Anti-Gay Uganda Tabloid Ready to Defy Court

A court in Uganda ordered a tabloid there to cease publishing notices identifying individuals as gay and urging mob violence against them, but the publication in question has indicated that it is unwilling to abide by the ruling.

The tabloid newspaper, Rolling Stone (which is not affiliated with the American music magazine), created a sensation when it ran an article naming 100 people and claiming that they were gay. The tabloid also urged vigilante violence, exhorting readers to "Hang Them!"

Three of the individuals who had been named in the article sued Rolling Stone, claiming to have suffered violence incited by the publication. The tabloid was sentenced to payments of $650 to each of the plaintiffs on Jan. 3. Justice Kibuuka Musoke also barred the tabloid from publishing names of people it claims are gay or lesbian, the Associated Press reported on Jan. 4.

"The court found that there was infringement of some people's confidential rights," said a court official. "Their rights of freedom were abused. Exposing them was unfair and by threatening them with death, their rights were arbitrarily abused."

Rolling Stone lost no time in issuing a press release, released the same day as the court reached its verdict, in which the tabloid vowed to continue its crusade against Ugandan gays, LezGetReal reported on Jan. 5.

"Homos had a short-lived smile today," the release read, going on to say that the court had ruled that the paper "should give these self-confessed criminals [damages] as compensation for violating their right of privacy."

The release continued, "Justice Kibuuka Musoke said in his ruling read by the court registrar that by quoting a church leader calling upon government to hang homos, the newspaper put the lives and dignity of these fellows at risk!!

"Can a newspaper incite government against a homo?" the release went on. "If this is not fantasy then what is it? Hanging is done after the due process of the law has been followed. Simple facts."

The release said that the tabloid would not comply with the court's instructions. "We would have paid them but doing so is as good as 'paying a tribute' to those who promote sexual identity confusion and related madness," the release stated. "Our lawyers said the controversial ruling does not only condone but perpetuates immorality with impunity. It further sets a dangerous precedent for the nation and future generations. It also puts media freedom at stake."

Added the release, "We remain strong that indeed in times of war, losses are expected. The newspaper will fight homos on different fronts. Our supporters should remain strong--the agents of the devil shall be defeated."

LezGetReal interviewed Giles Muhame, the managing editor of the tabloid newspaper, to ask him why Rolling Stone was waging such a strenuous crusade against gays. "Homosexuality is spreading like wildfire and we must stop it," Muhame said, characterizing homosexuality as a breach of "natural law" and a threat to children. Muhame also expressed the hope that a law imposing the death penalty on gays--and jailing heterosexuals who fail to report gays to the authorities--would be passed early in the year.

That law, first proposed in 2009 by David Bahati, an anti-gay lawmaker with strong ties to American evangelicals, generated an international firestorm of criticism and placed aid money to the African nation in jeopardy. But the bill has never been withdrawn, and Bahati continues to press for its passage into law.

"The order of nature says that men must sleep with women and make children," Muhame told LezGetReal. "Uganda must look after its people and curb immorality. So it must be a serious crime." Asked whether he would turn his own children over to the authorities if they were gay, Muhame answered, "I will have no problem to follow the law. The law is the law. I will give my child to the authorities and will let it be what must be--if he must go to Jail or hang that will be fine if he is homo."

American Friends

Several American evangelicals visited Uganda just prior to the introduction of the bill that proposes the death penalty be imposed. The standard anti-gay rhetoric offered by evangelicals was echoed in Muhame's explanation of why his publication sought to "protect" Uganda by calling for the executions of gays.

"We cherish the traditional family," Muhame told LezGetReal. "Homos spread AIDS and have orgies and are drug addicts. There are higher mortality rates [among gays] and [the death rate is] increasing because of homos. We have big problems of poverty in Uganda." Asked whether Uganda's economic woes could be attributed directly to gays, Muhame replied, "Yes, of course."

Muhame also declared that he would defy the court's instructions and continue to publicize the identities of people the publication cited as being gay. In America, a similar sentiment--opposition of civil law in pursuit of opposing gays--is part of the so-called "Manhattan Declaration," a faith-based screed against gays that was written by religious leaders and recently rejected by Apple, which found the app form of the declaration to be "objectionable and potentially harmful to others."

Backers of the declaration slammed Apple's decision as an attack on Christian values. "Inasmuch as the Manhattan Declaration simply reaffirms the moral teachings of our Christian faith on the sanctity of human life, marriage and sexual morality, and religious freedom and the rights of conscience, Apple's statement amounts to the charge that our faith is 'potentially harmful to others,' " text at ManhattanDeclaration.org declared.

One of the American evangelicals who visited Uganda just before the anti-gay bill was introduced, Scott Lively, has turned his attentions to communities closer to home. Lively has recently relocated to Springfield, Mass., where a Jan. 5 Boston Globe article notes, he has launched a fresh effort to "re-Christianize" the city. (The other two American evangelicals who spoke in Uganda a week before Bahati introduced the death penalty bill were Don Schmierer, a board member of Exodus international, an organization dedicated to the idea that gays can be "cured" through prayer and counseling, and Caleb Lee Brundidge, who claims once to have been gay, but now to be heterosexual.)

The Globe article recalled that Lively is the author of The Pink Swastika, a book that claims Hitler and many top Nazis were homosexuals. Lively also wrote a book that purports to enable parents to "gay-proof" their children, ensuring that they grow up to be heterosexual by making them impervious to "recruitment" efforts by older gays. Now that he is ensconced in Springfield, Lively has established a Christian cafe, Holy Grounds Coffee House, where Bible lessons are served up along with steaming hot java.

But not everyone views Lively having come to town as a promising development. Abiding Truth Ministries--the organization that Lively runs--has been placed on a list of hate groups by extremist monitoring watchdog group the Southern Poverty Law Center. One local pastor, Archbishop Timothy Paul, uttered what sounded like words of warning when he told the Globe, "He has won the hearts of his people with his sincerity and the things he's doing in the community. But I don't believe people in Springfield really know who he is."

"The gay movement is an evil institution that's goal is to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity," Lively said in his appearance in Uganda, the Globe reported.

Although Lively's words seem to have had a direct effect on the bill introduced by Bahati--Rev. Kapya Kaoma, an Episcopalian cleric who hails from Zambia and now resides in Hyde Park, Mass., noted that Bahati's bill "had Scott Lively's talking points" --Lively denies pushing for or supporting the bill's death penalty provisions, saying that all he wanted was for gays to be forcibly remanded to involuntary "reparative therapy," a faith-based approach to "curing" gays that health authorities say is ineffectual at "converting" human sexuality and could be damaging to those who are subjected to it.

The Boston Globe reported that Lively still blames gays for the "moral decline" of the United States, but now he works to help the down-and-out: "We're not fighting the culture wars here in Springfield," Lively told the Globe. "The issues here are more fundamental than that. You can't deal with the culture wars with people who are struggling to survive."