A powerful U.S. Representative urged the Republic of Ugandan to ‘come to their senses’ and reject a controversial proposed law that would punish homosexuality with life in prison, without the possibility of parole or pardon.

“I am deeply saddened and troubled that such blatantly ignorant and hate-filled legislation would see the light of day anywhere in today’s world. It needs to be stopped in its tracks immediately,’ stated U.S. Representative Ilean Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), the senior Republican on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. “Ugandan leaders must come to their senses and reject this impending massive blow to human rights and decency in their country.”

Ros-Lehtinen also wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and stated she would seek unspecified ‘appropriate action‘ from Washington if Uganda passes the bill into law.

The response from openly gay U.S. Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) was significantly weaker that that of U.S. Representative Ilean Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida).  Baldwin, in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter stated that American officials should leverage the loss of HIV/AIDS funding in their talks with Ugandan officials.  “I don’t want to wait for them to pass the bill to then take the funds away,” said Baldwin.  “At the same time I am not going to tell Secretary Clinton how to exercise U.S. diplomacy.”

Worldwide Protests

Large protests have been held outside Ugandan Embassies in London, Berlin, Washington, D.C., Ottawa, and United Nations World Headquarters in New York City. San Francisco and Chicago also held protests on December 10th “Local action lets officials in Washington, D.C. know these issues matter,” said openly gay Michael Guest, former U.S. Ambassador to Romania (previous story) and the founder of the Council for Global Equality.

The proposed law, supported by Uganda’s president, is causing a firestorm at the Commonwealth of Nations, which Uganda is a member state.

The Commonwealth of Nations is an intergovernmental organization of 54 member states, all but two of which were formerly part of the British Empire. The member states co-operate within a framework of common values and goals as outlined in the Singapore Declaration which include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace. The symbol and Head of the Commonwealth is Queen Elizabeth II.

Activists are urging the Commonwealth to make it clear that it will suspend Uganda’s membership if the law passes. Suspension of Uganda’s membership in the Commonwealth of Nations would be disastrous given Uganda’s dependence on the Commonwealth for international trade.  The Commonwealth represents 2 billion people around the world, and accounts for more than $3 trillion in trade.

The proposed legislation was a slap in the face to Queen Elizabeth II, who recently called on the Commonwealth of Nations to increase support for the development of youth. Queen Elizabeth II challenged member states to look beyond achievements as they reflected over the past 60 years, and aspire without complacency to reach the core values freedom, democracy and development. “Yet despite its size and scale, the Commonwealth to me has been sustained during all this change by the continuity of our mutual values and goals,” stated Elizabeth II.  “Our beliefs in freedom, democracy and human rights; equality and equity; development and prosperity mean as much today as they did more than half a century ago.”

Queen Elizabeth II also presided over the Commonwealth’s 60th anniversary summit in November.

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni told the Commonwealth of Nations that it did not need “instructions” and “obstructions” from developed nations.  However, Uganda has modified the bill once already after receiving stern warnings from powerful Commonwealth states such as the United Kingdom and Canada. The original bill called for the death penalty for men who have gay sex with disabled people, people 18 years or younger, or when the accused is HIV-positive.

U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton added America’s muscular support to calls for the bill to be scrapped, saying the United States would not tolerate efforts to criminalize homosexuality among countries that receive U.S. funding to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Commonwealth member states, including the United Kingdom and Canada have condemned the proposed legislation. The proposed law has polarized Commonwealth states like few other subjects, pushing the more liberal countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, into direct opposition with many African and Caribbean member states.

Human-rights groups, including Gay Rights Uganda, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have condemned the bill.  They say it is a product of a campaign by evangelical churches and anti-gay groups that has led to death threats and physical assaults against Ugandans suspected of being gay.

Within Uganda, deeply-rooted homophobia, aided by a U.S. linked evangelical campaign alleging that gay men are trying to “recruit” schoolchildren, and that homosexuality is a habit that can be “cured”, has ensured widespread public support for the bill.

Popular U.S. bloggers Andrew Sullivan (source) and Andrew E. Mathis (source) have slammed U.S. President Obama and Rev. Rick Warren for the situation in Uganda.

LGBT blogger Michael Jones with change.org has issued an action alert about the Uganda bill to urge U.S. Representative Bart Stupak (D-Michigan), a member of the influential evangelical network in Washington, D.C. known as “The Family” to condemn Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill.  “The Family” network has very close ties to both Parliamentarians and the President in Uganda.

Truth Wins Out Reports:

In March, American anti-gay activists traveled to Uganda for a conference that pledged to “wipe out” homosexuality. Seven months later, a draconian bill has been introduced that pledges to make good on this threat.  The “Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009” is so severe that it is designed to shred the spirit and suffocate the soul of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Ugandans. If it passes, Uganda will become a predator state that actively hunts down GLBT people to destroy them.

United Nations Response

A United Nations General Assembly panel met this week and reported new momentum for ending human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.  The meeting included discussion of discriminatory and draconian “anti-homosexuality legislation” currently before the Ugandan parliament, and of the role of American religious groups in promoting that bill and homophobia across Africa.

In a groundbreaking move, a representative of the Pope in the audience read a statement strongly condemning the criminalization of homosexual conduct.

The statement from the Roman Catholic Church stated:

“The Holy See opposes all forms of violence and unjust discrimination against homosexual persons, including discriminatory penal legislation which undermines the inherent dignity of the human person. … [T]he murder and abuse of homosexual persons are to be confronted on all levels, especially when such violence is perpetrated by the State.”

The panel discussion was held on December 10th on the 61st anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), a United Nations observer, has been trying to add the Declaration on the Universal Decriminalization of Homosexuality to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights for years.  Human Rights Watch, Kentucky Equality Federation, and Georgia Equality are among the supporters of ILGA in the United States.

In a prepared statement, ILGA stated:

This bill will not only punish those consider offenders, it will punish the innocent people, break up family, interfere with honorable businesses, ruin people’s livelihoods, promote fear, discrimination and hatred.

Treaty bodies have repeatedly affirmed that laws criminalizing homosexuality violate international rights to privacy and non-discrimination.  As the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations, Ms N. Pillay emphasized in December 2008, that, “there remain all too many countries which continue to criminalize sexual relations between consenting adults of the same sex in defiance of established human rights law.”

The current penal code of Uganda Article 140 continues to threaten the existence of sexual minorities, and this law violates the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Uganda is a party.

According to the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s 1994 ruling in the case Toonen v. Australia, laws criminalizing homosexual conduct violate the right to privacy protected by article 17 of the ICCPR. As you are aware, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has also found that arrests for consensual homosexual conduct are, by definition, human rights violations.

It is our hope that the bill will be reconsidered to promote rather than criminalize and alienate homosexuals in Uganda.

Sweden organized the panel in coalition with Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, France, the Netherlands, and Norway. It was sponsored by a group of six non-governmental organizations that defend the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. The audience of 200 people included delegates from over 50 nations according to Human Rights Watch.  Kentucky Equality Federation issued an action alert about the lack of U.S. support earlier this year.