I think it is telling that those supporting the Ugandan Genocide Bill make references to sources those of us in the activism game for some time easily recognize and can dismiss as either "cranks" and wildly inaccurate, or "hostile" and overtly malicious.
On the two now internationally infamous Facebook hate groups where people are openly supporting their country's "leadership" of the international community in the surprisingly related fields of gay and human rights, they try to discredit something their sources cannot disprove by just quoting people and studies which cannot verify anything at all - "studies" performed by people who just want to create the impression that being GLBTI is not natural so they can claim that it is somehow a "choice".
This of course - if left unchallenged, gives them a visible advantage over those who oppose this travesty of justice called the Ugandan Genocide Bill - and that is the purpose behind this confrontation - to challenge them, their Bill, their hatred, and their ignorance.
On the two now internationally infamous Facebook hate groups where people are openly supporting their country's "leadership" of the international community in the surprisingly related fields of gay and human rights, they try to discredit something their sources cannot disprove by just quoting people and studies which cannot verify anything at all - "studies" performed by people who just want to create the impression that being GLBTI is not natural so they can claim that it is somehow a "choice".
This of course - if left unchallenged, gives them a visible advantage over those who oppose this travesty of justice called the Ugandan Genocide Bill - and that is the purpose behind this confrontation - to challenge them, their Bill, their hatred, and their ignorance.
All the while, it becomes increasingly clear that their only motivation to do this is out of religious zealotry, and religious fundamentalism, which even in their hopelessly indefensible case is strikingly founded on ignorance. Their entire argument rest upon this shaky foundation of religion - a pseudo-Christian, fundamentalist foundation. Religion, which itself is purely a theory and like their "evidence" and "studies" cannot be proven either.
Nice going.
They make references - easily shredded, to gay and straight people in terms of "normal" and "abnormal" as if it means Anything remotely like "right" and "wrong".
Define "normal".
"Normal" is simply the state of the statistically prevalent or demographically dominant - not "right" or "the only way".
It is for example, "normal" for a gay person to be gay, just as it is "normal" for a homophobe to deny that he is in the closet and to make a lot of angry noises directed at more obvious and un-closeted gay people who are clearly happier being themselves than those in denial.
To counter another senseless concept punted by the Ugandan "Christians" - I use the quotation marks for the pretenders, because such hatred can never be from Christ - claiming that gay people are not "whole", but can be "made whole" - IE straight - by "turning to God". This rhetorical crap of course comes straight (sorry!) from the mouths of Exodus International who have been plaguing Uganda and many other countries. I find this to be a remarkably hypocritical accusation. First, it assumes that gay people are gay because they choose to be so; second, it alleges that being gay (a natural condition proven by an increasing number of scientists and the mounting number of known cases of homosexual animals) is a sinful ACT and not a state of being, that human sexual orientation can be changed, and that everything to do with who gay people are is somehow wrong, sinful and utterly without any reason, justification, excuse or merit.
Let's straighten (sorry again!) this thing out - gay people ARE whole - that is the whole point which you do not seem to get.
Gay people are not TURNED gay any more than they can be TURNED straight. If you are gay or straight then that is how you are born.
Sexual orientation and gender identity are not diseases or afflictions, nor are they the sum of a person, simply one small aspect of what makes them who they are.
If you believe God created everybody (even those poor dumb gay animals) then you have to believe he or she made bigots as well - only God knows why - and yes, that is the point.
Again, the claim that has almost become a creed of the anti-gay bigot: "no baby is born gay.... its just group influence"
You sure about that? Cos this scientist here seems to think you're wrong. Funny that , innit? That the world's medical experts seem to agree with him and not you. What's your doctorate in again?
Another point - a very important one, is that as a straight person you do not know what it is to be gay, and that it is probably very likely that to think like a straight person is as alien to a gay person as it would be for you as a straight man to imagine gettin' jiggy with a dude. Right, so, instead of appointing yourselves "God's" crusaders against the so-called "gay agenda", you should just settle down and take a chill pill - and if you cannot be civil or accepting towards gay people, you could at the very least stop hating them for something you should be very glad is not your burden to bear - STIGMA. And lastly, you cannot "speak for" gay people anywhere, least of all while attacking and dehumanizing them, and least of all in Uganda.
When gay people speak for themselves, because they know about being gay, what do they say?
The ones I hear say, "Leave us alone so we can live in peace". They say, "we are happy as we are". They say, "We ain't broke - don't try to 'fix' us."
Gay people don't have a problem with being who they are - it is others who have the problem and interfere with people who do not affect them - and over whom they have no right to force their views.
And yes, there are plenty of gay people in Uganda - otherwise why the Genocide Bill? If we work on the generally accepted conservative estimates in the region of 5-10% of a population, we are still looking at around 1 million GLBTIQ folk currently in the closet in your country. Were there no gay people in Uganda, your country would just be wasting time pointing fingers at fresh air, but you aren't - you are pointing at real live flesh-and-blood people who deserve to live just as much as you do. I find it surprising that some of the folks on those sites had the balls to brag that if they find out the identities of the Ugandan gay people taking them on, they would report them and "help catch" them. Closely following this threat, these same folks then bragged that "there are no gays in Uganda" (isn't that the aim of the Bill?) and challenged the oppressed and closeted gay people there to "speak up" and identify themselves. Unbelievable.
You have already said you will report them to your "authorities", which means although you may not have a gun or a machete in your hands, you have the power of death in them. Feels good, doesn't it?
Enjoy it while it lasts, for it comes with a terrible price.
I must repeat it once again, for even after two years of dealing with people of this limited capacity to feel and to think as intelligent and decent human beings... It still shocks me - every time these very same people - and those in the West who have nurtured and mentored them in their hatred - proudly vocalize their "Christianity" and "love" for God.
If such as these are true followers of the Christ who sacrificed himself for all people out of selfless love, if they truly represent God and all that is noble and true in the Christian faith, and who claim as theirs the rightful name "Christian" and all the trappings that go with it...
Count me out.
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