Mother Jones reports that:
An early draft of the Republican platform published by Politico accuses the Obama administration of "attempting to impose" on the "peoples of Africa...legalized abortion and the homosexual rights agenda." Since 2006,with the urging and influence of US conservative Christian groups, several African countries have considered or passed laws outlawing homosexuality. The most infamous of them, proposed in Uganda, would impose the death penalty for "aggravated
Since 2006,with the urging and influence of US conservative Christian groups, several African countries have considered or passed laws outlawing homosexuality. The most infamous of them, proposed in Uganda, would impose the death penalty for "aggravated
For instance, Uganda has criminalized homosexuality within its criminal code:
Uganda Penal Code Act of 1950, Chapter 120, Article 145: Unnatural offences. Any person who has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature; has carnal knowledge of an animal; or permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature, commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for life
But that does not go far enough for some, Americans, Western evangelicals and Ugandans alike:
That long-extant law didn't go far enough for the supporters of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, commonly referred to in the Western media as the "Kill the Gays Bill" because it upped the penalty for same-sex sex in "aggravated" circumstances (with a minor, with HIV-positivity, with frequency) to a death sentence
In contrast, the Obama Administration has repeatedly made it known that gay rights are human rights (returning to today’s MJ blogpost).
in December of 2011 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech proclaiming that "gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights." Shortly afterward, President Obama issued a memo "directing all agencies engaged abroad to ensure that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons."
Furthermore, the GOP Platform in itself is actually reeking with hypocrisy:
A related point: The "human rights" section of the GOP platform is one small paragraph, perhaps the tiniest section other than the one devoted to "public diplomacy." There are no harsh words for the administration in areas that have drawn international criticism, such as deaths of civilians in drone strikes. The section is focused on attacking the Obama administration for supposedly not standing up for "religious freedom," and it refers only to the persecution of religious minorities in the Middle East and "fanaticism" in "West and East Africa." As far as the GOP is concerned, "religious freedom" doesn't extend to people who do not subscribe to the religious conviction that homosexuality is sinful and should be punished by the state.
Too many lives have been destroyed either physically or mentality due to the criminalization of homosexuality. In a time when the U.S. needs to promote a world-wide effort to decriminalize homosexuality, the GOP is taking us a step backwards.