  A certain way to destroy a country or a culture is to divide it, creating enemies from within. 
It is one thing to try to promote a moral culture.  It is quite another thing to judge, condemn, and punish that which we don't understand or agree with.  Who will admit to having a same sex liaison if they are assured of a prison term?  What will this do to people who need to be tested for HIV? There is even a fear that gays are "recruiting" the children.  As soon as such unfounded fear becomes the motivating factor to legislation, the battle is lost.  Can anyone say "Salem witch trials"???  Fear does not breed righteousness, it breeds more fear; and when we make decisions based on fear or anger, our IQ goes down and we end up making less-than-intelligent decisions!  One doesn't have to go to Africa to see this type of fear based legislation.  Everyday we have new opportunities to legislate or fight against a religion or a culture or a people that we don't understand.  It is easy to demonize those that are different than we are, who believe differently than we do, who speak differently, or who make more or less money than we do, or who observe different customs.  We attack "them" and think that the hatred, somehow, doesn't splash back and bloody us.
This time of year, there is much talk about giving and compassion.  Jesus, whose birth is celebrated this month all over the globe, promoted a life and faith of compassion and righteousness (not judgment).  What he condemned was hypocrisy (self righteousness and judgment of others). 
In reading blogs and articles on this topic, there is much discussion about whether or not foreigners even have a right to chime in on this conversation.  While I agree that Uganda must make their own decisions, I believe any democracy (or, technically, Republic in this case)benefits from discussion.  And hopefully, some of this discussion will cause the legislators of Uganda to pause and realize that thoughtful consideration of how far they have come in the AIDS crisis, will encourage them to be cautious not to undo that, by acting courageously and avoid the tentacles of fear.