Uganda: Why Stop with the Gays? Kill Their Straight Friends Too!

As this video from wakingupnow.com reveals, the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill doesn't just seek to impose the death penalty on those who are gay. The bill's language is so broad and vague that, under a few easily met circumstances, it authorizes the death penalty even for straight people who have never had gay sex. If the bill were to pass, straight Ugandans could be executed simply for doing any of the following more than once:

• Suggesting that a gay friend should have gay sex.
• Failing to turn in someone who has had gay sex, within 24 hours of learning about it.
• Failing to turn in someone who failed to turn in someone who has had gay sex, within 24 hours of learning about it.

Granted, the video is from January. But it's important to emphasize that, despite media reports that the bill would be amended to remove the death penalty provision, the bill has not in fact been amended. The media seems to have tired of the story, to judge from the lack of reporting, but the bill is as much an outrage, disgrace, and threat as it ever was. In the link immediately above, which leads to a BBC report from May 19, James Nsaba Buturo, the Ugandan minister for ethics and integrity (stop laughing!), says:

The impression is that we are after gays, want to kill them. That's what they've been told out there. And the truth isn't that. What we are seeking to do is to make a statement for our society: homosexuality is an abomination.

Whoa there, Nelly! Whatever else the bill does or doesn't do, it certainly makes such a statement - kinda like the Nuremberg laws "made a statement." But as for whether it is the "truth" that the Ugandan government is "after gays, want[s] to kill them," that is palpably obvious. And then some: the "truth" is that the Ugandan government is also after straights who express support for the human rights of gays or who refuse to be snitches - and wants to put them to death as well.

Another point that the video makes: for gays, the supposed "two strike" rule required for the death penalty to apply is, effectively, a "one-strike" rule. Here's why. Suppose Martin and James have sex. That's strike one for Martin (and likewise for James). Let's presume, too, that Martin doesn't turn in James within 24 hours of having sex with him - nor does James turn in Martin. That's strike two. Automatically, Martin and James are each guilty of "aggravated homosexuality," and subject to death.

Watch the video.